Saint Melanie the Younger

As soon as she was restored to perfect health, they both thought only of leading a heavenly life on earth, detached from all affections of the senses. Many people, and even their closest relatives, fought against this resolution; indeed, it was an extraordinary thing for two newlyweds, one of whom was only twenty-four and the other twenty-one, and who were among the first of Rome, to trample the world underfoot in this way, when they could have enjoyed it with such peace and satisfaction. But they despised all these noises and did not fail to obey the inspirations of heaven. After the death of Urban, Melania's father, to whom this conduct caused the most pain, they retired to a country house near the city to apply themselves with more freedom to the spiritual exercises they had prescribed for themselves. They excelled in the three kinds of holy works that make up the Christian life, namely: prayer, which includes all the practices of devotion directed toward God; fasting, which includes all the macerations and austerities used to afflict and tame the body; and almsgiving, which includes all acts of charity and mercy toward the poor and pilgrims. They prayed day and night, and as they fled the company of men, their conversation was almost always in heaven. They abandoned the brilliant clothes and precious ornaments that were permitted to them according to their station, to wear only simple ones made of vile and coarse fabric. Their abstinence was extreme, and they joined one fast to another to extinguish the flames of concupiscence that their youth always made them fear. Their house was a public hospice where the poor and pilgrims were well received. They went into the prisons to console and help criminals and to free those who were imprisoned only for debt. Finally, their greatest desire was to strip themselves entirely to clothe the members of Jesus Christ.

One of Pinianus's brothers, named Severus, seeing that this distribution would deprive him of the goods he could hope for from his inheritance, seized some of his estates and instigated a lawsuit to obtain others. They patiently suffered this persecution and left him master of what he had usurped, committing the rest that he wanted to have to the disposition of divine Providence. God took their cause in hand; for the empress, who had heard of Melania as a woman of incomparable piety, having had her come to her palace, was so charmed by her angelic modesty, her perfect detachment from the things of this world, and her entirely heavenly discourse, that she declared herself her protector. She even wanted to have the usurper punished: but Melania, through her great kindness, prevented her from doing so, and, subsequently, begged her to let him keep what he had already taken, assuring her that it was only out of consideration for the poor, to whom all these goods were consecrated, that she accepted her protection so that they would not be entirely despoiled.

When these holy spouses saw themselves in full liberty to dispose of their inheritance, they first sold the goods they possessed in Italy and used the money to assist the poor of various provinces. They sent it to Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Syria, and Egypt, where they knew the misery of the poor was extreme. They founded monasteries for men and women, adorned churches, provided precious vessels and ornaments to priests for the celebration of the holy Mysteries, and there was almost no place in the East or West that did not feel the effects of their liberality. In the year 407 or 408, they left Rome with Melania the Elder, grandmother of our Saint, and Albina, her mother, upon a prediction that this capital of the world would soon be taken and sacked by the barbarians, as it was indeed in 409 by Alaric, King of the Visigoths.

They went first to Nola to see Saint Paulinus, whom they considered their spiritual father. From there they went to Sicily to sell the lands they possessed there. This island was so impoverished by the extortions of the prefect who had governed it that they did not lack opportunities to exercise their charity. From there, they took the route to Carthage; but a furious storm having arisen, they found themselves in danger of shipwreck. The Saint, judging from this that God wanted them elsewhere, commanded the sailors to let the ship go at the mercy of the winds. As soon as this was done, divine Providence led them to a small island that pirates had just ravaged, and where they had taken many slaves. Our Saints ransomed them and distributed large sums throughout the island to sustain the inhabitants. One can say that the goodness of God had led them there only for this work of mercy; for, having set out to sea again, they always had a favorable wind and arrived without difficulty at Carthage, which was the port where they wished to land. From Carthage, they went to Tagaste, of which Saint Alypius, disciple and friend of Saint Augustine, was bishop. This country also partic ipated Tagaste African city where the saint stayed and founded monasteries. in thei r great lib saint Alype Bishop of Thagaste, disciple of Saint Augustine. erality, and the esteem they held for this learned and virtuous prelate caused them to remain there for quite some time. They founded two monasteries there: one for monks and the other for nuns.

