Religious Figure. He will be remembered for his religious persecution as a Christian in the Third Century. Born about 250 AD as an Egyptian from the site of the Aswan Dam on the Nile River, Mauritus was a Roman army officer leading the Theban Legion in Egypt, a unit of over 6,000 soldiers who became Christians in a mass conversion. The unit had been called from Africa to wage war against revolting Christians in Gaul, which is modern-day Switzerland. They refused to deny their faith to the Roman Emperor Diocletian and his co-regent Mazimian, refused to kill other Christians for their faith when ordered, and refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods. To punish these Christian soldiers for their insubordination, the emperor ordered "decimate" or every 10th soldier to be executed. After this was done, the remaining soldiers continued to refuse, thus the emperor ordered another 10th soldier to be executed. The remaining soldiers held fast to their beliefs, the emperor became angry, and all were eventually ordered to be killed. Some of the soldiers, their families and servants did escape, but some of the escapees were progressively and methodically martyred wherever they were captured. As this was happening, miracles were also happening and Europeans were converting to Christianity. Some historians claim that most of them escaped and that only between 550 and 600 soldiers were actually executed instead of all 6,000, yet the Roman Catholic Church said all 6,000 were executed. There is no doubt that St. Maurice and some of his comrade did suffer martyrdom at Agaunum, in what is now modern-day Switzerland. The earliest documentation of this event was nearly 150 years later, by that time the Catholic Church had declared Maurice a saint for his defiance of the Emperor's orders. St. Maurice became the patron saint of the Holy Roman Empire, the Hurricane-Katrina-flooded 9th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana; and on July 19, 1941, the patron saint of the Italian Army's Aplini. An altar was, that was dedicated to his memory, was placed in the Vatican. Since he was from north Africa, he is a dark-skinned man in paintings and statues starting about 1250. In churches in modern-day Germany the image of a black St. Maurice has endured, while churches in Switzerland, France, and Italy, he is depicted as white. Besides St. Maurice, St. Felix and St. Reugla, there are numerous other martyred saints associated with the Theban Legion massacre, with over 700 recorded as captured and martyred in Germany alone. The Abby of St. Maurice, Agaunum is located in the village of Saint Maurice near Geneva, Switzerland. The entire village was vacated in the 1950s and is under management of the Abby, which is not part of a diocese and more of a museum housing items of interest of St. Maurice, including his relics. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. Worldwide, St. Maurice is honored: St. Maurice at Resurrection Catholic Church is located near Fort Lauderdale, Florida; St. Maurice Coptic Orthodox Church is located in Pomona, California; and in Quebec, Canada there is a St. Maurice County. Not only is St. Maurice recognized in the Roman Catholic Church but also in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Oriental Orthodox Church. His September 22nd date of death is his feast day. In September of 2008, some of his relics were transferred to a new reliquary in Schiavi di Abruzzo, Italy.

His surname was also sometimes spelled Mauritius, Moritz, or Morris.