Venerable (Monastic)5th century

Venerable Melania the Younger of Rome

c. 383 – 439

Also known as Melania of Rome

A wealthy Roman woman who, with her husband, embraced chastity, gave away immense wealth, and founded monastic communities in the Holy Land.

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Commemorated as

Our Venerable Mother Melania the Younger of Rome

Life

Melania the Younger (c. 383 – 439) was a wealthy Roman aristocrat who, together with her husband Pinian, renounced one of the largest private fortunes of the late Roman world, embraced a celibate ascetic life, and founded monastic communities in North Africa and the Holy Land. She is the granddaughter of Melania the Elder, herself venerated as a saint, and is documented in an early Life written by her disciple Gerontius and in an account by Palladius.

Born into a senatorial family at Rome, she desired virginity from youth but was married young at her father's insistence. After the death of her two children and her own father, she and Pinian turned decisively to asceticism, liquidating estates that spanned much of the Western Empire and distributing the proceeds to churches, monasteries, the poor, and captives. Leaving Italy ahead of the barbarian invasions, she lived for years in North Africa and finally settled in Jerusalem, where she ended her days in monastic seclusion on the Mount of Olives. The Orthodox Church commemorates her on December 31.

Customs & Traditions

A wealthy Roman who freed thousands of captives and founded monasteries; falling on the eve of the civil New Year, her day closes the Nativity feast, and many parishes serve a thanksgiving for the year, keeping it as a name-day for Melania.

Kontakion & Troparion2 hymnsReadHide

KontakionTone 3

As a two-fold lamp you illumine the Church of Christ
with truly mystical radiance.
You brought forth a hundred-fold fruit through your contest, O Anysia;
and you shone forth in asceticism, O Melania.
You were both found worthy of the incorruptible life of the righteous.

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

TroparionTone 8

The image of God was truly preserved in you, O Mother,
for you took up the Cross and followed Christ.
By so doing, you taught us to disregard the flesh, for it passes away;
but to care instead for the soul, since it is immortal.
Therefore your spirit, O holy Mother Melania, rejoices with the angels.

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

Timeline8 momentsReadHide

c. 383Birth at RomeBorn into a wealthy Roman senatorial family, the only child of the senator Valerius Publicola and Caeionia Albina, and granddaughter of Melania the Elder.
c. 397Marriage to PinianMarried at about age fourteen to her relative Valerius Pinianus, a young man of consular rank. Though she had desired virginity, she complied with her father's wishes.
early 400sLoss of her children and turn to asceticismAfter the death of her two children and her father, she and Pinian embraced a celibate Christian life and began to renounce their wealth.
404Departure from RomeShe left Rome for a villa near Messina in Sicily, beginning years of travel and the liquidation of her vast estates.
c. 410–417Years in North AfricaShe lived near Tagaste (Thagaste) in North Africa, where she founded monastic communities in association with the bishops Augustine, Alypius, and Aurelius.
417Arrival in the Holy LandShe traveled to Palestine by way of Alexandria, where she met Saint Cyril, and settled at Jerusalem, founding a convent near the Mount of Olives.
c. 420 and afterFoundations on the Mount of OlivesAfter Pinian's death she built a monastery for men alongside her convent for women, and constructed a church to house holy relics. She later appointed her disciple Gerontius as abbot and spiritual father of the two communities.
31 December 439Repose at JerusalemHaving gone to Bethlehem for the feast of the Nativity, she fell ill, received the Eucharist, and died, being buried at Jerusalem with monastic honors.

Contributions & Legacy

3 contributionsReadHide

The Renunciation of Wealth

Melania inherited estates of extraordinary extent, holding property across Italy, Sicily, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and the provinces of North Africa. According to the sources she sold these holdings and converted them into immense sums of money — one account gives a figure of 120,000 gold coins — which she directed to churches, monasteries, hospitals, widows, orphans, and the ransom of captives across the Eastern provinces, including Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine.

Tradition records that her family's palace on the Caelian Hill in Rome found no buyer commensurate with its value and, after the sack of the city by Alaric in 410, was effectively given away. The sources also relate that she freed great numbers of her household slaves as part of the renunciation of her estate.

Monastic Life in the Holy Land

Settling in Jerusalem, Melania withdrew into a cell on the Mount of Olives, where the sources say she lived in strict seclusion for many years, receiving only her mother and Pinian. After her mother's death she gathered a community of some ninety virgins and nuns, providing for their needs and guiding them in the ascetic life.

She was known for severe fasting and minimal sleep, and the tradition describes her as a skilled calligrapher who copied manuscripts and gave the proceeds to the poor. She built a church on the Mount of Olives reported to contain relics of the Prophet Zacharias, the Protomartyr Stephen, and the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.

Journey to Constantinople

Late in her life Melania traveled to Constantinople to visit her uncle Volusianus, who remained a pagan. There she was received with honor by the Emperor Theodosius the Younger, the Empress Eudocia, and the Patriarch Proclus. According to the tradition, Volusianus was moved to embrace Christianity and was baptized shortly before his death.

The Empress Eudocia afterward came to Jerusalem as a pilgrim and as Melania's spiritual daughter; the tradition relates that Melania welcomed her and that a healing of the empress's injured foot was attributed to her.

Works & Further ReadingReadHide