Frederick Bloemaert, print maker (1614–1669). Saint Melania the Elder. 1 January 1636. Origin: Utrecht. Date: after 1636– c 1670. Object ID: RP-P-BI-1644, Rijksmuseum
Sainte Mélanie
Veuve romaine (+ 410)
que l'on appelle
également Mélanie l'ancienne parce qu'elle est la grand-mère paternelle de
sainte Mélanie
la jeune. Elle s'enfuit d'Italie au moment de l'invasion des Goths et
alla s'établir en Terre Sainte pour le reste de ses jours. On dit qu'elle avait
un caractère irascible dont souffrit sa petite-fille. Ce qui ne l'empêcha pas
d'être reconnue comme sainte. Ceci peut nous consoler de nos emportements, et
nous rendre confiance en la bonté de Dieu à notre égard.
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/506/Sainte-Melanie.html
A partir du IVe siècle,
de nombreux Romains s'installent dans le même temps en Palestine, et nous
retrouvons parmi eux quelques noms des nobles Romaines que nous évoquerons dans
le contexte monastique occidental, car elles avaient auparavant organisé leur
demeure romaine en communauté : Mélanie l'Ancienne, veuve du Préfet de Rome,
s'installe vers 380 sur le mont des Oliviers, à Jérusalem, et fonde un
monastère double, le couvent masculin étant confié à Rufin
d'Aquilée (Rufinus, 345-410), connu pour ses traductions d'Origène.
Mélanie et Rufin se lient d'amitié avec Egérie,
venue de Gaule ou d'Hispanie, qui débarque à Jérusalem en 381. Paula, qui fonde
à Bethléem, en 386, un monastère double, dont celui des hommes est dirigé par
saint Jérôme ; sa cousine, Mélanie
la Jeune, petite-fille de Mélanie l'Ancienne, est une des plus grandes
fortunes de Rome. Elle voyage beaucoup, rencontre Augustin à Thagaste, se
défaisant progressivement de sa colossale fortune en immenses dons aux quatre
coins de la chrétienté naissante. Elle installera en 417 un monastère de 80
vierges sur le mont des Oliviers puis en 432, à la mort de Pinien, son époux,
aussi fortuné qu'elle, elle fondera cette fois un monastère d'hommes, où
s'installera un prince géorgien, Nabarnugi (Pierre Ibère) qui fondera lui-même
un monastère près de l'église de Sion. Jérusalem se couvrira bientôt de
nombreux monastères.
Une « route de
femmes »
samedi 24 mai 2008
par Pascal
G. DELAGE
En 384, alors que Jérôme
se prépare à repartir en Orient, il écrit à Paula, une des ses élèves romaines,
veuve de son état, pour la décider à entreprendre le même pèlerinage, et il lui
rappelle un fait-divers qui défraya la chronique romaine plus d’une dizaine
d’années plus tôt : « Mais pourquoi ressasser de vieilles
histoires ? Suis donc les exemples du présent : vois sainte Mélanie
[femme d’un Préfet de Rome], vraie noblesse des chrétiens de notre époque… Le
cadavre de son mari était encore chaud, on ne l’avait pas encore inhumé qu’elle
perdit en même temps ses deux fils. Je vais dire une chose incroyable mais non
pas fausse, j’en atteste le Christ. Qui, dans cette conjoncture, ne l’eût
imaginée hors d’elle-même, les cheveux épars, déchirant ses vêtements et
lacérant sa poitrine avec frénésie ? Pas une larme ne coula. Elle tint bon
sans broncher… après avoir cédé tout ce qu’elle possédait au seul fils qui lui
restât, bien qu’on fût au début de l’hiver, elle s’embarqua pour Jérusalem ».
En fait, Mélanie fit d’abord voile pour l’Egypte afin de se mettre à l’école
des moines, ces chrétiens qui initiaient une nouvelle manière d’être disciple
du Christ en abandonnant famille et richesses pour être seuls avec l’Unique.
Athanase d’Alexandrie ayant fait connaître en Occident Antoine, le Père des
moines, par un petit livre, cette première « vie de saint » avait
déclenché un enthousiasme sans précédent chez les chrétiens, mais plus encore
chez les chrétiennes militantes de Rome qui, comme Asella ou Marcella, se
mirent à refuser mariage et honneurs – souvent au grand dam de leurs familles –
pour se regrouper en petites communautés vivant dans la prière et l’étude de la
Parole de Dieu.
L’ensemencement
monastique ne prit pas d’ailleurs que dans la vieille aristocratie romaine, qui
pouvait y voir encore, par le relais de ses femmes, un moyen de cultiver
l’excellence que lui refusait maintenant le nouveau pouvoir politique siégeant
au loin, à Constantinople. Des bourgeoises - comme la sœur de Basile de Césarée
ou celle d’Augustin - fondent des communautés d’un type nouveau dans les villae
familiales avec leurs parentes et leurs servantes à la fin du IVe siècle.
