Widow (383–439)
St. Melania was one of the great women of the early Church. In a life of unusually varied experiences, she assumed many roles—as wife and mother, monk and hermit, pilgrim and spiritual director—all united in an underlying call to the spiritual life.
Born to a wealthy Christian family in Rome, she was forced to marry at the age of fourteen. After the death of her children, however, she won the consent of her husband and widowed mother to consecrate herself to God. What is more, she convinced them both to join her in giving up all their property and adopting a life of prayer and good works.
She and her husband fled the sack of Rome and settled in North Africa, where they established a pair of monasteries. Later they moved to the Holy Land, settling in Jerusalem, where they lived for fourteen years until her husband’s death. At that point, Melania retired to a nearby cell, which became in time the center of a large convent of women.
While spending the Christmas of 439 in Bethlehem, she became ill and died on December 31. Her final words: “As the Lord willed, so it is done.”
“The Lord knows that I am unworthy, and I would not dare compare myself with any good woman, even of those living in the world. Yet I think the Enemy himself will not at the Last Judgment accuse me of ever having gone to sleep with bitterness in my heart.”
—St. Melania the Younger
