Russia for use in mosaic-work, and for the manufacture of vases, snuff-boxes and various ornamental objects. Even folding doors, mantelpieces, table-tops and other articles of furniture have been executed in malachite, the objects being veneered with thin slabs cleverly fitted together so as to preserve the pattern, and having the interspaces filled up with fragments and powder of malachite applied with a cement. The malachite is sawn into slabs, ground with emery and polished with tripoli. Its hardness is less than 4, but it takes a good polish like marble: it is rather denser than marble, having a specific gravity of 3.7 to 4, but it is more difficult to work, in consequence of a tendency to break along the curved planes of deposition. Exceptionally fine examples of the application of malachite are seen in some of the columns of St Isaac’s Cathedral in St Petersburg, which are hollow iron columns encrusted with malachite. Large masses of ornamental malachite have been found in Australia, especially at the old Burra Burra copper-mine in South Australia. The Copper Queen and other mines in Arizona have yielded fine specimens of malachite associated with azurite, and polished slabs of the mixed minerals sometimes show the vivid green and the deep blue carbonate in very striking contrast. This natural association, cut as an ornamental stone, has been named, by Dr G. F. Kunz, azurmalachite. Malachite is occasionally used for cameo-work, and some fine antique examples are known. It was formerly worn as an amulet to preserve the wearer from lightning, contagion and witchcraft.
The mineral, when ground, has been used as a pigment under the name of “mountain green.” The coarser masses are extensively used, with other minerals, as ores of copper, malachite containing about 57% of metal. “Blue malachite” is a name sometimes given to azurite (q.v.), whilst “siliceous malachite” is a term inappropriately applied to chrysocolla (q.v.). (F. W. R.*)
MALACHOWSKI, STANISLAW (1736–1809), Polish statesman,
the younger son of Stanislaw Malachowski, palatine of
Posen, the companion in arms of Sobieski. From his youth
Malachowski laboured zealously for the good of his country, and
as president of the royal court of justice won the honourable
title of the “Polish Aristides.” He was first elected a deputy
to the Coronation Diet of 1764, and the great Four Years’ Diet
unanimously elected him its speaker at the beginning of its
session in 1788. Accurately gauging the situation, Malachowski
speedily gathered round him all those who were striving to
uphold the falling republic and warmly supported every promising
project of reform. He was one of the framers of the constitution
of the 3rd of May 1791, exceeding in liberality all his
colleagues and advocating the extension of the franchise to
the towns and the emancipation of the serfs. He was the first
to enter his name as a citizen of Warsaw in the civic register and
to open negotiations with his own peasantry for their complete
liberation. Disappointed in his hopes by the overthrow of
the constitution, he resigned office and left the country in 1792,
going first to Italy and subsequently to his estates in Galicia,
where he was imprisoned for a time on a false suspicion of conspiracy.
In 1807 Malachowski was placed at the head of the
executive committee appointed at Warsaw after its evacuation
by the Prussians, and when the grand duchy of Warsaw was
created Malachowski became president of the senate under
King Frederick Augustus of Saxony. In the negotiations with
the Austrian government concerning the Galician salt-mines
Malachowski came to the assistance of the depleted treasury
by hypothecating all his estates as an additional guarantee.
In 1809 he died at Warsaw. His death was regarded as a
public calamity, and multitudes followed his remains to their
last resting-place in the Church of the Holy Cross. In all the
other towns of the grand duchy funeral services were held
simultaneously as a tribute of the respect and gratitude of the
Polish nation.
See August Sokolowski, Illustrated History of Poland (Pol.), vol. iv. (Vienna, 1900); Life and Memoirs of S. Malachowski, edited by Lucyan Siemienski (Pol; Cracow, 1853). (R. N. B.)
