St Maurice was an army officer during the reign of the Roman Emperor Maximian Herculius. When Maurice and his men refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods to pray for a victory battle, the entire troop was executed.
As he was waiting to die, Maurice spoke these final words:
“We are your soldiers, but are also the soldiers of the true God. We owe you military service and obedience; but we cannot renounce him, who is our creator and master, and also yours, even though you reject him....
We have arms in our hands, but we do not resist because we would rather die innocent than live by any sin.”
