MASSIMILIANO of LORCH, Saint, Martyr
The *Passio* of M. is not earlier than the 13th century (BHL, 5811).
Of St. M., only the following positive facts are known: around the year 700, during the time of St. Rupert of Salzburg, his body was discovered in the region of the Pongau, and a cell (a term later confused with the city of Celeia or Cilli in Lower Styria) was built on the site for monks, complete with an oratory. Around 1878, Carloman had the relics of M. transferred to Ötting in Bavaria, and before 985 they were brought to the cathedral of Passau. In 1289, there was a new elevation of the relics of M. together with those of the regional bishop St. Valentine in Passau. It is not known that M. was bishop of Lorch; the episcopal character was attributed to him in the 11th and 12th centuries when the bishops of Passau claimed for themselves the title and prerogatives of archbishop as successors of the archbishop of Lorch. The Roman *Martyrologium* commemorates him on October 12, the date of his death.
BHL: F. Poxrucker, *Der heilig Maximilian*, Landshut 1925 (v. review by H. Delehaye, in *Anal. Boll.*, 45 [1927], pp. 150-151); E. Tomek, *Kirchengeschichte Österreichs*, I, Innsbruck 1935, pp. 28-30; *Martyr. Roman.*, pp. 450, 483. Giuseppe Löw
MASSIMILIANO of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria, Emperor of Mexico
Born at Schönbrunn on July 6, 1832; died at Querétaro (Mexico) on June 19, 1867. Younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph, in 1857 he became governor-general of Lombardy-Venetia, a position in which he did not miss any opportunity to make the foreign domination acceptable to those populations. In 1864 he accepted the imperial crown of Mexico and, with the help of Napoleon III, established himself in Mexico City.
The supporters of Mexican independence, who had resumed the struggle under the leadership of B. Juárez and with the support of the United States, which had emerged from the crisis of the Civil War, gradually reconquered the country. M. was captured, and along with his loyal generals Miramón and Mejía, he was executed at Querétaro. Among the distant causes of the Querétaro tragedy, certain errors committed through weakness by the unfortunate Emperor in his policy toward the Holy See and the Mexican hierarchy must be acknowledged.
BHL: E. Corti, *La tragedia di un imperatore*, Milan 1936. On ecclesiastical policy, cf. P. Balan, *Continuazione alla storia universale della Chiesa del Rohrbach*, II, Turin 1879, V. indices; N. A. N. Cleven, *The ecclesiastical policy of Maximilian of Mexico*, in *Hispanic-American historical review*, 9 (1929), pp. 317-60; J. Schmidtlin, *Papstgeschichte der neuesten Zeit*, II, Munich 1934, pp. 152-53. Silvio Furlani