The Life of *Melania the Younger (aristocratic ascetic in Jerusalem, ob. 439, S01134), by Gerontius, a monk at her monastery, recounts how shortly before her death, on the feast of the martyr, she visited the martyrion of *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030), and later went to the martyrion of the male monastery she had founded, which also had relics of Stephen. Written in Greek or Latin, probably in Jerusalem, c. 450.
E02003
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives of saint
Gerontius, Life of Melania the Younger 64
On the day after Christmas, though weak and close to death, Melania goes to the church of Stephen:
Καὶ τῇ ἐπαύριον ἀπήλθομεν ἐν τῷ μαρτυρίῳ τοῦ ἁγίου πρωτομάρτυρος Στεφάνου, ἔφθασεν γὰρ ἡ μνήμη τῆς κοιμήσεως αὐτοῦ, καὶ συναχθέντες ἐκεῖσε ὑπεστρέψαμεν ἐν τῷ μοναστηρίῳ.
'On the next day we went to the martyrion of the holy protomartyr Stephen – for the memorial of his falling asleep had arrived – and after we had held a service there, we returned to the monastery.'
Back in the monastery, she gets Gerontius to read the account of the discovery of the relics of Stephen, and she herself reads the account in Acts of his martyrdom. Later she asks to go the martyrion of her male monastery because that too had relics of saint Stephen (leipsana tou hagiou Stephanou).
The Latin and Greek texts do not differ significantly.
Text: Gorce 1962, pp. 254, 256.
Translation: Clark 1984, p. 76.
Chant and religious singing
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Cult PlacesCult building - dependent (chapel, baptistery, etc.)
Cult building - independent (church)
Martyr shrine (martyrion, bet sāhedwātā, etc.)
Non Liturgical ActivityVigils
RelicsUnspecified relic
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Source
The Life of Melania the Younger was composed in the middle of the 5th century, shortly after Melania’s death (439 AD). It is extant in Latin and Greek versions. There are some small differences between these texts, but, in relation to the cult of saints, nothing of great significance. Both texts contain 70 chapters. Scholars discuss the question of the Life’s original language. It is currently thought that neither of the preserved versions is original, but that the Greek Life is closer to the archetype.The author of the Life of Melania was Gerontius, a monk and a superior in her monastery on the Mount of Olives after her death. Gerontius presents his protagonist as an extraordinarily generous benefactor of the church, as a perfect (but not excessive) ascetic, and as a humane founder and superior of monasteries, while in no way playing down the high status of his subject and the contacts that this gave her. Although Melania effects a few cures (in chapters 59-61), and is described as being received into heaven at her death, the miraculous plays very little part in the text and there is no account of posthumous miracles at her grave.
Discussion
The martyrion of Stephen that Melania visited on 26 December 439 was certainly the church built by the empress Eudocia to house the body of the martyr; this church had been consecrated just a few months earlier, on 15 May 439 (Life of Peter the Iberian §49, E07944).In chapter 48, Gerontius had told how Melania deposited relics of Stephen in the oratory of her female monastery (see E01999). These were presumably the same relics as those documented here in the martyrion of the male monastery (which was built and dedicated a few years later than the female oratory). If so, what this tells us about the relative status of the two monasteries is interesting.
Bibliography
Edition, French translations and commentary:Vie de Sainte Mélanie, ed. and trans. D. Gorce, Sources Chrétiennes 90, Paris 1962. (Greek text)
La vie latine de Sainte Mélanie, ed. and trans. P. Laurence, Jerusalem 2002.
English translations:
The Life of Melania the Younger, trans. E. Clark, New York 1984. With commentary.
Lives of Roman Christian Women, trans. C. White, Penguin Classics 2010, pp. 182-230.
Katarzyna Wojtalik
11/11/2016
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Στεφάνος | Certain | S01134 | Melania the Younger, aristocratic ascetic in Jerusalem, ob. 439 | Certain |
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