 |
 |
|
 |
On
fasting
|
 |
 |
 |
|
Venerable Melania the Roman 1/13/2013
Saint Melania was born in Rome into a noble and rich family. Her parents married against her will to a noble young man called Pinian. When she had given birth to her second child she fell ill and told her husband that she would not be cured unless he swore to God that they would continue their life together as brother and sister. Her husband swore, and out of her spiritual joy her body was cured. Then God pleased to take their two children, and they decided to sold everything they owned and distribute their riches to the poor, the churches and monasteries. They travelled a lot to foreign lands and cities using their riches to perform good deeds. They visited the renowned spiritual fathers in Upper and Lower Egypt who instructed them in spiritual life and inspired them greatly. All this time Melania was leading the ascetic struggle in strict fasting, continuous prayer and reading of the Holy Scriptures. She used to read the complete Holy Scriptures, the Old and the New Testament three times in the course of the year. She lived with her husband as with her brother and companion in the ascetic struggle. When they came to Alexandria, they visited the holy Patriarch Cyril and took his blessing. Then they left for Jerusalem and settled on the Mount of Olives. Here Melania lived as a recluse entirely committing herself to fasting and prayer. Thus she spent fourteen years. Then she left her reclusion and devoted herself to serving the others on their road to salvation. She founded a male and a female monastery. On invitation of her relative, the senator Volusian who was a pagan, she came to Constantinople and converted him to the faith in Christ (previously the venerable Augustine failed to convert him). Then she returned to the Mount of Olives and fell asleep in the Lord in the year 439, at fifty-seven years of age.
