Enciclopedia Cattolica

MAIOLO, SANTO

Maiolo, Saint

Volume VII · p. 1110 · 1951

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Image from page 1110
Image from page 1110
Image from page 1110
Image from page 1110

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

MAIOLO, St.—Abbot of Cluny, born at Valensolle or Avignon c. 906, died at Souvigny on 11 May 994. He governed the abbey for forty years, from 954 to 994. Like the founder of the same abbey, St Odo, he was an indefatigable traveller, and at the invitation of princes and bishops he extended still further the Cluniac influence in the kingdoms of France and Burgundy, in the duchy of Normandy, in Italy and in the territories of the Empire.

Hugh Capet and Robert the Pious took an interest in the reform of the monasteries of Marmoutier, St-Maur-des-Fossés and Corméry; in 990 Richard of Normandy invited him to reform Fécamp. M. introduced the usages of Cluny at Ravenna and Pavia, where the monastery was later dedicated to him, and renewed monastic life in Roman convents. Less receptive to his influence were Otto the Great and Otto II; the latter indeed was the object of some sinister predictions by the holy abbot. During his lifetime the internal organisation of the Order became ever more clearly defined.

BIBL.: Vita, written by the monk Syrus, in PL 137, cols. 746–78 (cf. also cols. 710–44), and by his successor St Odilo, PL 142, cols. 943–53; A. Bruel, Recueil des chartes de l'abbaye de Cluny, I, Paris 1876; L. J. Ogerdias, Histoire de st Mayeul, Moulins 1877; E. Sackur, Die Cluniacenser in ihrer kirchlichen und allgemeingeschichtl. Wirksamkeit bis zur Mitte des 11. Jahrhunderts, 2 vols., Halle 1892–94; L. Smith, The early history of the monastery of Cluny, Oxford 1920; G. de Valous, Le monachisme clunisien des origines au XVe siècle, Paris 1935.

Guglielmo Mollat