A theoretical study of the electronic structure, bonding, and properties of unligated and ligated manganese(vertical bar vertical bar) porphyrins and phthalocyanines has been carried out "in detail" using a density functional theory (DFT) method. While manganese tetraphenylporphine (MnTPP) in the crystal is high spin (S = 5/2) with the Mn-vertical bar vertical bar atom out of the porphyrin plane, the present calculations find that the free manganese porphine (MnP) molecule has no obvious tendency to distort from planarity even in the high-spin state. The ground state of the planar structure is found to be intermediate spin (S = 3/2). Manganese phthalocyanine (MnPc) is calculated to have a E-4(g) ground state, in agreement with the more recent magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) and UV-vis measurements of the molecule in an argon matrix but different from the early magnetic measurements of solid MnPc. The effect of the crystal structure on the electronic state of MnPc is examined by the calculations of a model system. For the six-coordinate adducts with two pyridine (py) ligands, the strong-field axial ligands raise the energy of the Mn d(z2)-orbital, thereby making the Mn-vertical bar vertical bar ion low spin (S = 1/2). The recent assignment of MnPc(py)(2) as an intermediate-spin state proves to be incorrect. Some issues involved in the reduced products have also been clarified. Five-coordinate MnP(py) and MnPc(py) complexes are high spin and intermediate spin, respectively.