Les communautés monastiques se multiplient en Syrie, en Palestine à Jérusalem
et à Bethléem – autour des Romaines Mélanie et de Paula, la disciple fidèle et
l’égérie de Jérôme ; cependant c’est l’Egypte qui reste la terre des
moines et des moniales : à la fin du IVe siècle, la ville d’Antinoé
rassemble douze communautés de femmes ; celle de Tabennèse comptait
environ 400 femmes vivant dans une stricte clôture et sous la direction d’un
abba . Des femmes pouvaient aussi se voir reconnaître un charisme de direction
spirituelle et reçurent de la Tradition le titre prestigieux d’amma
(« Mère ») comme Sara, Théodora ou Synclétique que venaient consulter
laïcs, moines et évêques.
Le prestige des moines
est tel que l’Egypte devint une véritable terre sainte, visitée pieusement à
l’instar de Jérusalem et de Bethléem par les riches matrones venant même
d’extrême occident, de Galice comme Egérie, l’auteur d’un pittoresque récit de
pèlerinage, ou comme Poemonia, une parente de l’empereur Théodose, au point que
l’ermite Jean de Lycopolis se désolait de ce que la mer Méditerranée soit
devenue une « route de femmes », femmes que les moines auraient de
plus en plus de mal à garder à distance. Si certaines matrones venaient
seulement demander une grâce ou une guérison, d’autres demeuraient à la limite
du désert pour s’initier à l’ascèse et pratiquer la « vie évangélique ».
L’école pouvait être rude ; Mélanie – encore elle - fit apporter trois
cent livres d’argenterie au désert de Nitrie pour les donner à abba
Pambo : « Sans se lever, continuant de tresser ses feuilles de
palmier, il me bénit en me disant simplement : « Que Dieu te donne la
récompense » [Pambo ordonne à son disciple que cette somme soit attribuée
aux monastères les plus pauvres]. Quant à moi, je restais là, poursuit Mélanie,
m’attendant à ce qu’il me félicite ou me loue pour ce don. Comme il ne disait
toujours rien, je repris « Pour que tu le saches, maître, il y a trois
cents livres ». Sans relever la tête, il me répondit : « Celui à
qui tu l’as apporté, mon enfant, n’a pas besoin de poids. Celui qui pèse les
montagnes sait bien davantage la quantité de cet argent. A la vérité, si c’est
à moi que tu le donnais, tu faisais bien de me le dire, mais si c’est à Dieu,
Lui qui n’a pas dédaigné les deux oboles de la veuve, tais-toi » .
A la génération suivante,
l’exemple de Mélanie fut imité par sa petite fille prénommée aussi Mélanie. A
la veille de la prise de Rome par les Goths d’Alaric, elle obtint de son époux
Pinianus qu’il vécût auprès d’elle comme un frère (elle lui avait donné
auparavant deux enfants qui ne vécurent pas) et qu’il la suivît dans sa
conversion à la « vie parfaite » en se dépouillant de leurs immenses
propriétés, qui se répartissaient sur trois continents, et en affranchissant 8
000 de leurs esclaves. Ce ne fut pas sans susciter un tollé d’indignation de la
part des sénateurs romains, encore largement païens. Même le très chrétien
Théodose voit d’un très mauvais œil la conversion ascétique d’une de ses jeunes
parentes, du nom d’Olympias : ne va-t-elle pas dilapider l’héritage
familial au profit des églises et des pauvres, alors qu’un si bon parti récompenserait
fort à propos un général ou un ministre zélé ? Olympias refuse le mariage,
l’empereur place ses biens sous séquestre. La jeune femme ne s’en réjouit que
davantage , s’estimant libérée d’un pesant fardeau qui mettait en péril son
propre salut ! Devant tant d’opiniâtreté, Théodose céda et Olympias fut
ordonnée diaconesse en dépit de son jeune âge (elle a trente ans et les canons
ecclésiastiques n’admettent pas au diaconat des femmes de moins de soixante
ans). C’est elle qui accueillera à Constantinople Jean Chrysostome devenu
évêque de la capitale, le secondant fidèlement dans sa tâche de pasteur et de
réformateur, le soutenant aux moments d’épreuve lors du conflit avec la cour et
les puissants, ce qui l’entraîna dans la disgrâce de Jean et elle mourra comme
lui, en exil, loin de sa communauté religieuse. S’il nous reste 17 lettres de
Jean en exil à Olympias, la tradition, hélas, ne jugea pas utile de conserver
les lettres de la diaconesse, pas plus que celles de Marcella, de Paula ou
autres Mélanie.
Le prestige du modèle
ascétique est tel que même les princesses de la famille impériale, comme les
trois filles de l’empereur Arcadius font vœu de célibat et mènent au palais une
véritable vie monacale. En raison de cette inflexion religieuse, les impératrices,
à l’instar de leurs pères ou de leurs époux, s’estiment en droit de se mêler de
théologie : Eudoxie soutient un temps Nestorius, condamné au concile
d’Ephèse en 431, et Pulchérie s’empresse de réunir le concile de Chalcédoine en
451 qui mit fin – pour un temps court – aux querelles christologiques.
