Melania the Younger
Dates: about 385 - December 31, 439
Occupation: religious community founder, monastic
Known for: Christian saint
Daughter of Melania the Elder's only surviving son, the wealthy Roman senator Publicola, Melania was born in Rome and, against her will, promised in marriage at 13 to another wealthy Roman, Pinian. She struck a bargain with her husband: she would produce two children for him, and then he would free her from further sexual intercourse and she could practice chastity.
During her second pregnancy, Melania began severe ascetic practices, and the child was born prematurely and soon died. Melania too was ill, and she convinced her husband that her survival depended on their perpetual chastity. He agreed. When her father and their daughter died soon after that, they liquidated their property and used the very large amounts of money to found monasteries, including buying entire islands. They also ransomed captives and helped the poor and sick closer to home.
Their home was too valuable for any buyer; it was burnt down when the Visigoths invaded Rome. Melania, her mother and Pinian left for North Africa just ahead of those invasions, spending seven years in pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the desert ascetics of Syria and Egypt, including a 2-year stay near Messina in Sicily. In her travels she met Augustine of Hippo, Alypius and Jerome. Melania founded a monastery in Jerusalem for herself and other women; on Pinian's death she founded a monastery for men in his honor, and later a chapel and a church.
She is said to have helped to convert her uncle Volusian, an ambassador to the court of Emperor Theodosius II, to Christianity. Melania traveled to Constantinopole often, becoming friends with Eudocia, the new empress, wife of Theodosius. Eudocia made a pilgrimage to Melania's Jerusalem monastery shortly before Melania died there at age 54. Gerontius, a priest who knew her in her later years, wrote her biography.
Melania the Younger was venerated primarily in the Eastern church until 1905 when Cardinal Rampolla published a biography of her based on a manuscript he discovered in the Escritorial at the Vatican and another from the Barberini library.
Also on this site
Bibliography
- Abbot, Elizabeth. A History of Celibacy.
- Clark, Elizabeth A. The Life of Melania the Younger: Introduction, Translation and Commentary. 1984.
About Melania the Younger
- Categories: religious community founder, monastic
- Organizational Affiliations:
- Places: Rome, Egypt, Syria, Jerusalem
- Period: 5th century
- Religious Associations: Christianity
Melania the Younger on the web
More women's history biographies, by name:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P/Q | R | S | T | U/V | W | X/Y/Z
Text © 1999-2006 Jone Johnson Lewis.
