"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."
By:
Elizabeth A. Clark
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 155mm,
Width: 231mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 438g
ISBN: 9780190888237
ISBN 10: 0190888237
Series: Women in Antiquity
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 29 April 2021
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
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
Elizabeth A. Clark is John Carlisle Kilgo Professor, Emerita, at Duke University. Her previous books include History, Theory, Text; Reading Renunciation; Founding the Fathers; and The Fathers Refounded.
Reviews for Melania the Younger: From Rome to Jerusalem
Magisterial.... [Clark] shows us how dramatically what we can see in Melania has changed. -- Times Literary Supplement
