Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Thanks to several biographical studies based on Cardinal Rampolla's monumental Santa Melania giuniore, senatrice Romana, the history of the early-fifth-century heiress and ascetic, Melania the Younger, is fairly well known. Her grandmother, Melania the Elder was an even more notable figure in the history of the Church during the second half of the fourth century. She is of particular importance in tracing the history of late-fourth-century asceticism and monasticism. Round her career, in a way, revolve many of the historical and chronological problems in connection with Jerome and Rufinus of Aquileia, Paulinus of Nola and Severus Sulpicius. Details of her travels are our surest approach to datings and to the authenticity of much of the material found in Palladius' Lausiac History. At the same time, she was an extremely interesting, well-travelled, and forceful figure coming at the apex of the western patristic period. Hence her career bears pointed scrutiny.
1 Cardinale Rampolla del Tindaro, M., Santa Melania giuniore, senatrice Romana: documenti contemporanei e note (Rome 1905). It contains the Latin text of the vita discovered by the Cardinal in the Escorial in 1884, a Greek vita (published by H. Delehaye in the Anal. Bolland. 22 [1900] 7–49) together with an Italian translation, a Greek fragment of the Lausiac History of Palladius and copious notes.Google Scholar
2 See Goyau, G., Mélanie la jeune (Paris 1908); da Persico, E., Die hl. Melania die Jüngere (Berlin 1912); and the abridged translation of Cardinal Rampolla's Life of St. Melania (ed. Thurston, H., London 1908).Google Scholar
3 Cf. Freemantle, W., Dict. of Christian Biography 3 (London 1882) 888–889; Butler, C., Lausiac History of Palladius (Texts and Studies 6, Cambridge 1898 and 1904) II, 134–136; 146–149, and notes 85–88, 92–97 and additions to note 94; PWK 15 (1931) 455 s. v. ‘Melania’ (2); Murphy, F., Rufinus of Aquileia (Washington 1945) 31–55; 155–157; Schwartz, E., ‘Palladiana,’ Zeitsch. f. neutest. Wissenschaft (ZntW) 36 (1937) 161–204.Google Scholar
4 Jer. Ep. 133 (to Ctesiphon, CSEL 56, 246); for the difficulties about Origen, see Cavallera, F., Saint Jérôme, sa vie et son oeuvre (Louvain 1922) I, 193–286.Google Scholar
5 Ruf. Apol. 2, 26 (PL 21, 605): ‘post id de exemplaribus suis erasit cum actus suos vidisset districtioris disciplinae feminae displicere.’ Google Scholar
6 Jer. Chronici canones 329 (ed. Fotheringham, J., London 1923). There is no evidence of such an erasure in any of the codices that have come down to us; hence the editor concludes that Jerome did not issue a new edition, but merely changed a few of the last pages of his own manuscript (op. cit. xxv, iv).Google Scholar
7 Jer. Ep. 39, 7 (CSEL 54, 301).Google Scholar
8 Baronius, , Annales eccles. 4 (Antwerp, 2 ed. 1601) 342, 680.Google Scholar
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12 Paulinus, , Epp. 28, 29, 31, 45 (to Aug.) (ed. Hartel, , CSEL 29).Google Scholar
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14 Palladius, , Lausiac History (Butler's, HL ed.) 46, 54 and 55 (pp. 134–136; 146–149). Butler, following a MS rubric, listed chapter 55 as of Silvania. But C. H. Turner in his review of Butler's work (Journal of Theol. 6 [1905] 356–353) suggested that the chapter really is a continuation of chapter 54, and thus belongs to Melania the Elder. Butler readily accepted this attribution (JTS 7 [1906] 309). He also discusses the variant spellings of the name Melania (HL II, 222, n. 85).Google Scholar
15 In chapters 5, 9, 10, 18, Palladius quotes Melania for events that had taken place before his arrival in Nitria.—Born in Galatia in 363 or 364, Palladius took up the monastic life in 386 or so, coming up to Jerusalem, where he joined the monk Innocent on the Mount of Olives and where he met Melania the Elder, Rufinus, Jerome, etc. He spent the years 390 to 399 in the Egyptian desert, finally retiring to Alexandria because of ill health. In 400, he was consecrated Bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, probably by John Chrysostom, whose ally he proved to be, travelling in his behalf to Rome in 405. There he incidentally met all of Melania's family. Upon returning East, he fell victim to persecution; in 417 he was made Bishop of the See of Aspuna. He wrote his History—a series of biographical sketches of the monks in the Egyptian desert—for a certain Lausus, chamberlain at the court of Theodosius II. His accounts are fairly accurate despite occasional slips of memory, due in good part to the lapse of years between his experiences and the writing of them. Cf. Butler, HL I, 179–183 and II append. V, ii, for the account of his life. For his historical accuracy, id. I, 178–196. Peeters, P., ‘Une vie copte de S. Jean de Lycopole,’ Anal. Bolland. 54 (1936) 369–371, offers a severe critique of Palladius’ accuracy, and of Butler's defense thereof; which is echoed in Telfer, W., ‘The Trustworthiness of Palladius,’ JTS 38 (1937) 379–382. But Peeters as well as Telfer are much too exacting of both Palladius and Butler. See in contrast Schwartz, E., ‘Palladiana,’ ZntW 36 (1937) 161–203.Google Scholar
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42 Paul. Ep. 29, 11 (CSEL 29, 257–258); Palladius, HL 46 (Butler 135).Google Scholar
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