Cependant, si nos sources (vies de saints, correspondances…) sont bien
documentées sur les « femmes bien-nées », bien plus rares sont les
éclairages que l’on peut porter sur les autres femmes, c’est à dire leur
immense majorité, qui restent encore attachées aux cultes traditionnels et
familiers, principalement dans les campagnes. Encore entrevoit-on au détour
d’une lettre de Jérôme que Paula avait fondé à Bethléem trois monastères de
femmes correspondant à leurs origines sociales (les nobles, les bourgeoises et
les servantes), ou encore que l’entrée au couvent avait pu être décidée par le
père ou le reste de la famille : « De malheureux parents, chrétiens à
la foi imparfaite, vouent à la virginité leurs filles, si elles sont laides ou
faibles de quelque membre, parce qu’ils ne trouvent pas de gendre à leur
goût » . Palladius admire ingénument une vieille moniale d’Egypte, amma
Talis : « avec elle habitaient soixante jeunes filles qui l’aimaient
tellement qu’il n’y avait pas de clé à la clôture du monastère comme dans les
autres : l’amour de la vieille femme les retenait ». Ailleurs, une
solide fermeture était nécessaire, sous peine de voir s’envoler quelques
novices moins motivées que les autres !
SOURCE : http://caritaspatrum.free.fr/spip.php?article75
Mélanie dite l’ancienne
ou sainte Mélanie (350-410)
Veuve d’un Préfet romain,
est mère de Publicola le père de Mélanie la Jeune.
C’est à la suite de ses
conseils que sa petite fille, Mélanie la jeune avec l’accord de Pinien, son
mari, vendit leurs biens et affranchit leurs esclaves estimés à 8 000 pour en
faire dons à des monastères et Églises.
En 410, lors des
invasions goths [1] d’Alaric 1er, elle
quitte l’Espagne, avec la famille de sa petite fille Mélanie la jeune, pour
l’Italie, l’Afrique et s’exile en Terre sainte. Elle fit la visite des déserts
d’Égypte en compagnie de Rufin d’Aquilée.
À Jérusalem, elle rencontra Évagre le Pontique et
le convainc d’embrasser la vie monastique.
Mélanie l’ancienne aurait
fondé vers 380 le monastère double du Mont des Oliviers [2],
que sa petite fille améliora et rendit célèbre.
Durant son périple, elle
rencontra Saint
Jérôme. Elle rencontra aussi Pallade de Galatie qui en fit ses
louanges.
P.-S.
Source : Cet article
est partiellement ou en totalité issu de l’article de Alan D. Booth,
« Quelques dates hagiographiques : Mélanie l’Ancienne, Saint Martin,
Melanie la Jeune », Phoenix, vol. 37, no. 2 (Summer, 1983)
Notes
[1]
Les Goths faisaient partie des peuples germaniques. Selon leurs propres
traditions, ils seraient originaires de la Scandinavie. Ils provenaient
peut-être de l’île de Gotland. Mais ils pourraient également être issus du
Götaland en Suède méridionale ou bien du Nord de la Pologne actuelle. Au début
de notre ère, ils s’installèrent dans la région de l’estuaire de la Vistule.
Dans la seconde partie du 2ème siècle, une partie des Goths migrèrent vers le sud-est
en direction de la mer Noire. Dès le 3ème siècle les Goths étaient fixés dans
la région de l’Ukraine moderne et de la Biélorussie où ils furent probablement
rejoints par d’autres groupes qui ont été plus ou moins intégrés dans la tribu.
Les Goths formaient un seul peuple jusqu’à la fin du 3ème siècle. Après un
premier affrontement avec l’Empire romain dans le sud-est de l’Europe au début
du siècle, ils se séparèrent en deux groupes : les Greuthunges à l’Est et
les Tervinges à l’Ouest qui deviendront par la suite les Ostrogoths ou
« Goths brillants », à l’Est, et les Wisigoths ou « Goths
sages » à l’Ouest.
[2]
Le monastère du Mont des Oliviers, à Jérusalem (Palestine), est fondé vers 380
par Mélanie l’Ancienne. La communauté des hommes est confiée à Rufin d’Aquilée.
SOURCE : https://www.ljallamion.fr/spip.php?article6579
%2C_catacombe_di_priscilla%2C_cubicolo_della_velatio%2C_roma_(met%C3%A0_III_secolo).jpg)
Orante
(particolare), catacombe di priscilla, cubicolo della velatio, roma (metà III
secolo)
Profile
Married; mother; grandmother of Saint Melania
the Younger. Widowed at
age 21. Travelled through Palestine for
several years, and founded a monastery on
the Mount of Olives.
Born
c.342
c.410 of
natural causes
Additional
Information
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
MLA
Citation
“Saint Melania the
Elder“. CatholicSaints.Info. 7 October 2022. Web. 31 December 2022.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-melania-the-elder/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-melania-the-elder/
Melania the Elder, Widow
(AC)
Died in Jerusalem c.
