Melania the Elder
A member of the patrician Antonia family of Rome, Melania (c. 342/343- c. 409/410) was the daughter of a consul and the wife of a prefect. Following the deaths of her husband, Valerius Maximus, and two of her three children in short succession c. 372/373, Melania made a pilgrimage to Egypt and the Holy Land. She put her son in the care of a tutor and distributed some of her wealth. In Egypt, she met and became the patroness of Rufinus; she also supported a group of churchmen whom Valens had persecuted. She later established a monastery on the Mount of Olives and headed a community of 50 nuns. She is said to have brought back into the church a group of pneumatomachoi, those who accepted Nicene Christology but denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Melania enjoyed the friendship of Paula of Bethlehem and Jerome, until the rift between Rufinus and Jerome. Melania failed to heal the breach between the two men.
About this time, she travelled to Rome to see her family. She persuaded her granddaughter, also Melania, to adopt a more ascetical life and to come with her to Palestine. Rufinus, who travelled with them, died en route in Sicily, and the women travelled via Africa, where Melania the Elder delivered a letter from her cousin Paulinus of Nola to Augustine. The elder Melania died in Jerusalem.
Karen Rae Keck
including the header and this copyright remain intact.