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Full Description
Melania the Younger: From Rome to Jerusalem explores the richly detailed story of Melania, an early fifth-century Roman Christian aristocrat who renounced her staggering wealth to lead a life of ascetic renunciation. Hers is a tale of "riches to rags." Born to high Roman aristocracy in the late fourth century, Melania encountered numerous difficulties posed by family members, Roman officials, and historical circumstances in disposing of her wealth, property (spread across at least eight Roman provinces), and thousands of slaves. Leaving Rome with her entourage a few years before Alaric the Goth's sack of Rome in 410, she journeyed to Sicily, then to North Africa, finally settling in Jerusalem-all while founding monasteries along the way. Towards the end of her life, she traveled to Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) in an attempt to convert to Christianity her still-pagan uncle, who was on a state mission to the eastern Roman court.
Throughout her life, she was accustomed to meet and be assisted by emperors and empresses, bishops, and other high dignitaries. Embracing a fairly extreme asceticism, Melania died in Jerusalem in 439. A new English translation of her Life, composed by a long-time assistant who succeeded her in the direction of the male and female monasteries in Jerusalem, accompanies this biographical study.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Maps
Family Trees
Abbreviations
Chapter One: Finding Melania
Chapter Two: Rome: Empire, City, and Church
Chapter Three: Aristocracy, Family, and Property
Chapter Four: Pagans and Christians in Late Ancient Rome
Chapter Five: Ascetic Renunciation
Chapter Six: Exiting Rome and the Sack of the City
Chapter Seven: To Sicily and North Africa
Chapter Eight: To Jerusalem
Chapter Nine: To Constantinople and Back
Translation: The Life of Saint Melania the Younger
Notes
Bibliography
Index
