Melania the Younger

Venerable Melania the Roman, also called Melania the Younger, was an ascetic of Rome, born about 383 and fallen asleep in Jerusalem on 31 December 439. Daughter of a senator and heiress of one of the greatest fortunes of her time, she gave up all her wealth to live in virginity and poverty, helped churches and monasteries, and founded monastic communities. She is commemorated on 31 December (13 January in the new calendar).

Family and marriage Melania was the only child of Valerius Publicola and Caeionia Albina, both Christians, of the senatorial family of the Valerii, one of the oldest and proudest in Rome. She was the granddaughter, on her father's side, of Venerable Melania the Elder. Against her will she was married at fourteen (according to one source, thirteen) to her cousin, Valerius Pinianus.

From the beginning Melania begged her husband to live in purity, but he, under pressure from the parents, wanted heirs. They had two children, who soon died. It is told that when she fell ill, Pinianus promised that if she recovered they would live as brother and sister. She recovered, and he kept his promise. Her father, on his deathbed, asked her forgiveness for the obstacles he had put in her way.

Renouncing wealth After her parents' death, Melania and Pinianus resolved to sell their estates in Italy, Sicily, Spain, Gaul and Africa to help the needy. Their relatives thought them mad, and Pinianus's brother tried to stop them with lawsuits. So that the sale might be done fairly, Melania sought the help of Serena, the mother-⁠in-⁠law of Emperor Honorius, and the emperor ordered provincial governors to sell the property and send the money. From the proceeds many poor, sick and imprisoned people were helped, many slaves were freed, and churches and monasteries in Palestine, Syria and Egypt received gifts.

In 408 to 410 they left Rome, threatened by the Goths. After a stay in southern Italy, in 410 they reached North Africa, at Thagaste, where they met Blessed Augustine and remained his friends. Melania founded monasteries there and lived in fasting, prayer and reading of Scripture. One source says that she read the Old and New Testaments through three times a year.

In Jerusalem In 417 they set out for the Holy Land, passing through Alexandria, where they received the blessing of Saint Cyril. They settled on the Mount of Olives. After the death of Pinianus (about 420, or 431 according to other sources), Melania built a monastery for men and a church and gathered a community of women around her. She visited the fathers of the desert and was a friend of Blessed Jerome. A Serbian source adds that she went to Constantinople, where she won her pagan kinsman Volusianus for the faith.

In December 439, feeling her end near, she went to Bethlehem for the service of the Nativity of the Lord. She fell asleep on 31 December, with the words: As it pleased the Lord, so it has been done.

Veneration Her cave in Jerusalem lies under the monastery of the Great Panagia, near the Holy Sepulchre. Her relics were, according to tradition, taken by the crusaders to Venice. Today, according to one source, they are kept in Rome, in the church of Santo Stefano Rotondo. At Zrenjanin in Serbia there is a monastery dedicated to her. In Ukraine her day has remained linked with the folk festival of Malanka.