Friedrich Bernard Christian Maassen
United Sees of Macerata and Tolentino
Vicariate Apostolic of Mackenzie
Marie-Edmé-Patrice-Maurice de MacMahon
Joseph-Anna-Marie de Moyria de Mailla
François-Pierre-Gonthier Maine de Biran
Françoise, Marquise de Maintenon
Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre
Marcellinus of Civezza, O.F.M.
Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament
Prefecture Apostolic of Mariana Islands
Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill
Sts. Maris, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum
Lucius Perpetuus Aurelianus Marius Maximus
Vicariate Apostolic of Marquesas Islands
Moral and Canonical Aspect of Marriage
Diocese of Marseilles (Massilia)
Vicariate Apostolic of the Marshall Islands
Diocese of Marsico Nuovo and Potenza
Luigi Ferdinando, Count de Marsigli
Missionaries of the Company of Mary
Servants of Mary (Order of Servites)
Society of Mary (Marist Fathers)
St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds of Jesus
Richard Angelus a S. Francisco Mason
Devises and Bequests for Masses (United States)
Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus
Caius Julius Verus Maximinus Thrax
Prefecture Apostolic of Mayotte, Nossi-Bé, and Comoro
Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod
Abbey and Congregation of Melk
Vicariate Apostolic of Méndez and Gualaquiza
Francisco Sarmiento de Mendoza
Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy
Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo
Frédéric-François-Xavier Ghislain de Mérode
Delegation Apostolic of Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, and Armenia
Metal-Work in the Service of the Church
Prince Klemens Lothar Wenzel von Metternich
Francis, Joseph, and Paul Mezger
Military Orders of St. Michael
Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola
Congregation of the Sisters of Misericorde
Prefecture Apostolic of Misocco and Calanca
Congregation of Priests of the Mission
Congregation of Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo
Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales of Annecy
Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle
Mission Indians (of California)
Catholic Indian Missions of Canada
Catholic Indian Missions of the United States
François-Napoléon-Marie Moigno
Diocese of Molfetta, Terlizzi, and Giovinazzo
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière
Principality and Diocese of Monaco
Canonical Erection of a Monastery
Monophysites and Monophysitism
Monothelitism and Monothelites
Montagnais Indians (Chippewayans)
Charles-Forbes-René, Comte de Montalembert
Marquis de Louis-Joseph Montcalm-Gozon
Diocese of Monterey and Los Angeles
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
Anne, First Duke of Montmorency
Alexis-François Artaud de Montor
Antoine-Jean-Baptiste-Robert Auget, Baron de Montyon
Dioceses of Mostar and Markana-Trebinje
Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary
Toribio de Benavente Motolinia
Congregations of Mount Calvary
Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Karl Ernst, Freiherr von Moy de Sons
Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
St. Clair Augustine Mulholland
Baron Eligius Franz Joseph von Münch-Bellinghausen
Archdiocese of Munich-Freising
(Mohyloviensis)
Latin Catholic archdiocese and ecclesiastical province in Russia. For the few Catholics in Russia before the partition of Poland, some mission stations sufficed. The Jesuits, who came in ambassadorial suites, laboured in Moscow from 1648, and in 1691 built the first Catholic church there. The free exercise of the Catholic religion, granted in 1706 by Peter the Great, was also allowed by his immediate successors, on condition that the missionaries did not attempt to secure converts. The Capuchins, Franciscans, and Dominicans also laboured among the immigrant Catholics with fruitful results. When the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773, many of them found a refuge in Russia. However, no special diocese for Catholics was erected. The partitions of Poland brought under Russian sway many hundred thousand Catholics, whose treatment was in striking contrast to that meted out to the Uniats. While Uniate churches and monasteries were confiscated and delivered to the Orthodox, and such Uniats as refused to join the Orthodox Church were subjected to flogging, imprisonment, and confiscation of property, policy and shrewdness led the empress to treat the Latin Church very differently. Wishing to attach it to herself, she entrusted the Franciscans with the parishes of St. Petersburg and the neighbourhood, permitted the foundation of schools, and released churches and schools from all taxes.