400-410. This Melania, a Roman patrician of the Valerii family, was the
paternal grandmother of the saint by the same name. Left a widow at age 22, she
was away from Rome from 372 to 379, mostly in Palestine where she was
associated with Saint Jerome. Melania left Italy for good following the
Visigoth invasion. She had a somewhat domineering personality, and her
relationship with her granddaughter was not always easy. The relationship with
Saint Jerome was a clash of titans (Attwater, Benedictines). Saint Melania is
portrayed in art as a widow praying in a cave with a water-pot, bread, and a
pilgrim's staff near her (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0608.shtml
St. Melania the Elder
Commemorated on June 8
St. Melania was a wealthy
and noble woman, born in Spain in the fourth century. Upon turning fourteen,
she married and moved with her husband to the suburbs of Rome.
At 22 years old, she was
left a widow, when her husband and two of her children died. Immediately
following their deaths, she converted to Christianity. When her remaining son
turned ten, she placed him with a guardian and set off for Alexandria where she
joined other Christian desert ascetics to visit the monks at Nitria.
She gave away most of her
great wealth to the needy, and to Egyptian Christians being persecuted by the
Arians. It is said that in three days she fed some 5,000 people.
When the Orthodox in
Egypt were exiled to Palestine, she went with them to Jerusalem, where she
built a convent for virgins on the Mount of Olives. Eventually, over 50 nuns
found the path to salvation at her monastery.
Melania founded more
monasteries and promoted theological tolerance and the unity of Christianity.
On a visit to Rome to see her son, she also influenced his daughter, Melania.
Known as Melania the Younger, she too took up the religious calling and
followed her grandmother back to Jerusalem.
St. Melania entered the
convent herself, and entered into eternal life there in 410. Her granddaughter,
Melania the Younger, is commemorated on December 31.
By permission of www.abbamoses.com
SOURCE : http://www.antiochian.org/node/18794
MELANIA THE ELDER
CHAPTER XLVI: MELANIA THE
ELDER
[1] The thriceblessed
Melania Divas a Spaniard by origin, but afterwards belonged to Rome. She was
the daughter of Marcellinus the axconsul, and wife of a certain man of high
official rank, whom I do not quite remember. Having become a widow at
twenty-two, she was favored with the divine love, and having said nothing to
any onefor she would have been preventedin the time when Valens had the rule
in the empire, she had a guardian nominated for her son and took all her
movable property and put it on a ship; then she sailed with all speed to
Alexandria, accompanied by various highborn women and children. [a] After that,
having sold her goods and turned them into money, she went to the mountain of
Nitria, where she met the following fathers and their companionsPambo,
Arsisius, Sarapion the Great, Paphnutius of Scete, Isidore the Confessor,
bishop~of Hermopolis, and Dioscorus. And she sojourned with them for half a
year, travailing about in the desert and visiting all the saints. [3] But after
this, when the prefects of Alexandria banished Isidore, Pisimius, Adelphius,
Paphoutius and Pambo, with them also Ammonius Paroles, and twelve bishops and
priests, to Palestine in the neighborhood of Dioczesarea, she followed them and
ministered to them from her own money. But, servants being forbidden them, so
they told mefor I met the holy Pisimius and Isidore and Paphnutius and
Ammoniuswearing the dress of a young slave she brought them in the evenings
what they required. But the consular of Palestine got to know of it, and
wishing to fill his pocket thought he would terrify her. [4] And having
arrested her hethrew her into prison, ignorant that she was a lady. But she
told him: " For my part, I am SoandSo's daughter and SoandSo's wife, but
I am Christ's slave. And do not despise the cheapness of my clothing. For I am
able to exalt myself if I like, and you cannot terrify me in this way or take
any of my goods. So then I have told you this, lest through ignorance you
should incur judicial accusations. For one must in dealing with insensate folk
be as audacious as a hawk." Then the judge, recognizing the situation,
both made an apology and honored her, and gave orders that she should succor
the saints without hindrance.
[5] After they were
recalled she founded a monastery in Jerusalem, and spent twentyseven years
there in charge of a convent of fifty virgins. With her lived also the most
noble Rufinus, from Italy, of the city of Aquileia, a man similar to her in
character and very steadfast, who was afterwards judged worthy of the
priesthood. A more learned man or a kinder than he was not to be found among
mend [6] So these two during twentyseven years receiving at their own charges
those who visited Jerusalem in pursuance of a vow, bishops and monks and
virgins, edified all who visited them, and they reconciled the schism of
Paulinus, some 400 monks in all, and winning over every heretic that denied the
Holy Spirit they brought him to the Church; and they honored the clergy of the
district with gifts and food, and so continued to the end, without offending
anyone.
CHAPTER LIV: THE ELDER
MELANIA
[I] THOUGH I have told
above in a superficial way of the wonderful and saintly Melania, nevertheless I
will now weave into my narrative at this point what remains to be said. What
stores of goods she used up in her divine zeal, as it were burning them in a
fire, is not for me to dwell on, but for those who dwell in Persia. For no one
escaped her benevolence, neither East nor West nor North nor South. [2] For
thirtyseven years she had been giving hospitality, and at her own costs had
succored both churches and monasteries and strangers and prisoners, her family
and her son himself and her stewards providing the money. She persevered so
long in the practice of hospitality that she possessed not even a span of land.
