MELANIA THE YOUNGER, Saint. - Granddaughter of the following, born in 383 to her son Publicola and to Albina, of the Ceionia gens. Following the example of her grandmother and of other young women of the aristocracy, she wished to devote herself to the ascetic life; but she met with the opposition of her parents and at fourteen married Valerius Pinianus.

They had a daughter and a son, who died in early childhood. M. also fell gravely ill, wherefore she induced the saints and the monasteries of Egypt, M. withdrew to the Mount of Olives, where she built a monastery for ninety virgins, whom she herself formed for the ascetic life. After the deaths of Albina and Pinianus, she had a second monastery built for men near the sanctuary of the Ascension. M. [died] on 31 Dec. 439, the day on which she is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology. The monk Gerontius governed the monasteries founded by her and wrote her Life, preserved in various Greek and Latin recensions (BHG, 1241-42; BHL, 5885).

MELANIA THE YOUNGER, saint - Vita Melaniae, nos. 58-59 of the ed. M. Rampolla, Madrid, Library of the Escorial, cod. a. II, 9, f. 108e (year 954).(from M. Rampolla Del Tindaro, S. M. Giuniore senatrice romana, Rome 1865, ch. 2)

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: Tillemont, XIV, pp. 232-53, 745-47; M. Rampolla, S. M. G., Rome 1905; G. Goyau, Ste Mélanie, Paris 1908; Martyr. Romanum, p. 612.

Emanuele Romanelli

@incollection{ec8_melania_giuniore_santa, author = {Romanelli, Emanuele}, title = {Melania Giuniore, santa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {630}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/melania-giuniore-santa} }

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Melania the Younger, Saint

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