As in the first partition of Poland none of the old Polish sees fell to Russia, the empress decided to found a diocese for her Latin Catholic subjects, and to exclude all foreign priests from Russia. Without consulting the pope, she erected the Diocese of White Russia with Mohileff as its see (1772), and appointed as first bishop Stanislaus Siestrzencewicz Bohusz, Auxiliary Bishop of Vilna (1773). At first Pius VI refused to recognize this see, mainly on account of the empress's arbitrary action and her persecution of the Uniats, but finally appointed the bishop vicar Apostolic of the new diocese. In 1782 Catharine arbitrarily raised the bishopric to an archdiocese. After some negotiations, the pope recognized the new Archdiocese of Mohileff by the Bull "Onerosa pastoralis officii" of 15 April, 1783, which reserved to the pope the foundation of other dioceses in the territory of the archdiocese, extending from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean. At the second partition of Poland (1793) five Latin sees fell to Russia, Kamenetz, Kieff, Livonia, Lutzk, and Vilna. Although Catharine had promised in the Treaty of Grodno (1793) to maintain the status quo as regards the Catholic Church, she arbitrarily suppressed these dioceses and founded two new ones in places with hardly any Catholics. Part of the property of the suppressed bishoprics was confiscated by the State and the rest given to favourites of the empress.
Catharine's son and successor, Paul I, began, directly after his accession, negotiations with Pius VI, with a view to reorganizing the Latin and Uniat Churches. Four of the five suppressed dioceses (Kamenetz, Vilna, Lutzik, and Livonia, the last under the title of Samogitia) were restored, and the new Diocese of Minsk was founded to replace Kieff. Part of the confiscated property was restored to the Church. The four old dioceses, with the new Diocese of Minsk, were made suffragans of Mohileff, which now became a proper ecclesiastical province. Pius VI confirmed this arrangement on 15 November, 1798, by the Bull "Maximis undique pressi", which forms the substantial basis of the constitution of the Latin Church in Russia to-day. The Archdiocese of Mohileff did not escape the persecutions to which both the Latin and Uniat Churches were almost constantly exposed, especially during the reigns of Nicholas I and Alexander II (see ). In the hope of weakening the Catholic religion, which it hated and barely tolerated, the Government regularly selected aged or compliant men for Mohileff, leaving the pope no option but to confirm its choice. The first archbishop, Siestrzencewicz (b. 1730; d. 1 Dec., 1826), was one of its most pliable tools. Sprung from a noble but impoverished family of Lithuanian Calvinists, Siestrzencewicz, after serving in the army, became acquainted with Bishop Mussalki of Vilna, and through his influence entered the Catholic Church and became a priest. Mussalki, who never recognized Siestrzencewicz's lack of character, made him a canon and Auxiliary Bishop of Vilna.
Ambitious, uninfluenced by motives of honour or conscientious scruples, and greedy for power, Siestrzencewicz's sole aim was to curry favour with the secular authorities and thus secure despotic power over the Catholic Church in Russia. To limit as far as possible the power of his clergy, he persuaded Tsar Paul I to establish the "College of the Roman Catholic Church", to decide, as final court of appeal, all important matters concerning the Catholic dioceses. Its decisions had to receive the approval of the ruling senate, and it was furthermore declared the duty of the clergy to submit unconditionally to the will of the emperor in all matters, secular or ecclesiastical. The presiding officer of the college was Siestrzencewicz, who now established an absolute ecclesiastical despotism, appointing to the council only unworthy and subservient men. He granted unlawful divorces for money, induced Alexander I, Paul's successor, to expel the nuncio (who had reported to Rome the archbishop's unscrupulous conduct), and did not enter the feeblest protest against the expulsion of the Jesuits from the capital in 1815, and from Russia in 1820. Casper Casimir Kolumna Cieciszewski (b. 1745), Bishop of Lutzk, succeeded Siestrzencewicz (28 February, 1827; d. 16 April, 1831). His great age prevented him from doing much in face of the series of oppressive measures of Nicholas I, a fanatical adherent of the Orthodox Church. These measures which were intended to reduce the Catholic Church to a condition of servitude, and if possible to exterminate it completely in Russia, were furthered by the practice of leaving the archdiocese vacant for long periods-e.g. after the death of Cieciszewski and his successor, Ignaz Ludwig Pawlowski (1841-42; b. 1775).
