Chapter xlj: Of the Blessed Woman Melania the Younger
NOW inasmuch as I have already promised above to relate the history of Melania the Younger it is meet that I should pay [my] obligation, for it is not just that I should consign to oblivion a young woman who, though so very young in her years, by reason of her indefatigable zeal and knowledge was very much wiser than the old women, or that I should omit to make manifest by words the history of one who, though a girl in stature, was old in the mind of the fear of God. Now therefore the parents of this maiden drew her by force into marriage, and they united her unto one of the nobles of Rome, but she kept in mind continually the words which had been spoken unto her by her aged relative, and kept herself as was fitting, and became strengthened especially in the fear of God. And she had two sons, and as both of them died she came to be possessed of such a hatred of marriage that she said unto her husband, whose name was Pinianus, the son of Severus, a man of consular rank, “If thou wishest to live with me a life of purity I will regard thee as the husband and lord of my life; but if, inasmuch as thou art a young man, this is too hard for thee, take everything which I have and leave only free to me my own body, for in this way I shall be able to fulfil my desire which is in God, and I shall become the heir of the excellences of that woman after whose name I have been called. For if God desired me to lead the life of this world He would never have taken away the children to whom I gave birth.”
And when they had been for a long time debating the matter, at length God had mercy upon that young man, and He placed in him the zeal of the fear of God to such a degree that he also sought to be excused from all the material things of this world, and thus was fulfilled the word which had been spoken by the Apostle, saying, “How knowest thou, O woman, whether thou shalt give life to thy husband [or not]? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt give life to thy wife [or not]?” (1 Corinthians 7:16.) Now when she was married to her husband she was about twelve [or thirteen] years old, and she lived with him for seven years, for she was twenty years of age when she withdrew from the world. First of all she bestowed all her raiment of silk upon the holy altars, which also did Olympias, the handmaiden of Christ, and the remainder of her apparel of silk she cut up, and made it suitable for the service of the church in other ways. Her silver and gold she entrusted to an elder whose name was Paul, who was a monk
