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
(MOLCK, MELLICUM).
Situated on an isolated rock commanding the Danube, Melk has been a noted place since the days of the Romans. A Slav settlement, Magalicha, replaced the Roman fort, and in its turn was destroyed by a Magyar invasion about 955, when it received the name Eisenburg. The Magyars, however, were driven out by Luitpold the Illustrious, first Margrave of Austria, who here fixed his capital and founded a church for secular canons. These having become lax, were replaced by twelve monks of Subiaco, whom Luitpold II brought from Lambach with Sijibold as their abbot in 1089. Melk was much favoured by St. Luitpold III, and the new foundation rapidly grew and flourished, its corn tithes being so abundant that the folk-name for Melk was "at the full bushel". It became a place of pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Coloman, and was famed for its great relic of the Holy Cross. By the fifteenth century monastic observance at Melk had become relaxed, but in 1418, at the request of Albert V, Archduke of Austria, Martin V sent the Ven. Nicholas of Magen with five other monks of Subiaco from the Council of Constance to begin a reform of the monasteries of Lower Austria. The Abbot of Melk, John of Flemming, voluntarily resigned, and Nicholas, elected in his stead, soon so reformed the observance in accordance with the constitutions of Subiaco that the abbey became a model for other houses in Austria. Several monasteries followed its example, among them Obenburg, Salzburg, Mariazell, the Scottish abbey at Vienna, Kremsmunster, Ratisbon, and Tegernsee. All these houses followed the same observance and styled themselves the Congregation of Melk. They in no way depended, however, on Melk, nor had they any general superior, soliciting visitors when needful from the pope. The Abbey of Melk continued in its first fervour of reform, and several attempts were made from 1460 onwards to effect a more formal union. In 1470 seventeen abbots of various neighbouring dioceses met at Erfurt and decided to establish in their monasteries the common observance and ceremonial of Melk. Nothing more definite occurred until Gaspar, Abbot of Melk, in 1618 invited the abbots of Austria to meet at Melk and form a congregation. The negotiations continued until 1623, when the Abbots of Melk, Kremsmunster, Garsten, the Scots' Abbey of Vienna, Altenburg, Göttweich and Mariazell signed the constitutions agreed upon for the new congregation. These were confirmed by Urban VIII in 1625. In addition the congregation included the houses of Lambach, Monsee, Leittenstaden and Kleinck. It was governed by a superior general, elected every two years, who acted as visitor of all the monasteries of the congregation. Each province also had its own visitor. In 1630 there was an attempt to form a united congregation of all the monasteries of the empire, but the Swedish invasion frustrated this project, though many of the German monasteries thenceforth observed the constitutions of Melk. In the fourteenth century Melk, by permission of Duke Frederic I, had been fortified, and was thus able to resist successive sieges by Matthias Corvinus, by the revolted peasantry, by the Protestant States of Austria and by the Turks, though on each occasion the property of the abbey suffered. Great losses, too, were sustained at the hands of Napoleon's troops. In 1889 the Abbey of Melk was included by Leo XIII in the Austrian Congregation of the Immaculate Conception. In 1905 the congregation numbered 85, of whom 75 were priests. The present abbot, Joseph Charles (b. 1824, appointed 1875), exercises jurisdiction over 29 parishes, with 45,145 souls.
Annales Mellicenses, ed. WATTENBACH, in PERTZ, Mon. Germ. Hist. Script., IX (Hanover, 1851), 480-535; BERLIÈRE, La réforme de Melk au XVe Siècle in Revue Bénédictine, XII (1895), 204-13, 289-309; HEIMBUCHER, Die Orden und Kongregationen der Katholischen Kirche, I (Paderborn, 1907), 286-95, 344; HÉLYOT, Dictionnaire des . . . ordres religeux, II (Paris, 1863), 1033-39; KATSCHTHALER, Melk (Vienna, 1905); KEIBLINGER, Geschichte des Benediktinerstifts Melk (Vienna, 1851-69); KROPF, Bibliotheca Mellicensis (Vienna, 1747); MABILLON, Annales O. S. B., V (Lucca, 1740), 248-9; PEZ, Ephemerides rerum in Monasterio Mellicensi . . . gestarum . . . 1741-46, ed. STAUFER in Studien O. S. B., VIII-X (1886-9); SCHRAMB, Chronicon Mellicense (Vienna, 1702); WOLFSGRÜBER AND HÜBL, Abteien unde Klöster in 'sterreich (Vienna, n. d.).
LESLIE A. ST. L. TOKE