December 31st - Melania the Younger, Widow, and Pinianus (RM)

Born in Rome, Italy, c. 383; died in Jerusalem, December 31, 438 (or 439).
Melania was the product of several pious generations of the patrician Roman
family of the Valerii. Her grandmother, Saint Antonia Melania the Elder, widow
of Valerius Maximus, was one of the first Roman matrons to make a pilgrimage to
the Holy Land. When Melania the Elder moved to Egypt in 372 and then to
Palestine to become a nun, she left behind her in Rome her six-year-old son
Valerius Publicola, who fathered today's saint and was a Roman senator.

Antonia Melania the Younger began her life in the splendor of the Valerian
palace. She inherited a fantastic fortune-estates in what are now eight modern
countries. She controlled whole populations. Yet Melania chose asceticism,
which, according to Saint Jerome was inherited from her mother. Her life made
contact with several other saints, Saint Paulinus of Nola, Augustine of Hippo,
and Jerome-all of whom had a very high opinion of her and her husband.

At age 13, Melania married her 17-year-old cousin Saint Valerius Pinianus
against her will. She suggested that they live together in celibacy, in exchange
for which he could have her entire fortune. He insisted that they have two sons
first. They had a daughter they vowed to virginity, then a son. Both of whom
died soon after birth. Melania seemed to be dying, too, and made her recovery
contingent upon a life of abstinence. Pinianus agreed and she recovered.

Their religious devotion and austere lifestyle provoked opposition from other
family members. But after her father's death, her widowed mother, Albina, the
Christian daughter of a pagan priest, was also won over. The couple then lived
in simplicity as far as was possible. They struggled to give away all their
property-her annual income was the equivalent of about US$20 million today. When
they tried to sell their property for the good of the poor and the Church, their
family appealed to Emperor Honorius, who sided with Melania. She became one of
the greatest religious philanthropists of all time: She endowed monasteries in
Egypt, Syria, and Palestine; helped churches and monasteries in Europe; aided
the poor, sick, captives, and pilgrims.

Not only did they provide charity out of their surplus, Melania and Pinianus
gave of themselves. They freed their 8,000 slaves in two years, but the slaves
refused to be freed, so they transferred themselves to Pinianus's brother. By
the time Melania was 20, Pinianus, Albina, and Melania left Rome and turned
their country estate into a religious center. Their palace became a home for
innumerable sick, prisoners, and exiles whom the couple personally sought out.

When the Visigoths invaded Rome in 408, Pinianus and Melania moved to Messina,
Sicily. In 410, Rome was taken and their palace burned. Finding Sicily in
danger, they decided to cross the Mediterranean to Carthage with the aged priest
Rufinus. They were shipwrecked on the island of Lipari, which Melania ransomed
from pirates. Finally, they moved to their estate in Tagaste, Numidia, in
northern Africa. The saintliness of the couple quickly became apparent to the
denizens. The citizens of nearby Hippo demanded that Saint Augustine ordain
Pinianus at once. Augustine compromised by saying that he should stay in Hippo
for a time as a layman. The couple also established a monastery and a convent,
where she lived in great austerity.

By 417, most of their estates were sold and the couple was truly poor. Melania,
Pinianus, and Albina made a pilgrimage to Palestine, then visited the desert
monks in Egypt, and finally settled in Jerusalem, where Melania's grandmother
Antonia Melania had been living as a nun. Melania's cousin, Saint Paula,
introduced her to the group of Roman women in Bethlehem presided over by Saint
Jerome, whose friend she became.

After her mother Albina's death in 431, Melania established herself as a
recluse. She founded a monastery and sent her husband to seek out those with
vocations. He succeeded, then died in 432, and was buried on Mount Olivet near
her mother. Melania lived in a room near his tomb for four years until she
attracted numerous disciples. Then she founded and directed a convent to care
for the Church of the Ascension and sing the Divine Office continually for her
mother and husband. She shared in their life of prayer and good works, and
occupied herself with copying books.

Her uncle Volusianus wrote to her insinuating that she should consider marriage
to Emperor Valentinian III. She went to Constantinople, ingratiated herself with
the imperial family, then undertook a brisk campaign against the Nestorian
heresy, and fell ill. She converted her uncle and assisted him to a holy death
on January 6, 437.

Melania went to Bethlehem for her last Christmas and spent it with Saint Paula.
She returned to her convent for the feast of Saint Stephen and died five days
later, with Saint Paula, the monks, nuns, and the bishop present. As she was
dying Paula began crying and Melania consoled her.

Melania's biography was written by her chaplain, Gerontius. Although Melania has
been venerated in the Eastern Church for centuries, she has had no cultus in the
West. Pope Pius X, however, approved the observance of her feast in 1908 for the
Somaschi, an observance followed by the Latin Catholics of Constantinople and
Jerusalem (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Martindale).

In art, Melania is generally shown praying in a cave, a skull and vegetables
near her (Roeder).