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
French scholar, b. in 1655, at the ch'teau de Soulatge, Department of Aude, arrondissement of Carcassone; d. in Paris, at the Abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés, in 1741. He was the son of Timoléon de Montfaucon and of Flore de Maignan. His family, originally of Gascony, had settled in Languedoc after the Albigensian Crusade of the thirteenth century; its principal seat was the ch'teau of Roquetaillade (arrondissement of Limoux), where Bernard was reared. He was instructed by Pavillon, Bishop of Aleth, his father's friend, and in 1672, at the age of thirteen, he entered the Académie des Cadets at Perpignan, to prepare for a military career. After his father's death, he left home with his relative, the Marquis d'Hautpol, a captain of grenadiers in the Regiment of Languedoc, and served as a volunteer under Turenne (1673). He went through the campaign of Alsace, was at the battle of Marienthal, and fell dangerously ill at Saverne. In pursuance of a vow made to the Blessed Virgin, he then returned to his own country, resolved upon entering religion. On 13 May, 1676, he made his profession in the Benedictine monastery of Durade, at Toulouse. Being sent to the Abbey of SorËze, he there learned Greek, making rapid progress. He next spent eight years at the priory of la Grasse (Aude). Claude Martin, assistant superior of the Congregation of St-Maur, noted his zeal and caused him to be sent to the Abbey of Sainte-Croix at Bordeaux. Finally, in 1687, he was transferred to Paris, to the Abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés, which, under the rule of Mabillon, had become one of the chief centres of French erudition. He was then chosen to assist in preparing the edition of the Greek Fathers which the Benedictines had undertaken. To perfect his own training, he also began the study of Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, and Coptic, as well as that of numismatics, and in 1694 was appointed curator of the numismatic collection at St-Germain-des-Prés.
In 1690 Montfaucon had published a treatise on "La vérité de l'histoire de Judith". The monumental edition of the works of St. Athanasius, on which he laboured with Dom Pouget and Dom Lopin, appeared in 1698 and was well received (3 vols., folio, Paris; reproduced in P.G., XXV-XXVIII). Before undertaking new patristic labours, he resolved to study the manuscripts in the libraries of Italy. Obtaining permission in 1698, he set out with Dom Paul Briois. At Milan he made the acquaintance of Muratori; at Venice he was received very coldly, and was not even allowed to see the manuscripts in the Benedictine monasteries of San Giorgio Maggiore and San Marco. On the other hand, he was welcomed at Mantua, Ravenna, and especially at Rome by Innocent XI. Having been named by his superiors procurator general at Rome of the Order of St. Benedict, certain difficulties with the Jesuits led to his resignation of that office which brought with it so many distractions from his chief work, and in 1701 he secured his recall to France. The scientific results of his journey were embodied in the quarto volume of his "Diarium Italicum" (Paris, 1702). He also collected the notes of his companion, Dom Paul Briois, who had died on the journey (edited by Omont, "Revue des BibliothËques", XIV, 1904).
In the full maturity of his powers, at liberty to satisfy his passion for work, with a large experience of life and an intense fund of general information, Montfaucon now took up his abode at the Abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés, where he spent the last forty years of his life. Here a choice body of scholars gathered around him, his avowed disciples, whose affection for their master prompted them to take the name of "Bernardins". Among these were Claude de Vic and Joseph Vaissette, authors of the "Histoire de Languedoc", the hellenist Charles de la Rue (his favourite disciple), Dom Lobineau, the historian of Brittany, and even the Abbé Prévost, who was then a collaborator on the "Gallia Christiana". Montfaucon, moreover, corresponded with scholars all over Europe, and, in spite of the heavy tasks he took upon himself, he succeeded, thanks to his abstemious and regular life, in working almost to his last day. During this, his most productive period, he supplemented the former edition of the Greek Fathers with a "Collectio nova patrum et scriptorum graecorum" (2 vols., folio, Paris, 1706). In 1709 he translated into French the "De vita contemplativa" of Philo Judaeus, and essayed to prove that the Therapeutae there mentioned were Christians. Next appeared the edition of Origen (2 vols., fol., Paris, 1713) and that of St. John Chrysostom (13 vols., folio, Paris, 1718), prepared with the assistance of François Faverolles, treasurer of St-Denis, and four Benedictines, who spent thirteen years in collating 300 manuscripts.
The thoroughly scientific bent of Montfaucon's mind led him to elaborate a new auxiliary science out of the studies he had made for the verification of his Greek texts. As Mabillon had created the science of diplomatics, so Montfaucon was the father of Greek palaeography, the principles of which he established by the rigour of his method in grouping his personal observations. His great "Palaeographia Graeca" (folio, Paris, 1708) inaugurated the scientific study of Greek texts. Another auxiliary science of history, that of bibliography, owes to him a work still of considerable value, the "Bibliotheca bibliothecarum manuscriptorum nova" (2 vols., folio, Paris, 1739), a catalogue of the Greek manuscripts of the chief libraries of Europe. Lastly, Montfaucon intuitively saw what benefit might accrue to history from the study of figured monuments, and, if he was not the creator of archaeology, he was at least the first to show what advantages might be derived from it. Two of his works show him to be an originator. In 1719 he published "L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures" (10 vols., folio, Paris), in which he reproduces, methodically grouped, all the ancient monuments that might be of use in the study of the religion, domestic customs, material life, military institutions, and funeral rites of the ancients. Of this work, which contains 1120 plates, the whole edition of 1800 copies was exhausted in two months, in spite of its enormous size. The regent, Philippe d'Orléans, desired that the author should become a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and he was elected to replace PËre Letellier (1719). Montfaucon then conceived a more daring idea, a work, similar to "l'Antiquité expliquée", which should embrace the entire history on France. This work, the "Monuments de la monarchie franÁaise", dedicated to Louis XV, appeared from 1729 to 1733 (5 vols., folio, Paris). In it Montfaucon studies the history, as it is shown in the monuments, of each successive reign down to that of Henry IV. His reproductions are inexact, and the work remained incomplete. In 19 December, 1741, he read before the Academy of Inscriptions a plan for completing this work; two days later he passed away tranquilly, without any premonitory symptoms of illness. An indefatigable scholar, a bold thinker, an originator of scientific methods, he left after him a mighty generation of disciples to form the connecting link between the old Benedictine learning and modern scholarship.
DE BROGLIE, La société de St-Germain-des-Prés au XVIIIe siËcle: Bernard de Montfaucon et les Bernardins 1715-1750 (2 vols., Paris, 1891); GIGAS, Lettres des Bénédictins de la congrégation de St-Maur, 1705-1741 (2 vols., Paris, 1893); OMONT, Bernard de Montfaucon, sa famille et ses premiËres années in Annales du Midi, I (1892), 84, 90; Histoire de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, XVI (Paris, 1751).
LOUIS BRÉHIER