In 410 CE Melania the Younger sold her estate in Rome just
before the city was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 CE. Marcella’s home was seized and she was driven
to take refuge in the Church of St. Paul where she died the next day. In 411 CE Pope Innocent I called the Council
of Orange and decreed that women could no longer be ordained. In 417 CE Melania turned the monastery she
had built in North Africa over to others and went to Jerusalem to study under
the direction of Jerome. Pope Innocent I
died the same year and Zosimus was elected to succeed him.
Pope Zosimus took part in the flurry of controversies that
were divided the churches in Gaul, Africa and Italy. His reign lasted just one year and another
hotly contested election resulted in the brief elevation of Eulalius to the
papacy in 418 CE with the support of the Emperor Honorius. Melania sold another of her grand estates in
Iberia and used the proceeds to found a monastery on the Mount of Olives in 418
CE. Pope Eulalius lost support and was
exiled to Campania, and Boniface I was elected to the papacy in 419 CE. Meanwhile Melania, the younger traveled
throughout Egypt visiting monasteries and learning from the desert hermits,
deepening her understanding of the ascetic way of life.
When Pope Boniface I died in 422, he was succeeded by
Celestine I who reigned for ten years.
In 431 CE Melania went to the Court of Theodosius II in Constantinople
where she won many converts and convinced the Empress Eudokia to return with
her to Jerusalem. On the way the Empress dislocated her foot, but when Melania
touched the foot, the pain went away.
This was the first of many healing miracles with which Melania is credited. A year after arriving in Jerusalem in 439 CE,
Melania the Younger died having distributed the largest estate in the empire
for the benefit of numerous monasteries, convents, hospitals and hospices.
