monsignor

• Monsignor, Msgr., Mons.

From Italian monsignore, from signore under influence from Middle French monseigneur. Doublet of monseigneur and monsieur.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɒnˈsiː.njə/, /mɒn.siːˈnjɔː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mɑnˈsiː.njɚ/

monsignor (plural monsignors or monsignori)

1. (Roman Catholicism) An ecclesiastic title bestowed on some Roman Catholic clerics by the Pope
   • 1892, “Great Events in Rome”, in John Morris, editor, The Life of Mother Henrietta Kerr, Religious of the Sacred Heart, 3rd edition, Roehampton, pages 182 and 197:

     He goes one day to hear Father Hecker preach on the Destiny of Man, on another to hear Monsignor Pie, Bishop of Poitiers, then Archbishop Manning, and again Monsignor Mermillod and Father Burke. […] We have just made her a grand festa for her day, the 20th—twelve Masses, cardinal, two archbishops, two monsignori, the other seven, priests.

   • 1905, Mary King Waddington, “Italy Revisited”, in Italian Letters of a Diplomat’s Wife; January–May 1880; February–April, 1904, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, pages 249–250:

     We were passed on from one room to another, and finally came to a halt in a large square room, where there were more priests, one or two monsignori, in their violet robes, and two officers. […] We had barely time to exchange a few remarks, as Monsignor Bicletis was waiting for us to advance.

   • 1955, Francis Beauchesne Thornton, Cross upon Cross: The Life of Pope Pius IX, New York, N.Y.: Benziger Brothers, Inc., pages 83 (The Pope Begins His Reign) and 114 (The Flight to Gaeta):

     He wore the dress of an abbot and was accompanied by two monsignori in simple black. […] It was a letter from Monsignor Chatrousse, the Bishop of Valence in France.

   • 1999, Francis X[avier] Murphy, “Introduction to the 1999 Edition”, in Vatican Council II, Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, →ISBN, page xii:

     He was accompanied by two monsignori, one of whom was Henry Cosgrove, an acquaintance of mine from Brooklyn. […] “It is obvious that I need no translator. Henry,” I said, turning to the American monsignor, “you can be my secretary.”

   • 2001, Paul Collins, “Palazzo del Sant’Uffizio”, in From Inquisition to Freedom: Seven Prominent Catholics and Their Struggle with the Vatican, Sydney, N.S.W.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 19:

     He had only been in office for a couple of months when the brilliant polymath, Monsignor Ivan Illich, was summoned to Rome. Illich was an American citizen of mixed Spanish, German, Croat and Jewish origins, and a priest of New York archdiocese who worked in Cuernavaca in Mexico to prepare missionaries for Latin America. Two minor CDF monsignori, Sergio de Magistris and Giuseppe Casoria, attempted to interrogate him in the back rooms of the Palazzo.

   • 2007 February 4, Alexis Rehrmann, “Her Parents Couldn’t Take Care of Her. This Home Could.”, in New York Times‎:

     He paid half the $850 monthly tuition, and the church monsignor covered the rest.

   • 2007 October 21, Peter Applebome, “A Court Decision Elbows a Village in Favor of Religious Rights”, in New York Times‎:

     “Chances are if you had any efforts to modify it, you’d have parades of monsignors, ministers and rabbis trooping up to Capitol Hill,” said Professor Baker.

   • 2014, Ippolito Nievo, translated by Frederika Randall, Confessions of an Italian‎, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN:

     Monsignor, at least, was happier, because oblivious, and just went on transforming the ducks and capons bestowed on him into flesh. […] As chaplain and special counsellor of Casa Frumier he’d been able to garner the esteem of the many priests and monsignori who were guests there, for he never lacked either those saintly maxims or those agile mutations of conscience that allowed him to attract both the one and the other; […]

• monsignorial

monsignor m (apocopated)

1. Apocopic form of monsignore