The Life and Miracles of Saint Maurus: Disciple of Benedict, Apostle to France (review)

In the lifeof Benedict in DialoguesII, Pope Gregory the Great tells three stories about the young nobleman Maurus, one of St. Benedict's first disciples. Maurus subsequently vanishes from history until his relics appear at the abbey of Glanfeuil in the Loire Valley in the ninth century. A vitacontaining further information on his career at Monte Cassino and in France purports to have been written by Faustus, an otherwise unknown disciple of Benedict, and "rephrased" by Abbot Odo of Glanfeuil. Today scholars generally consider it a fabrication by Odo, who does admit authorship of an associated collection of miraculacomposed soon after 868.

Reflecting recent interest in hagiographies as literary witnesses of the ideals and concerns of authors and audiences, Wickstrom returns to these unpromising memorials. They document the possessions of Glanfeuil, which was under Viking attack, and publicize the relics of Maurus carried by the exiled community to Saint-Pierre-des-Fossés (later Saint-Maur-des-Fossés). They present Maurus as a model of monastic virtue sent by Benedict to France along with his Ruleand other symbols of monastic authority. Because the vitaassumes Carolingian monastic attitudes that privilege prayer over manual labor and praise prosperity, it could be used by Cluny and other similar monastic communities to vindicate their own interpretations of the Rule. This polemical role continued into the twelfth century when the "black monks" debated their Cistercian rivals. A cult of Maurus in Italy, beginning in 1028 when Abbot Odilo of Cluny brought a relic to Monte Cassino, would culminate in the forgeries of Peter the Deacon (d. post 1153) that would give Monte Cassino a claim on Glanfeuil and alleged monastic supremacy in France.

Wickstrom admirably situates the cult of Maurus in a context that extends beyond Glanfeuil and its patrons, the family of Count Rorigo of Marche and Le Mans. In the middle Loire Valley, Maurus shared honors with Benedict at Fleury and St. Scholastica at Le Mans. These centers became prominent just as the Carolingians were making the Benedictine Rulenormative. In a world where written culture was increasingly decisive, Benedictine hagiography documented Benedictine legitimacy. Although Wickstrom notes that founders' legends were often later creations, he could have gone further in signaling the extraordinary "creativity" of the Loire Valley region—it will suffice to cite new apostolic foundation legends, the Le Mans forgeries, and the Pseudo-Isidorian decretals.

Wickstrom translates directly from the oldest manuscript copy of these texts—Paris Bibliothèque nationale MS lat. 3, fols. 393 ^r-407 ^r—which is added to the "Rorigo Bible" salvaged from Glanfeuil by the exiled community. He commendably avoids uncritical early-modern editions, although these would have been easier to reference if he had used the Bollandists' BHLnumbers to identify texts. He has successfully drawn attention to Maurus's relatively neglected hagiographical memorials and highlighted their importance as documents of Benedictine ideals.