She was not drawn (from her purpose) by desire for her son, nor did yearning
after her only son separate her from love towards Christ. [3] But thanks to her
prayers the young man attained a high standard of education and a good
character and an illustrious marriage, and participated in the honors of the
world; he had also two children. A long while after, hearing how her
granddaughter was situated, that she was married and was proposing to renounce
the world, afraid lest they should be injured by bad teaching or heresy or evil
living, though an old woman of sixty years, she flung herself into a ship and
sailing from Caesarea reached Rome in twenty days. [4] And having met there
that most blessed and worthy man Apronianus, a pagan, she instructed him and
made him a Christian, persuading him to be continent as regards his wife,
Melania's niece named Avita. And having also strengthened the will of her own
granddaughter Melania, with her husband Pinianus, and instructed her daughter
inlaw Albina, wife of her son, and having induced all these to sell their
goods, she led them out from Rome and brought them into the holy and calm
harbor of the (religious) life. And in so doing she fought with beasts a in the
shape of all the senators and their wives who tried to prevent her, in view of
(similar) renunciation of the world on the part of the other (senatorial)
houses. But she said to them: " Little children, it was written 400 years
ago, It is the last hour. Why do you love to linger in life's vanities?
Perchance the days of antichrist will surprise you, and you will cease to enjoy
your wealth and your ancestral property." [6] And having liberated all
these she led them to the monastic life. And after instructing the younger son
of Publicola she brought him to Sicily, and having sold all her remaining goods
and receded their value, she came to Jerusalem. Then, having got rid of her
possessions, within forty days she fell asleep in a good old age and profound
meekness, leaving behind both a monastery in Jerusalem and an endowment for it.
[7] But when all these
persons had left Rome there fell on Rome a hurricane of barbarians, which was
ordained long ago in prophecies, and it did not spare even the bronze statues
in the Forum, but sacking them all with barbaric frenzy delivered them to
destruction, so that Rome, which had been beautified by loving hands for 1200
years, became a ruin. Then those who had been instructed (by Melania) and those
who had opposed her instruction glorified God, Who had persuaded the
unbelievers by a reversal of fortune, in that, when all the other families had
been made prisoners, these ones only were preserved, having been made by
Melania's zeal burntofferings to the Lord.
CHAPTER LV: SILVANIA
(MELANIA continued)
[1] IT SO happened that
we traveled together from Aelia to Egypt, escorting the blessed Silvania the
virgin, sisterinlaw of Rufinus the exprefect. Among the party there was
Jovinus also with us, then a deacon, but now bishop of the church of Ascalon, a
devout and learned man. We came into an intense heat and, when we reached
Pelusium, it chanced that Jovinus took a basin and gave his hands and feet a
thorough wash in icecold water, and after washing flung a rug on the ground
and lay down to rest. id] She came to him like a wise mother of a true son and
began to scoff at his softness, saying: " How dare you at your age, when
your blood is still vigorous, thus coddle your flesh, not perceiving the
mischief that is engendered by it? Be sure of this, be sure of it, that I am in
the sixtieth year of my life and except for the tips of my fingers neither my
feet nor my face nor any one of my limbs have touched water, although I am a
victim to various ailments and the doctors try to force me. I have not consented
to make the customary concessions to the flesh, never in my travels have I
rested on a bed or used a litter."
[3] Being very learned
and loving literature she turned night into day by perusing every writing of
the ancient commentators, including 3,000,000 (lines) of Origen and 2,500,000
(lines) of Gregory, Stephen, Pierius, Basil, and other standard writers. Nor
did she read them once only and casually, but she laboriously went through each
book seven or eight times. Wherefore also she was enabled to be freed from
knowledge falsely so called (I Tim. 6:20) and to fly on wings, thanks to the
grace of these books; elevated by kindly hopes she made herself a spiritual
bird and journeyed to Christ.
Palladius: The
Lausiac History
SOURCE : https://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/palladius-lausiac.asp#
St. Melania the Elder
Source
Several sources for the
life of Melania the Elder, the most complete first hand record being
Palladius's Lausiac History (trans. R.T. Meyer, Ancient Christian
Writers, Paulist Press, ©1964), containing three chapters, numerous additional
references, and the life of her granddaughter, St. Melania the Younger.
Important additional first-hand information is located in the writings of
Rufinus of Aquileia, St. Jerome, and in the lives several Fathers of the
Egyptian Desert.[1] The
accounts are not consistent in every detail, especially with regard to her son.[2]
Life
St.Melania was the
daughter of the Roman consul, Marcellinus, and born Spain in 341. She moved to
Rome following her marriage at age 14, to a proconsul and prefect of Rome. She
was widowed eight years later, age 22.
