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
A titular see of Lycia in Asia Minor. The city was from time immemorial one of the chief places in the province. It was situated on the banks of the River Andriacos, twenty stadia from the sea (Appian, "Bell. civil.", IV, 82, Strabo, XIV, iii, 7; Pliny, XXXII, 8; Ptolemy, V, vi, 3; Stephen of Byzantium, s.v.). The hamlet of Andriaca served as its port. On his way from Caesarea to Rome St. Paul stayed at Myra (Acts, xxvii, 5); at least the "textus receptus" reads thus, but the Vulgate has substituted the Codex Bezae, the Gigas Bible, and the ancient Egyptian version also mention Myra after Patara of Lycia (Acts, xxi, 1). The "Acta Pauli" probably testify as to the existence of a Christian community at Myra in the second century (Harnack, "Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums", 465, 487). Le Quien (I, 965-70) opens his list of the bishops of this city with St. Nicander, martyred under Domitian about A.D. 95, and whose feast is celebrated 4 November (Acta SS., Nov., II, 225). As to St. Nicholas Thaumaturgus, venerated on 6 December, the is "Index" of Theodorus Lector (sixth century) is the first document which inscribes his name among the fathers of Nicaea in 325 (Gelzer, "Patrum Nicaenorum nomina", 67, n. 161). Theodosius II made the flourishing city of Myra the capital of Lycia and it is said, erected there a church to St. Nicholas. Peter, Bishop of Myra composed in defence of the Council of Chalcedon writings quoted by St. Sophronius and by Photius (Bibliotheca, Codex 23). At the Sixth Ecumenical Council (787) two bishops of Myra, Theodore and Nicholas, assisted, one representing the orthodox party, the other the Iconoclasts.
Eubel ("Hierarchia catholica medii aevi;", II, 1370) mentions five Latin titulars of the fifteenth century. At present Myra is only a village called Dembre in the sanjak of Adalia and the vilayet of Koniah. Its ruins are numbered among the most beautiful of Asia Minor. Among them are the remains of a temple of Apollo, mentioned by Pliny, those of a magnificent theatre, several burial-places hewn in the rock, with tombs inscribed in Lycian and Greek, some of them ornamented with bas-reliefs. Numerous Christian ruins are also found, and among them those of the Church of St. Nicholas, around which Russians have recently erected a monastery.
FELLOWS, Discoveries in Lycia, I (London, 1857), 169; SPRATT AND FORBES, Travels in Lycia, I , (London, 1847), 131; TEXIER, Asie Mineure, 691-94; RAMSAY, St. Paul, the Traveller and the Roman citizen, 297, 300, 319; CUINET, La Turquie d'Asie (Paris, 1892, 875-77).
S. SALAVILLE