by Palladius
Melania was born in Spain in about 340, into a wealthy Roman family. Some time after she was widowed, she decided to abandon her luxurious life in Rome, leaving her young son Publicola behind and travelling to Egypt in 374, where she spent some months living with the desert monks. She then moved to Palestine, where she stayed for more than twenty-five years, establishing monasteries for men and women on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem with her friend Rufinus of Aquileia. Melania returned to Rome in 400 but a few years later she went back to Palestine where she died in 410. There is no full-scale biography of her; in addition to the chapters in Palladius’ Lausiac History, she is mentioned in Paulinus’ Letter 29 and Poem 21; Jerome’s Letters 3, 4 (in which he says that she has reached Jerusalem with Rufinus, who had once been his best friend), 45, 133; and Augustine’s Letter 94. Jerome had called her ‘a second Thecla’ in his Chronicle but deleted this when he fell out with her companion Rufinus, and later, in his Letter 133, he alludes to her by saying that her name, which means ‘black’ in Greek, accurately reflects the dark treachery of her character.
Palladius
Palladius was born in about 363 in what is now Turkey. Interested in the growing monastic movement, he lived for a time in a monastery on the Mount of Olives and came into contact with Melania the elder. He then spent nine years in monastic communities in Egypt, and witnessed the outbreak of the bitter dispute between those who were enthusiastic about the writings of the third-century theologian Origen and those who considered some of his doctrines suspect. Palladius seems to have been made bishop of Helenopolis in Turkey but he still became embroiled in the spreading Origenist controversy. As a supporter of John Chrysostom who was deposed from his post as bishop of Constantinople in 404 for alleged Origenism, Palladius was sent into exile in Egypt for a time. In 419–20 he wrote the Lausiac History, dedicated to an official at the emperor’s court: this takes the form of a series of thumbnail sketches of ascetics, both men and women, many of whom Palladius had met. He died before 431.
Melania, that most fortunate woman, was a Spaniard by birth and as such she qualified for Roman citizenship. She was the daughter of Marcellinus, a man of consular rank, and the wife of a man of high status, whose name I do not remember. Melania was widowed at the age of twenty-two, at which time God considered her worthy of divine love. She said nothing to anyone – for she would have been prevented from doing so at that time when Valens was the emperor – but arranged for a guardian for her son1 and, taking all her movable belongings and loading them on board ship, she sailed directly to Alexandria with a group of remarkable young men and women. There she sold her material possessions, exchanging them for gold, and then went to Mount Nitria to meet the fathers who lived with Pambo, Arsisius, Sarapion the Great and Paphnutios of Scete, Isidore the Confessor, who was bishop of Hermopolis, and Dioscurus. She spent six months with them, travelling around the desert and questioning all the holy men. After this, when the prefect of Egypt sent Isidore, Pisimios, Adelphios, Paphnutios and Pambo, together with Ammonius the one-eared, and twelve bishops and priests, into exile near Diocaesarea in Palestine, she followed them and acted as their servant, using her own money. When servants were forbidden, so the story goes (for I happened to meet the holy Pisimios, Isidore, Paphnutios and Ammonius), she would put on the hooded cape worn by servant boys and in the evenings would bring them what they needed. The consular governor of Palestine heard about her and wishing to fill his pockets, he decided to blackmail her. Not realizing that she was a freewoman, he seized her and threw her into prison, but she made it clear to him who her father was and whose wife she had been. She said to him, ‘I am Christ’s servant. Do not look down on my shabby appearance; I can make myself look impressive if I want. You cannot terrify me or take anything away from me. I have made this clear to you so that you do not commit a crime as the result of ignorance. For in dealing with idiots you need to be as sharp as a hawk.’ Then, when the judge understood the situation, he apologized and treated her with respect, telling her she could associate with the holy men without restriction.
After these men had been recalled from exile, Melania founded a monastery in Jerusalem where she lived for twenty-seven years in the company of fifty virgins. A man called Rufinus2 who came from Aquileia in Italy lived there too. He came from a very good family, held similar views to Melania’s and was most energetic. Later he was considered worthy to become a priest. There was no more knowledgeable and capable person to be found. During these twenty-seven years they welcomed people who visited Jerusalem for the sake of their vows – bishops, monks and deacons – providing all their guests with hospitality at their own expense. They healed the schism of Paulinus3 which involved about four hundred monks, and together they won over all the heretics who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit and brought them into the church. They showed respect to the local clergy and lived out their lives without offending anyone.
