Orthodox · † 439
Venerable Melania the Younger of Rome
Commemorated: January 13 (December 31, Old Style)
Life
Melania was born about 383 into one of the richest senatorial families of Rome, a granddaughter of Melania the Elder. Married at about thirteen to Pinian, she lost both her children young, and the couple resolved to live as brother and sister and to give away their immense estates; her Life says they freed eight thousand slaves. Fleeing the Goths, they went to Sicily and North Africa, where they lived at Thagaste near Augustine’s friend Alypius.
About 417 they settled in Jerusalem, and Melania founded monasteries for women and for men on the Mount of Olives. She visited Constantinople in 436 and died in Jerusalem on 31 December 439. Her Life was written by her chaplain Gerontius.
Places
- Place of birth: Rome
- Place of death: Jerusalem
Retold briefly in our own words from: the Roman Martyrology (1916).
The commemorations of the day: Ponomar (ponomar.net), CC BY-SA 3.0.
Places and years: Wikidata (CC0), each saint matched by hand.