He was in contact with the leading literary figures of his time; Leo XIII appointed him professor of Italian literature at the higher school he had founded in Rome. He served as Superior General of the Piarist Order from 1886 until his death. Among his extensive works are: Vita della s. Madre Teresa di Gesù, Florence 1874; Vita di cari defunti, ibid. 1875; L'Illude travestita alla florentina, 23 vols., Florence 1884–97; Dante Alighieri cattolico apostolico romano, ibid. 1885; I riposi di Compiobbi, ibid. 1894; Prose sacre, morali e filosofiche, ibid. 1895; L'allegria filologia, ibid. 1898.
BIBL.: L. Pietrobon, M. R., Florence 1900; Th. Viñas, Index biobibliografici Scriptorum Scholarum Piarum, I, Rome 1908, pp. 287–92; G. Manni, P. M. R. (with bibliography), in Prose varie, Pistoia 1925, pp. 185–201; N. Tommaseo – M. R., Carteggio dal 1860 al 1874, ed. V. Viti, Florence 1943. Leccherino Picavolo.