*
I have already given a superficial description of that wonderful, saintly woman, Melania in this book; nevertheless I wish to weave into this account the remaining elements of her story. It is not for me, but for the inhabitants of Persia, to describe how much of her wealth she spent with God-given generosity, as though she were throwing it on a fire, so to speak. No one failed to benefit by her good works, whether in the east or west, north or south. For thirty-seven years she lived in exile, supporting churches, monasteries, refugees and prisoners with her private fortune; she was also provided with funds by her own financial administrators and those of her family and son. Because she persisted so long in her life of isolation from the world, she did not possess so much as a square metre of land. Nor was she distracted by longing for her son: indeed, her love for her only son did not separate her from her love for Christ. By means of her prayers the young man attained a high standard of education, developed an excellent character and made a distinguished marriage. He achieved a high-ranking position in a secular career and had two children. Much later, Melania heard about the situation of her granddaughter Melania the younger, how she was married and had decided to withdraw from the world. As she was afraid that the couple might fall victim to incorrect teachings or heresy or bad ways, she set sail from Caesarea, although she was already an old woman of sixty, and reached Rome twenty days later. There she met Apronianus, a Greek and a most blessed and distinguished man. She gave him religious instruction and made him a Christian, having persuaded him to live in chastity with his wife Avita, who was Melania’s cousin. Then having strengthened her granddaughter Melania and her husband Pinianus in their resolve, and having given instruction to her daughter-in-law Albina (her son’s wife), she persuaded them all to sell their possessions. She took them away from Rome and brought them to the haven of a consecrated and peaceful life. In doing this she so to speak fought with the wild beasts, in other words with the senators and their wives, who tried to prevent her from persuading the rest of her family to withdraw from the world. This is how she responded to their attempts. She said, ‘My children, it was written four hundred years ago that “the last hour has come”. Why do you cling to your empty lives? Are you not afraid that the days of the Antichrist4 will catch up with you and prevent you from enjoying your own wealth or what you have inherited?’
She set all these people free and brought them to the monastic life. She gave religious instruction to the younger Publicola and took him to Sicily. When she had sold all her remaining property and received the money for it, she went on to Jerusalem. Forty days after distributing all her worldly goods, she passed away at a fine old age and in the deepest peace. She left behind a monastery in Jerusalem together with the money for its endowment.
After all these people had left Rome, the barbarian deluge fell upon that city [in 410], as mentioned long before in prophecy, and did not spare even the bronze statues standing in the forum, but ravaged everything in their barbaric fury, consigning it to destruction. The result was that Rome, which had been adorned with beauty for twelve hundred years, collapsed in ruins. Then both those who had received religious instruction from Melania and those who had been opposed to this instruction glorified God, who won over the unbelievers by overturning the accepted order of things, for of all the other people who had been taken prisoner, only those households were saved that had offered themselves as sacrifices to the Lord as the result of Melania’s efforts.
*
It happened that we made a journey from Jerusalem to Egypt, accompanying Silvania, the sister-in-law of Rufinus, the exprefect. Jovinus also went with us: he was a deacon at the time but is now bishop of the church at Ascalon, a pious and learned man. We found the heat really oppressive and when we arrived at Pelusium, Jovinus took a basin and gave his hands and feet a thorough wash in very cold water. Then he lay down to rest on a leather cushion thrown on the ground. Melania went up to him like a sensible mother approaching her own son and scoffed at his weakness, saying, ‘How can a warm-blooded young man like you dare to pamper your body in that way? Do you not realize that this is a potential source of great harm? Look, I am sixty years old and neither my feet nor my face nor any of my limbs except for the tips of my fingers have touched water, although I suffer from many ailments and my doctors urge me to wash properly. I have not yet made concessions to my body nor have I slept on a bed or ever travelled in a litter.’
Melania was very learned and loved literature. She would turn night into day by going through all the writings of the ancient commentators – three million lines of Origen and a quarter of a million of Gregory, Stephen, Pierius and Basil as well as other admirable writers. She did not read them only once or in a casual way but worked hard on them, ploughing her way through each seven or eight times. So she was able to be liberated from what is falsely called knowledge5 and to mount on wings, thanks to those books: elevated by good hopes she transformed herself into a spiritual bird and so made the journey to Christ.