Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/98

86 86 ST. MELANIA sent tbem a warm invitation. They went with Alipins to Hippo (now Bona), to visit hini. Here the clergy and people rose in tumult and demanded that Pinian should become their priest; Augustine re- fused to ordain him against his will, but Pinian was compelled to promise that he would remain at Hippo and would not be ordained in any other church. Soon afterwards they were robbed of the greater part of their African estates by Hera- dian, the rebel count of Africa, and being then very much poorer, their presence was no longer so eagerly desired by the inhabitants of Hippo, and they were suf- fered to depart. Melania increased her austerities and spent much of her time in reading the Holy Scriptures, with which she became perfectly familiar. She particularly ex- celled in transcribing, and made many copies of the sacred books. Her conver- sation was so edifying that philosophers sought her acquaintance. Her example impressed a number of young people; and she converted many heretics and idolaters. The subject of slavery at this time excited great compassion amongst Christians, and many of them liberated numbers of their own slaves and re- deemed many captives. Melania is said to have given liberty to eight thousand. At last, not being content with her mortifications, she had a cell built for her so low that she could not stand up- right in it, and so narrow that she could hardly turn round. She had a little hole in the wall through which she talked to those who came to receive her instruc- tions. She lived for about a year in this manner. In 417, after spending seven years in Africa, Albina, Pinian and Melania went to Jerusalem. Passing through Alex- andria, they visited St. Cyril. On their arrival in Palestine, they gave away the last of their riches and lived henceforth on what Melania earued by transcribing books. Pinian and Melania then visited the hermits in Egypt ; but Albina, find- ing herself unable to join the expedition, remained at Jerusalem. She built a her- mitage for her daughter on the Mount of Olives ; Melania, on her return shut her- self up there, only receiving visits once a week from her mother, husband, and a cousin, probably Avita (2), whom she had induced to follow her example. Here she remained fourteen years, but on the death of her mother in 433, she retired to another cell more secluded and more uncomfortable. Here she passed a year. She could not prevent the fame of her sanctity from attracting a number of ad- miring imitatprs, so that she was obliged to build a monastery, into which she received ninety virgins and a great number of women who wished to re- nounce the vanities of the world. She prescribed rules of heavenly wisdom for the guidance of her community, but absolutely refused to take any authority of precedence over them. St. Pinian died about this time (435), and she wished to build another monastery for men in his honour that she might be useful not only to her own sex. She had no money but holy persons provided what was needful. About 437 her uncle Volusianus was at Constantinople, whither he had been sent by Valentinian III. to negotiate his marriage to Eudocia, the only daughter of Theodosius II. Volusianus had dis- cussed the doctrines of Christianity with St. Augustine, but had never definitely accept^ them. His sister Albina (6) and her family had tried to influence him, and he had been almost per- suaded to be a' Christian. He was growing old and in failing health. He sent an urgent invitation to his niece Melania to come to him. She went and was received with great consideration and lodged in one of the palaces, as a relation of the imperial family and a person deserving of the highest respect for her virtues and piety. During her residence there she awoke in the Empress Eudoxia a desire for the life of devotion and proximity to the Holy Sepulchre which made the joy of Melania's own life. She found Volusianus very ill and longing for her gentle presence and consolation. She had the happiness of leading him to complete conversion, and in this she was much assisted by the holy patriarch Proclus, of whom Volu- sianus said that if there were three such men, paganism would cease to exist.