Among the richest women
of her day, she gave away her son to the care of a trustee, and took all her
household goods to Alexandria, where she sold them and befriended the ascetics
and teachers there. She made extended pilgrimages to the Nitrian desert,
learning true philosophy from the great fathers, including Pambo, Paphnutius,
Isidore, and Evagrius. When the Arian bishop Alexandria, Theophilos, banished
many ascetics and hierarchs during the anthropomorphite controversy, St.
Melania followed them into Palestine.
The depth of her
compassion for the needy is reflected in an Egyptian tradition holding that to
alleviate suffering at the hands of the Arians, she feed out of her own wealth
some 5,000 people over the course of three days.
In Palestine, St Melania
supported the ascetics from her own wealth. To serve them, she wore slave's
clothing, an action that resulted in her being cast into prison. When brought
before the judge she defended her action declaring herself a slave of Christ.
St. Melania remained in
Jerusalem when the exiled ascetics were allowed to return to Egypt, and out of
her own wealth established a female cenobium on the Mount of Olives that
exceeded fifty monastics, energetically practiced hospitality, and funded
churches and monasteries in the Roman and Persian Empires, and charitable
works. Erudite, she constantly read and re-read the works of Origen, Basil the
Basil the Great, and Gregory of Nazianzus, turning night into day, she once
reproached a young man, saying How can a warm-blooded young man like you dare
to pamper your flesh...Do you not know that this is the source of much harm?
Look, I am sixty years old and neither my feet nor my face, nor any of members,
except for the tips of my fingers, touched water, although I am afflicted with
many aliments and my doctors urge me. I have not yet made concessions to my
bodily desires, nor have I used a couch for resting, nor have I ever made a
journey on a litter.
As in Alexandria, in
Jerusalem she used the nobility of her character and hospitality in service of
the unity and peace of the Church. In the words of Palladius describing her,
and her coenobium's, work:
So, for twenty-seven
years they both entertained with their own private funds the bishops,
solitaries, and virgins who visited them, coming to Jerusalem to fulfill a vow.
They edified all their visitors and united the four hundred monks of the
Pauline schism by persuading every heretic who denied the Holy Spirit and so
brought them back to the Church. They bestowed gifts on the local clergy, and
so finished their days without offending anyone.
At age sixty, she
traveled to Rome and promoting and teaching the ascetic, peace-loving life.
Among those choosing to follow her in the practice of self-control and
renunciation were her daughter-in-law, Albina, her granddaughter, St. Melania
the Younger and her husband, Pinianus. In doing so, she challenged the Roman
Senators and their wives, for whom notions of asceticism within marriage,
chastity, and virginity were deeply scandalous. Palladius records her prophetic
response: Little children, it was written over four hundred years
ago, it is the last hour. Why are you fond of the vain things of life?
Beware lest the days of the Antichrist overtake you and you not enjoy your
wealth and your ancestral property. Prophetic, for Rome was soon sacked Alaric
in 410, the year of her repose.
Prior to her repose, St.
Melania disposed of all her wealth, sending it to Jerusalem.
Understanding Her
St. Melania and her
social network was one of the most important in the fourth and early fifth
century Christianity. Fluent and well read in both Latin and Greek, her
geographical connections reached from Spain to Persia. She grew-up as a member
of the first generation in which members of the nobility and social elites were
expected to take Christianity seriously, and lived to see it become the
official religion of the Empire. This she did without hypocrisy or compromise
in her way of living, first becoming both an icon of repentance and then an
evangelist to her social peers, urging them to understand the way of salvation
through a life in Him upon whose shoulders rested the government of the
universe.
Her connections to
Hellenistic Christianity of Alexandria, Origen and Evagrius, is no more a basis
for skepticism than the use of these important authors by most of the great Church
Fathers. Indeed, both the breadth of her reading and her political savvy is
reflected in her opposition to Arianism, and how personally she understood the
Psalmist when he said Jerusalem is builded as a city which its dwellers share
in concord. (Ps. 121, LXX) and again Behold now, what is so good or so joyous
as for the brethren to dwell together in unity?...For the Lord commanded the
blessing, life forevermore. (Ps. 132, LXX). In age which saw both the apostasy
of Julian, the destructiveness of Arianism, and proclamations of the Council of
Nicaea, providing erudite hospitality at the center of Christian pilgrimage was
no plain piety.
Making Jerusalem, and not
Alexandria, the center of her activity during the difficult period between the
Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon, St. Melania and her community on the Mount of
Olives were profoundly important to the sifting of ascetical wisdom and
liturgical expression (that is theological) synthesis that based Palestinian
monasticism.[3]
Humbling herself by
submitting all her wealth, erudition, and daily activity to the hosting of
Christ, acquiring poverty by elevating those poor in body and mind, she
acquired a mature Christian soul, thus, in Palladius words, became a female Man
of God. The comparison to St. Alexis, the Man of God is instructive,
for both profound saints, the highest reality is the anticipation of fully
unity with the true Bridegroom, Christ God. Her life gives no room for
effeminate sentimentality, let alone then, as now, contemporary sociological
agendas: St. Melania the Elder's asceticism is as needed as it is
uncompromising.
Odes of Solomon: Ode II
I am putting on the Love
of the Lord.
