Melania: Name Day and Patron Saint

Saint Melania was born in Rome into a devout Christian family of great wealth. At fourteen she was married to Apinianus, and from the start she asked him to live with her in chastity. Their two children died young, and after Melania herself nearly died, Apinianus vowed that they would live the rest of their lives together in chastity. When her father lay dying he asked their forgiveness and let them follow their chosen path, and the young couple left Rome to serve God. They cared for the sick, the poor, travellers, exiles and prisoners, and sold their estates in Italy, Spain and other lands to build churches, hospitals and monasteries and to help widows and orphans. Bishop Palladius, who knew her, writes that she freed some eight thousand slaves who wished their freedom. The couple lived seven years in Carthage and then went to Jerusalem, where they gave their last gold to the poor. Melania withdrew to a cell on the Mount of Olives and founded a monastery for women, where about ninety nuns lived, though in humility she would not be its abbess. After Apinianus died, she built a monastery for men on the Mount of the Ascension. She travelled to Constantinople to help her pagan uncle Volusianus, who became a Christian before he died. Returning to her monastery, she received the Holy Mysteries and reposed in peace in 439. The Church remembers her on 31 December (13 January on the Old Calendar).

What the faithful pray for

• generosity toward the poor and the sick
• married couples seeking a life of faith together
• parents who grieve the loss of a child
• nuns and monastic communities
• freedom from love of money