Gregory Maurus

Holy Martyr Gregory Maurus is venerated in the Western tradition as a martyr killed at Cologne around the year 300, under the emperor Maximian or Diocletian. According to the legend he was the leader of a force from the Theban Legion, that is, of the Christian soldiers brought from Thebes in Egypt, whose chief was Saint Maurice. The legend, part of a larger cycle about the martyrdom of the Theban Legion, says the soldiers refused to persecute Christians or to sacrifice to the pagan gods and were put to death for it. The Cologne part of the legend, which speaks of fifty martyrs, was later woven, around the year 1000, with that of Saint Gereon, and Gregory Maurus became leader of three hundred and sixty soldiers "from Mauretania", executed near the church of Saint Mechtern and thrown into a well. On that spot the church of Saint Gereon was built.

According to the account, Archbishop Anno of Cologne (c. 1010 - 1075) was rebuked in a dream by the legionaries for the neglect of their relics, and so greatly enlarged the church. In excavations beneath the floor of the church the grave of Gregory Maurus was found, clothed in a purple garment with fine gold thread. For this reason he is named co-⁠patron of the church beside Gereon, and sometimes patron of the city. His relics are kept in a large gilded shrine. He is commemorated on 15 October (new style) and is venerated in the Catholic Church; there is no Orthodox synodal canonization.