Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/226

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MENOMINEE


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MENOMINEE


As for propriety of usage it mvist be confessed that the iiuostion is primarily one of convenience; but on the whole it seems desirable that the term Menologium should be limited to the fourth aeeeptation among those just given. One of the most, important collec- tions of this kind is that made by a writer in the second half of the tenth century known to us as Symeon Meta- phrastes. Something more than ten years ago Father Delehaye and Professor Albert Ehrhard working intle- pendently succeeded for the first time in correctly grouping together the works which are really attribut- able to this author, but great uncertainty still remains as to the provenance of his materials, and as to the re- hition between this collection and certain contracted biographies many of which exist among the manuscripts of our great libraries. The synaxaries, or histories for liturgical use, are nearly all extracted from the older Menologia, but Fr. Delehaye who has given special attention to the study of this class of tlocuments, con- siders that the authors of these compendia have added, though sparsely, materials of their own, de- rived from various sources. (See Delehaye in his preface to the "Synaxarium Eccles. Cp. ", published as a Propylajum to the "Acta SS. " for November, lix-lxvi.)

Menologies in the West. — The fact that the word Martyrology (q. v.) was already consecrated to a liturgical or quasi-liturgical compilation arranged ac- cording to months and days, and including only canonized saints and festivals universally received, probably led to the employment of the term Menolo- gium for works of a somewhat analagous cliaracter, of private authority, not intended for liturgical use and including the names and elogia of persons in repute for sanctity but not in any sense canonized Saints. In most of the religious orders it became the custom to commemorate the memory of their dead brethren specially renowned for holiness or learning. In more than one such order during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the collection of these short eulo- gistic biographies was printed under the name of Menologium and generally so arranged as to form a selection for each day of the year. Since they were made by private authority which could not pronounce judgment on the sanctity of those so commemorated, the Church prohibited the reading of these compila- tions as part of the Divine Office; but this did not prevent the formation of such menologies for private use or even the reading of them aloud in the chapter- house or in the refectory. Thus the collection made by the Franciscan Fortunatus Hiiber of the abbrevi- ated lives of those of the Friars Minor who had died in the odour of sanctity, printed in 1691 under the title of "Menologium Franciscanum", was evidently in- tended for public recitation. In lieu of the concluding formula " Et alibi aliorum " etc. of the Roman Martyr- ology, the compiler suggests (364) as the ferialis ter- minatio cuiuscumque diet the three verses of the Apoc- alypse (vii, 9-11) beginning: "Post hiec vidi turbam magnam". The earliest printed work of this kind is possibly that which bears the title "Menologium Carmelitanum" compiled by the Carmelite, Saracen us, and printed at Bologna in 1627; but this is not ar- ranged day by day in the order of the ecclesiastical year, and it does not include members of the order yet uncanonized. A year or two later, in 1630, Father Henriquez published at Antwerp his " Menologium Cisterciense". That no general custom then existed of reading the Menology at table appears from his re- mark: "It would not appear unsuitable if it (the Menologium) were read aloud in public or in chapter or at least in the refectory at the beginning of dinner or supper". Again quite a number of works have been printed under the name Menologium by Fathers of the Society of Jesus, one or other of which it has been and still is the custom of the order to read aloud in the refectory during part of the evening meal.


Though Fathers Nuremberg and Nadasi compiled collections of a similar character, they did not bear the name Menologium. The earliest Jesuit compilation which is so styled seems to have been printed in the year 1669. A more elaborate Menologium was that compiled by Father Patrignani in 1730, and great collections were made during the last century by Father <le Guilhemiy for the production of a series of such menologies, divided according to the groups of provinces of the Society called " Assistencies". The author did not live to complete his task, but the me- nologies have been published by other hands since his death. The term Menologium is also loosely used for any calendar divided into months, as, for example, the " Anglo-Saxon Menologium " first published by Hickes.

The whole subject of the Greek Menologia has been treated in fullest detail by Father Delehaye in the Anal. BoUand. (1895), 396 sqq., (l897), 311 s^q., (1898), 448 sqq., as well aa in the Synaxarium Constantinopolitanum which forms the Propyl^pum of the Acta SS. for November, Consult also NiLLES, Calendarium Vtriusque Ecclesice (Innsbruck. 1896); Maltzew, Das Menotogion (2 vols., Berlin, 1900); Kellneh. Heortology (Eng. trans., London, 1908).

Herbekt Thurston.

Menominee Indians, a considerable tribe of Algonquian linguistic stock, formerly ranging over north-eastern Wisconsin to the west of Menominee River and Green Bay, and now occupying a reserva- tion in Shawano and Oconto counties within the same territory. The name by which they are commonly known (translated Fotles Avoines by the P'rench) is taken from their term for the wild rice, menomin, Lat. Zizania aquatica, which grows abundantly in the small lakes, and forms a staple food of the tribes of that region. Before their first contact with the whites the Menominee may liave numbered about 3000 souls; in 1909 they were officially reported at 1487. The earliest known explorer among the Menominee was Champlain's interpreter, Jean Nicolet, who visited the tribes about Green Bay in 1634, being probably the first white man within the present State of Wisconsin. In 1640 they are mentioned under the name of Maroumine by the Jesuit Le Jeune, as one of the tribes still without missionaries. In the " Relation " for 1657-8 they are spoken of as Maloiiminek, allied with the Noukek and Winnebago and " reap- ing without sowing" a wild rye considered superior to corn, the first notice of the now well-known wild rice.

In May, 1670, the Jesuit explorer Claude Allouez \nsited them near the mouth of the Menominee River. They were then greatly reduced by wars, probably with their hereditary enemies, the Sioux. They lis- tened to his teaching and asked him to remain. A small mission, St. Michel, was established, and placed under the jurisdiction of the central Potawatomi mission of St. Francis Xavier on Green Bay. In 1673 the Jesuit Louis Andr6 arrived and ministered for several years both to the Menominee and to other tribes, travelling in summer by bark canoe and in winter over the ice. Soon after his arrival he found set up an image of the sun, with a mmiber of net floaters attached, as a sacrifice to the sun for a prosper- ous fishing season, their exertions having been thus far disappointing. After explaining that the sun was not a god, he persuaded them to allow him to substi- tute a crucifix. The next morning the fish entered the river in such abundance that the Indians, firmly con- vinced of the efficacy of his teaching, crowded to be instructed every evening on their return from their fishing. Following up this victory, he induced them to abandon their superstitious dream ceremonies on setting out against the Sioux, although apparently he was unable to prevent the expedition. Among his converts was a principal medicine-man, who claimed the thunder spirit as his special medicine, and was accustomed to invoke it with songs and naked J