And His members are with
Him,
And I am dependent on
them; and He loves me.
For I should not have
know how to love the Lord
If He had not
continuously loved me.
Who is able to
distinguish love,
Except him who is loved?
I love the Beloved and I
myself love Him,
And where His rest is,
there also am I.
And I shall be no
stranger,
Because there is no jealousy
with the Lord Most High and Merciful.
I have been united to
Him, because the lover has found the Beloved,
Because I live Him that
is the Son, I shall become a son.
Indeed, he who is joint
to Him who is immortal,
Truly shall be immortal.
And he who delights in
the Life,
Will become living.
This is the Spirit of the
Lord, which is not false,
Which teaches the sons of
men to know His ways.
Be wise and understanding
and vigilant.
Hallelujah.
translated by James H
Charlesworth, Scholars Press, ©1977
Troparion and Kontakion
Troparion for St. Melania
the Edler, in the Eigth Tone
Scorning perishable
riches and worldly dignity, thou sought heavenly glory through self-denial and
toils. By humility, thou made noble rank noble in heaven. Thou didst build a
holy house in Jerusalem, where thou guided souls to salvation. O Mother Melania
grant us the alms of thy rich prayers to God.
Kontakion for St. Melania
the Elder, in the Fourth Tone
O wise Melania in using
thine earthly to comfort and help the poor, together with the riches of thy
mind, thou led many of noble rank to the joy of poverty in spirit for Jesus'
sake.
Feast day: June 8
[1] cf.
Tim Vivian, "Introduction" to Four Desert Fathers, SVS Press,
©2004 for an informative discussion of St. Melania's relationship to the
Egyptian desert.
[2] Some
modern biographies, including official ones, wrongly claim she had three sons,
two of which died. While understandable, this is a confusion with her
granddaughter, St. Melania the Younger, who, according to both Palladius and
Rufinius in Apology Against Jerome, Book 2 (in Nicene and
Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series vol. 3), had two children, both of which
died prior to the parents entry into asceticism.
[3] For
a useful introduction, cf. John Binns, Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ:
The Monasteries of Palestine 314-631 Oxford University Press, 1996/©Binns,
1994.
SOURCE : http://andronicus-athanasia.org/Melania_the_Elder.html
Melania the Elder (c. 350–c. 410)
Roman who founded two of
the earliest Christian religious communities. Born around 350 ce; died
around 410 ce; granddaughter of Antonius Marcellinus; grandmother of Melania
the Younger; married possibly Valerius Maximus (a praetorian praefect),
probably in 365; children: three sons, including Valerius Publicola (father of
Melania the Younger).
Melania the Elder (so
called to distinguish her from her namesake granddaughter) was from a Roman
Senatorial family (her paternal grandfather, Antonius Marcellinus, served as
consul in 341) with Spanish roots. Her family was also extremely wealthy and Christian—a
religion which Melania the Elder avidly pursued as a young woman in Rome. Her
husband was of an equally prestigious family, the Valerian, and was perhaps the
Valerius Maximus who held the office of praetorian praefect in the 360s. If
this was so, then a young Melania married a much older man, probably about the
year 365. Despite the probable difference in their ages, this union produced
three sons before Melania was widowed at the age of 22. The death of her
husband was followed within months by the deaths of two of her children,
leaving only Valerius Publicola (the eventual father of Melania
the Younger ) to reach adulthood.
In one sense the tragedy
of these triple deaths liberated Melania the Elder, for instead of remarrying,
she left Rome for Egypt and Palestine, there to associate with the holy men and
women who dominated the Church of the period as priests, bishops, monks and
nuns. Rome was then, in Christian terms, far less developed than were
Jerusalem, Alexandria and their surrounding areas. Melania the Elder was able
to pursue her dream of visiting the East because she had given birth to three
children who had lived past the age of two. By Roman
law, she thus had earned the right to certain freedoms denied women who
could not boast of that accomplishment. What Melania the Elder originally
intended to do with her surviving son is unclear. One source reports that she
took him at least as far as Sicily when she left Rome, seemingly intent upon
bringing him with her to the East. If so, she changed her mind, for Valerius Publicola
was reared in Rome under the care of a guardian, where, although without a
mother's care, he never suffered for the lack of money. Mother and son would
not see each other again until she returned to Rome, probably some 37 years
later.
Like many Christians of
her time, Melania the Elder wished to disassociate herself from material
possessions (although she retained control of a huge estate throughout her life
which she used to fund her religious career) and to deny as many bodily
pleasures as possible in order to cultivate the spirit, thus to prepare for the
hereafter. It was common especially for Roman women bent upon such purification
to withdraw from the world into their own homes, where they fasted and prayed
in a self-imposed isolation—albeit one which could be reversed simply by
walking out into any public thoroughfare. Melania the Elder, however, both knew
of the monastic movement which had only recently swept the Christian East and
had the financial wherewithal to travel there and experience it firsthand.
