Melania the Elder

When did Melania live?

Melania the Elder is dated c. AD 341 – c. 410 (held at the timeline's ceiling) in the archive, which places Melania in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

Which early sources mention Melania?

Melania the Elder is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Jerome of Stridon, Paulinus of Nola and Palladius of Galatia. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Melania from?

The archive associates Melania the Elder with Rome, Nitria, Jerusalem. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.

Who were Melania’s contemporaries?

The archive links Melania the Elder to 3 other figures, including Pambo of Nitria, Isidore the Hosteller and Jerome of Stridon. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

[Paulinus, her kinsman, gives the fullest surviving portrait of Melania the Elder — her pilgrimage, her years in Jerusalem, and her return through Nola.]

The letters of Paulinus of Nola, written between c. AD 394 and 423 and the chief record of the western ascetic circle around him. Critical text: Wilhelm von Hartel, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 29 (1894); English translation by P. G. Walsh, Ancient Christian Writers 35–36 (1966–67). No public-domain English translation exists.

When the exiles were sent to Palestine, she followed them and ministered to them from her own treasures… The most blessed Melania, that female man of God, founded a monastery in Jerusalem, and lived there twenty-seven years.