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
An editor, convert, born at Duanesburg, New York, U. S. A., 1 April, 1820; died in Brooklyn, New York, 29 December, 1886. His father, a prominent Presbyterian minister, sent his son to Union College, but he left before graduating and became a private tutor. It was the era of Tractarianism and Brook Farm, and McMaster became a Catholic in 1845. Believing he had a vocation for the priesthood, he was accepted as a novice in the Redemptorist Congregation and sent by his superiors to Belgium. Here he quickly found that the life of a religious was not suitable for him, and returning to the United States he adopted the profession of journalism. His vigorous and prolific pen secured him an opening in several papers and periodicals and his contributions were also printed in "The New York Freeman's Journal", then owned by Bishop John Hughes. In 1848 he thought of starting a semi-monthly magazine and then a semi-weekly independent Catholic paper, but abandoned both ideas, and, with money loaned him by George V. Hecker, bought "The Freeman's Journal" in June, 1848, from Bishop Hughes. He at once assumed its editorial management, which he retained up to the time of his death. Letters he wrote then to Orestes A. Brownson clearly show that even at this early date he was dominated by the aversion to episcopal supervision and a determination to propound his own views which was such a characteristic feature of his later years.
Sound on fundamental issues and principles, fault-finding was one of his weaknesses. He spared no one, high or low, who differed from him, and his invective was as bitter as an unlimited vocabulary could make it. He quarrelled almost immediately with Bishop Hughes on the Irish question and with Brownson on his philosophy. In politics he was a States Rights Democrat and Anti-Abolitionist and took a very active and influential part in the great national controversies that raged before the Civil War. After the conflict began, his editorial assaults on President Lincoln and his administration resulted in his being arrested, in 1861, and confined for eleven months in Fort Lafayette as a disloyal citizen. "The Freeman's Journal" was suppressed by the Government and did not resume publication until 19 April, 1862. In national politics he then adopted a milder tone, but for the rest the old style remained. In European politics Louis Veuillot and his "Univers" were the constant models of "The Freeman's Journal". There is record of his saying of the pope on the outlook in European politics in a letter to Brownson 12 June, 1848: "He may yet in good earnest be imprisoned, but it will not take a whit from his moral power - it will add to it"; but after the events of 1870, in season and out there was no stronger or more valiant champion of the rights of the Holy See. In behalf of Catholic education he was equally strenuous and uncompromising, and waged a long warfare against the attendance of Catholic children at the public schools.
With the advent of modern newspaper methods and the decline of the old-fashioned "personal journalism" a new generation with new ideals tired of McMaster's literary violence, and his once wide-spread prestige and influence waned. The whims and idiosyncrasies of the old man, who grew more and more difficult to manage as the end of his curious and stormy career drew to a close, still cramped and hampered the paper, and when he died it had little influence and scant circulation. Of his three children one daughter became a Carmelite and another a Sister of the Holy Child.
Freeman's Journal (New York), files; Catholic News (New York, April 11, 1908); Catholic Home Almanac (New York, 1888); BROWNSON, Middle Life (Detroit, 1899); ID., Latter Life (Detroit, 1900); Cyc. Am. Biog., s. v.
THOMAS F. MEEHAN.