An expostulatory address presented by Pope Gregory XVI to the tsar during his visit to Rome in 1845 led to a Concordat, ratified by Russia in 1848 and promulgated by Pius IX, in accordance with which the Diocese of Tiraspol, with Saratoff as its see, was founded for the Catholic colonists in Southern Russia and made a suffragan of Mohileff. In December, 1848, Casimir Dmochowski (b. 1772; d. 11 January, 1851) was appointed archbishop. He was succeeded by Ignaz Holowin'ski (1851-5) and Wenceslaus Zylin'ski (1856-63), a tool of the government. Persecution, suppression, and confiscation continued, even after the Concordat, especially under Alexander II. The Diocese of Kamenetz was arbitrarily suppressed in 1855, and Minsk has been vacant since 1869. Under Nicholas II free exercise of religion was granted in 1905, while the edicts of toleration of 17 April and 17 October, 1905, weakened in some measure the privileged position of the Orthodox Church. These alleviations have, however, been since whittled down by the arbitrary conduct of subordinate officials, acting with the tacit approval of the government. The recent archbishops are: Antonius Fialkowski (1871-83); Alexander Casimir Dziewaltowski Gintowt (1883-9); Simon Martin Kozlowski (1891-9); Boleslaw Hieronymous Klopotowskli (1901-03); George Joseph Elesäus a Slupóff Szembek (1903-5); Appolinaris Waukowski (1909), and Vincentius Kluczn'ski (appointed 5 June, 1910).
STATISTICS
The suffragans of Mohileff are: Samogitia, Lutzk-Zhitomir, Vilna, and Tirasopol. From 1866 Kamenetz has been administered by the Bishop of Lutzk, and from 1869 Minsk by the archbishop. The ecclesiastical province is the largest in the world, including three-fourths of European (the ecclesiastical province of Warsaw is excluded) and the whole of Asiatic Russia (5,400,000 sq. miles). According to the diocesan statistics for 1910 the archdiocese contains 28 deaneries, 245 parish churches, 399 priests, 1,023,347 Catholics. The administrators of thirty-four other parishes and chapels are immediately under the jurisdiction of the archbishop. Among these the most important are: Chernigoff (10,600), Tashkent (15,000); and in Siberia: Krasnoyarsk (13,000), Tomsk (10,000), Vladivostok (10,500), etc. The see of the archdiocese is St. Petersburg. The archbishop presides over the Roman Catholic Collegium, which regulates the relations between the respective dioceses and the Department of Public Worship, and administers the property of the Catholic Church. The Metropolitan Curia consists of a secretary and four other members; the archdiocesan chapter of a provost, dean, archdeacon, and six canons; the General Consistory of an official (secular administrator for the bishop), vice-official, three assessors, visitor of monasteries, Defensor matrimoniorum, and twelve lay members. The Roman Catholic ecclesiastical academy at St. Petersburg has a rector, spiritual director, sixteen clerical and seven secular professors, and 58 students. The seminary has 2 provisors, a rector, spiritual director, inspector, 14 clerical and 5 secular professors, 33 theological students, 59 philosophical, and 31 in the preparatory course. There are no statistics as to the monasteries of the diocese. From 1908 a Catholic monthly has been published at St. Petersburg.
THEINER,Die neuesten Zustände der kathol. Kirche beider Ritus in Polen u. Russland (Augsberg, 1841); LESC•UR,L'église cathol. en Pologne sous le gouvernement russe 1778-1876 (Paris, 1876); PIERLING,La Russie et le Saint-Siège (4 vols., Paris, 1896-1907); GODLEWSKI,Monumenta ecclesiastica Petropolitana (3 vols., St. Petersburg, 1906-9); Elenchus omnium ecclesiarum et universi cleri archidiœceseos Mohylovicensis pro anno Domini 1910 conscriptus (St. Petersburg, 1910).
JOSEPH LINS