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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > M > St. Melania (the Younger)


ST. MELANIA (THE YOUNGER)

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Born at Rome, about 383; died in Jerusalem, 31 December, 439. She was a member
of the famous family of Valerii. Her parents were Publicola and Albina, her
paternal grandmother of the same name is known as Melania, Senior. Little is
known of the saint's childhood, but after the time of her marriage, which
occurred in her thirteenth year, we have more definite information. Through
obedience to her parents she married one of her relatives, Pinianus a patrician.
During her married life of seven years she had two children who died young.
After their death Melania's inclination toward a celibate life reasserting
itself, she secured her husband's consent and entered upon the path of evangelic
perfection, parting little by little with all her wealth. Pinianus, who now
assumed a brotherly position toward her, was her companion in all her efforts
toward sanctity. Because of the Visigothic invasions of Italy, she left Rome in
408, and for two years lived near Messina in Sicily. Here, their life of a
monastic character was shared by some former slaves. In 410 she went to Africa
where she and Pinianus lived with her mother for seven years, during which time
she grew well acquainted with St. Augustine and his friend Alypius. She devoted
herself to works of charity and piety, especially in her zeal for souls, to the
foundation of a nunnery of which she became superior, and of a cloister of which
Pinianus took charge. In 417, Melania, her mother, and Pinianus went to
Palestine by way of Alexandria. For a year they lived in a hospice for pilgrims
in Jerusalem, where she met St. Jerome. She again made generous donations, upon
the receipt of money from the sale of her estates in Spain. About this time she
travelled in Egypt, where she visited the principal places of monastic and
eremetical life, and upon her return to Jerusalem she lived for twelve years, in
a hermitage near the Mount of Olives. Before the death of her mother (431), a
new series of monastic foundations had begun. She started with a convent for
women on the Mount of Olives, of which she assumed the maintenance while
refusing to be made its superior. After her husband's death she built a cloister
for men, then a chapel, and later, a more pretentious church. During this last
period (Nov., 436), she went to Constantinople where she aided in the conversion
of her pagan uncle, Volusian, ambassador at the Court of Theodosius II, and in
the conflict with Nestorianism. An interesting episode in her later life is the
journey of the Empress Eudocia, wife of Theodosius, to Jerusalem in 438. Soon
after the empress's return Melania died.



The Greek Church began to venerate her shortly after her death, but she was
almost unknown in the Western Church for many years. She has received greater
attention since the publication of her life by Cardinal Rampolla (Rome, 1905).
In 1908, Pius X granted her office to the congregation of clergy at Somascha.
This may be considered as the beginning of a zealous ecclesiastical cult, to
which the saint's life and works have entitled her. Melania's life has been
shrouded in obscurity nearly up to the present time; many people having wholly
or partially confounded her with her grandmother Antonia Melania. The accurate
knowledge of her life we owe to the discovery of two manuscripts; the first, in
Latin, was found by Cardinal Rampolla in the Escorial in 1884, the second, a
Greek biography, is in the Barberini library. Cardinal Rampolla published both
these important discoveries at the Vatican printing-office.




ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Schlitz, C. (1911). St. Melania (the Younger). In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10154a.htm

MLA citation. Schlitz, Carl. "St. Melania (the Younger)." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10154a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael C.
Tinkler.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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