It was then that Melanie redoubled her austerities. She began by fasting every day, taking only one meal toward evening, which consisted only of a piece of hard bread and sometimes a soup made with oil. As for wine, she drank none, and, after having long endured thirst, she contented herself with a glass of water, into which she mixed a little honey. She then accustomed herself to eating only every other day, then she prolonged her fast to three days; finally, she carried her abstinence to the point of eating only once a week. Despite this fasting, she did not fail to rigorously perform all her spiritual exercises. She slept only two hours, and her bed was nothing but the earth covered with a sack. She spent the rest of the night in prayer, and, for the day, she employed it in reading the holy books and making copies of them, in which she surpassed the best writers. She imposed harsh penances upon herself for an idle word, for an action that was too hasty, for a laugh that was a little immoderate, and for a frivolous thought, because she feared that, by making herself accessible to all these things that appeared light, dangerous clouds might rise in her soul that would render her incapable of divine impressions.

She read the entire Holy Scripture three times a year, and she acquired a very perfect understanding of it. Her conversation delighted all who listened to her; so much so that even philosophers pressed to enjoy for a few moments the happiness of her company. She had such a tender and ardent love for Jesus Christ that, unable to contain it in her heart, she strove to communicate it to everyone, by publishing the beauties and excellences of her Benefactor. There was nothing so charming as her simplicity, her sweetness, and her gentleness. However, she could not tolerate heretics, nor even that one should speak of them in her presence. By the strength of her exhortations, she engaged many young men and a quantity of young ladies in virtue, who, following her example, embraced the practices of penance. She also converted heretics, Samaritans, and idolaters. Finally, her zeal for solitude and for mortification went to such a point that she had a cell built for herself so low that she could not stand upright in it, and so narrow that she could barely turn around in it. She had only a small hole made in it, through which she spoke to the people who came to benefit from her instructions. Albina, her mother, visited her often; but when she found her in prayer, she waited, out of respect, for her to finish. Such were the virtues practiced by

Melanie the Younger, during the seven years she remained in Africa.

At the end of this time, she undertook a pilgrimage t o Jerusal Jérusalem Holy city where the Cross was lost and subsequently recovered. em to visit the holy places. Albina and Pinianus accompanied her, Melania the Elder having already preceded them. Passing through Alexandria, they had the consolation of seein g Saint Cyril saint Cyrille Patriarch of Alexandria encountered by the saint. , nephew of Theophilus, who was patriarch there, and a great servant of God named Theodore, who had the gift of prophecy. From there, they went to Palestine, where, having received the money from the properties they had commissioned to be sold, they distributed it to the poor, to whose number they were finally reduced by their alms. But the income that Melania earned from transcribing books was sufficient for their subsistence, in the admirable simplicity with which they lived.

After having honored the holy places, they returned to Egypt to visit the solitaries. They had reserved a portion of their treasures for them, and they offered it to them; but these generous servants of Jesus Christ so despised gold and silver that they did not want to receive them. Among others, Saint Ephestion, having noticed that Melania had secretly thrown a few gold coins into his cell that he had refused, took them, and, running after her, begged her to take them back. Melania implored him to keep them for his needs, or to distribute them to other monks who were in need; but he would not, and he threw this sum into the river, for fear that it might be a source of temptation for him; thus, instead of people of the world pleading with one another to possess riches, these holy figures contended with one another to have none and to strip themselves of them.

After Pinianus and Melania had thus traveled through all the deserts as far as the mountains of Nitria, they returned to Jerusalem, where Albina, who had remained there because of her old age, was building a hermitage for her daughter on the Mount of mont des Oliviers Site of the cell and monastery of Melania in Jerusalem. Olives. Upon their arrival, Melania shut herself in and wished to be seen by no one, except, once a week, by her mother, by Pinianus, whom she now regarded only as her brother, and by a relative whom she had withdrawn from the pomp of Roman grandeur to lead her into the ways of holiness. She remained in this state for fourteen years, leading a life entirely heavenly; but at the death of her mother, which occurred at that time, she left this cell to place herself in another even more secret and austere. She spent an entire year there in tears and other exercises of penance.

But whatever care she took to hide herself from the eyes of the world, she could not prevent her virtue from spreading on all sides and from attracting to her grotto an infinity of people who came to ask her for instruction and who wished to place themselves under her guidance. This gathering of souls chosen by heaven led her to have a monastery built in which she received ninety virgins and a great number of women who wished to renounce the pleasures of the century. She prescribed for them rules of heavenly wisdom; but she never wished to be their superior, not even deeming herself worthy to be their servant. In the exhortations she often gave them, she particularly recommended the purity of the heart, which consists in admitting no evil or useless desire or thought, and recollection and fervor during prayer; for if one composes one's face and one's whole body so well, she said, when one is to appear before the kings of the earth, what care should one not take to compose one's soul when one is called to the cabinet of the King of heaven?

Noticing that some of her daughters had a great inclination for abstinence and fasting and fearing, moreover, that they might do