Matthew Paris (1200?-1259), English chronicler and monk. In 1217 he entered the monastery of Saint Albans, in Hertfordshire, where he became official historiographer. Paris's principal work was the Chronica Majora, a chronicle of events from the creation of the world to the year 1259. He also wrote the Chronica Minora, a revised and abridged version of the major chronicle. In 1248 he was sent on a mission to Norway by Pope Innocent IV to reform the Abbey of Saint Benet Holm, in present-day Trondheim; he later returned to St. Albans.