Melania was a part of the first generation of Roman aristocrats who were encouraged to embrace Christianity, and lived to see it become the official religion of the Roman Empire. She was born in 341 in Spain and moved to Rome following her marriage, where she was widowed at the age of 22. Only one of her children, a son, survived, and she gave him into the care of a guardian so that she might pursue a monastic vocation.

Leaving Rome, she went to Alexandria where she used her fortune to support monastics, teachers, and pilgrims. While in Egypt, Melania studied asceticism and theology with the desert fathers and mothers. During a purge of the monasteries by the Arian bishop of Alexandria, Melania traveled to Palestine where she would spend the majority of her life.

Arriving in Jerusalem sometime after 372, she founded two monasteries on the Mount of Olives. These communities practiced hospitality for the many pilgrims who came to the sites of Christ’s passion and resurrection – all paid for by Melania. Her work of hospitality was especially significant for the many women making pilgrimage: the roads were not a safe place for travelers, and women were particularly vulnerable.

In an era when aristocratic Roman widows were expected to embrace the virtues of modesty and reserve, Melania was theologically outspoken and never shied away from expressing her passion for asceticism and for learning. She promoted theological tolerance and the unity of Christianity. A committed scholar, she studied the works of Origen, Basil the Great, and Gregory of Nazianzus. She was a teacher and spiritual director to many of the most prominent theologians and spiritual writers of her day, most notably Evagrius, whom she counseled through a spiritual crisis and then clothed as a monk. His Letter to Melania is one of his most profound works of ascetical and mystical theology.

Late in her life, on a visit to Rome to see her son, she inspired his daughter, also named Melania, to embrace the monastic life. Known as Melania the Younger, she followed her grandmother back to Jerusalem. Melania the Elder entered into eternal life in 410.