The early monastic
movement involved holy men and women who sought the isolation of inhospitable
locales where they lived lives of bodily denial, so as to subordinate all
physical desires to the will of the spirit, to study and interpret sacred
scripture without any distractions, and to engage in what was thought a very
real struggle against demons, who thus engaged would be unable to tempt less
resolute Christians back in everyday society. These hermits were among the
"stars" of the late 4th-century Christian world, and their passion to
root out evil in themselves and in the world was deemed charismatic by just
about everyone. Although their wish to live in the wilderness was in large part
generated by the fact that they would thus be removed from other human beings,
the self-imposed isolation of these holy figures was self-defeating, for as
their fame grew, more and more of their Christian brethren followed them into
the desert in order to be in their physical proximity. This soon necessitated a
second stage of monastic development: that in which communities of voluntary
disciples had to be organized, both to prevent them from being a distraction to
the original attraction and to give them something constructive, and hopefully,
"orthodox," to do. The idea of organized Christian communities
somehow set aside from everyday society—and therefore also set aside from
religious authority—thus arose. These communities were at once both
inspirational and troublesome: the former because "God's soldiers" were
known to be "out there" leading the struggle against the forces of
Satan, and the latter because, without the proper over-sight by religious
authority, there was the potential for these communities to be side-tracked
into doctrinal deviancy.
Whatever the potential
pitfalls, Melania the Elder wished to devote herself to physical denial,
spiritual struggle, and religious study, and found what she needed to do so in
the East. Upon her arrival there, she familiarized herself with the vibrant
religious life of Egypt by visiting both the influential See of Alexandria and
the hermits of the desert. Perhaps one of the more important reasons Melania
the Elder did so was that she had become very fond of the theological writings
of Origen (born c. 185 in Alexandria), which she had come to know through the
Latin translations of her contemporary Rufinus. Later, when she moved on to
Jerusalem in the late 370s, Melania founded and endowed a convent for herself
and a monastery in honor of Rufinus (who remained in the West) on the Mount
of Olives. These were not only among the earliest such establishments
founded, they also fostered the asceticism Melania the Elder thought essential
for salvation and a study of scripture in the tradition of Origen. This
tradition, popular especially in the East, interpreted the Bible in the light
of significant philosophical principles which had first been set forth by pagan
thinkers. Although for a long time no one questioned the orthodoxy of such an
approach to the Gospels, this began to change in the 390s, especially in the
West. Thereafter, the orthodoxy of those working in the tradition of Origen
came increasingly under fire.
Melania the Elder never
thought of herself as a heretic. Indeed, she thought of herself as a bastion of
orthodoxy. For example, when the Arian emperor Valens persecuted those in Egypt
who espoused the orthodoxy of the
Trinity, Melania gave them shelter. Because she was a disciple of Origen,
however, others began to question her orthodoxy. Even as the weight of Church
opinion began to swing toward the anti-Origenists, Melania the Elder maintained
her allegiance to Origen's interpretive assumptions, and kept close ties with
others (such as Rufinus, Evagrius Ponticus, and Palladius) who did likewise.
This choice eventually set her at odds with the likes of the famous Jerome and
his female associate Paula ,
both of whom had monastic communities of their own near Bethlehem. As the
argument over the orthodoxy of Origen's tradition heated up, so did the rivalry
between the houses of Melania the Elder and Rufinus on the one hand and those
of Jerome and Paula on the other—violence even occasionally flared. Indeed, by
about 399 the controversy was so intense that Melania decided to return to Rome
for a period. This decision, however, probably had less to do with a desire to
let things in the East cool off than it did to Melania's desire to put forth
the case for Origen to her granddaughter. Melania the Younger's Senatorial
status, kinship to Melania the Elder, and growing fame as a religious zealot in
her own right made her an attractive target for proselytizing by the
anti-Origen faction—if the younger Melania could be won over by them, then the
elder's position could be seriously weakened.
Thus Melania the Elder
returned to Rome (by way of Sicily, where she gave to Paulinus of Nola a piece
of wood thought to be from the true cross) and to her kin. If doctrinal matters
were Melania the Elder's primary reason for her homecoming, it probably failed,
for although Melania the Younger did not go out of her way to embarrass her
grandmother, neither did she fall into Origen's camp. In fact during her own
religious career, Melania the Younger took some pains to disassociate herself
from her grand-mother's memory and foundation, while simultaneously cultivating
good relations with Jerome. It is not surprising, therefore, that tradition has
it that the personal relationship between the two Melanias was a stormy one.
It is not known how long
Melania the Elder remained in the West, but she probably did not stay long.
Returning to her beloved community in Jerusalem, Melania continued her work in
the manner of Origen and the defense of her orthodoxy until she died about the
year 410.
William Greenwalt ,
Associate Professor of Classical History, Santa
Clara University, Santa
Clara, California
Women in World History: A
Biographical Encyclopedia
Voir aussi : Mélanie
l'Ancienne (Antonia Melania) (v. 343, à Rome - 410, dans un monastère à Jérusalem) © France-Spiritualités™ : http://www.histoireetspiritualite.com/religions-fois-philosophie/christianisme/biographies-portraits/melanie-l-ancienne.html
