Blessed Maurus of Pécs

Maurus of Pécs or Mór (Hungarian: Mór pécsi püspök) was the first known prelate who was born in the Kingdom of Hungary. He was abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma between around 1029 and 1036, and bishop of Pécs from year 1036 until his death around year 1075. He wrote the Legend of Benedict of Szkalka and Andrew Zorard, two hermits who lived in the region of Nitra in modern-day Slovakia. Maurus's own cult was confirmed by Pope Pius IX in 1848. Maurus was born around 1000. János Karácsonyi and other historians have suggested that he was born in the region of Nyitra, but he himself does not refer to it as his place of birth in his work on the two hermits from the same region. The Legend of Saint Emmeric relates that Maurus was still a child when his parents sent him to the Benedictine abbey at Pannonhalma. The Legend also reveals that Maurus was on friendly terms with Emeric, the crown prince of Hungary. For instance, Maurus was the only monk whom Emeric greeted with seven kisses on the occasion of one of his visits in the monastery, demonstrating his conviction that Maurus had respected his vow of chastity. Emeric's father, Stephen I, the first king of Hungary appointed Maurus abbot of the monastery in 1029 at the latest. According to the Greater Legend of Saint Gerard, Maurus sent four monks from Pannonhalma to assist Gerard, the first bishop of Csanád (now Cenad, Romania) in organizing the new diocese. The Annales Posonienses narrates that Maurus was appointed the second bishop of Pécs in 1036. Maurus was the prelate who finished the construction of the earliest cathedral in Pécs in the reign of Stephen I's successor, Peter I. He was one of the three bishops who survived the pagan uprising that put an end to King Peter's rule, thus the three bishops together celebrated the coronation of the new king, Andrew I in Székesfehérvár in 1046.