MALACHY, ST (c. 1094–1148), otherwise known as Maol-Maodhog (or Maelmaedhog) Ua Morgair, archbishop of Armagh and papal legate in Ireland, was born at Armagh. His father, an Irish clergyman, the Fearleighlinn, or lector, at the university,
was said to have been of noble family. Having been ordained
to the priesthood, he for some time acted as vicar of Archbishop
Celsus or Ceallach of Armagh, and carried out many reforms
tending to increase conformity with the usage of the Church of
Rome. In order to improve his knowledge of the Roman
ritual he spent four years with Malchus, bishop of Lismore (in
Munster), a strong advocate of Romanism. Here he became
acquainted with Cormac MacCarthy, king of Desmond, who had
sought refuge with Malchus, and, when he subsequently regained
his kingdom, rendered great services to Malachy. On his
return from Lismore, Malachy undertook the government of
the decayed monastery of Bangor (in Co. Down), but very
soon afterwards he was elected bishop of Connor (now a small
village near Ballymena). After the sack of that place by the
king of Ulster he withdrew into Munster; here he was kindly
received by Cormac MacCarthy, with whose assistance he built
the monastery of Ibrach (in Kerry). Meanwhile he had been
designated by Celsus (in whose family the see of Armagh had
been hereditary for many years) to succeed him in the archbishopric;
in the interests of reform he reluctantly accepted the
dignity, and thus became involved for some years in a struggle
with the so-called heirs. Having finally settled the diocese, he
was permitted, as had been previously stipulated by himself, to
return to his former diocese, or rather to the smaller and poorer
portion of it, the bishopric of Down. Although the Roman
party had by this time obtained a firm hold in the north of Ireland,
the organization of the Church had not yet received the
sanction of the pope. Accordingly, in 1139, Malachy set out from
Ireland with the purpose of soliciting from the pope the pallium
(the token of archiepiscopal subjection to Rome) for the archbishop
of Armagh. On his way to Rome he visited Clairvaux,
and thus began a lifelong friendship with St Bernard. Malachy
was received by Innocent II. with great honour, and made papal
legate in Ireland, though the pope refused to grant the pallium
until it had been unanimously applied for “by a general council
of the bishops, clergy and nobles.” On his way home Malachy
revisited Clairvaux, and took with him from there four members
of the Cistercian order, by whom the abbey of Mellifont (in the
county of Louth) was afterwards founded in 1141. For the next
eight years after his return from Rome Malachy was active in
the discharge of his legatine duties, and in 1148, at a synod of
bishops and clergy held at Inis-Patrick (St Patrick’s Island, near
Skerries, Co. Dublin), he was commissioned to return to Rome
and make fresh application for the pallium; he did not, however,
get beyond Clairvaux, where he died in the arms of St Bernard
on the 2nd of November 1148. The object of his life was realized
four years afterwards, in 1152, during the legateship of his successor.
Malachy was canonized by Clement III. in 1190.
The influence of Malachy in Irish ecclesiastical affairs has been compared with that of Boniface in Germany. He reformed and reorganized the Irish Church and brought it into subjection to Rome; like Boniface, he was a zealous reformer and a promoter of monasticism. But perhaps his chief claim to distinction is that of having opened the first Cistercian monastery in Ireland, five more being soon afterwards established. Several works are attributed to him, but are all probably spurious. The most curious of these is a Prophecy concerning the Future Roman Pontiffs, which has produced an extensive literature. It is now generally attributed to the year 1590, and is supposed to have been forged to support the election of Cardinal Simoncelli to the papal chair.
St Bernard’s Life of Malachy, and two sermons on his death will be found in J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina; clxxxii., clxxxiii.; see also Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, ed. J. O’Donovan (Dublin, 1851); G. Germano, Vita, gesti e predittioni del padre san Malachia (Naples, 1670); the ecclesiastical histories of Ireland by J. Lanigan (1829) and W. D. Killen (1875); A. Bellesheim, Geschichte der katholischen Kirche in Irland, Bd. I. (Mainz, 1890); G. T. Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic Church (6th ed., 1907); J. O’Hanlon, Life of Saint Malachy (Dublin, 1859); articles in Dictionary of National Biography and Herzog-Hauck’s Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie. On the Prophecy, see the
