Melania

Melania the Elder and her granddaughter Melania the Younger were major figures in early Christian history, using their wealth, status, and forceful personalities to shape the development of nearly every aspect of the religion we now know as Christianity. This volume examines their influence on late antique  Christianity and provides an insightful portrait of their legacies in the modern world. Departing from the traditionally patriarchal viewMelania gives a poignant and sometimes surprising account of how the rise of Christian institutions in the Roman Empire shaped our understanding of women’s roles in the larger world.

Melania the Elder and her granddaughter Melania the Younger were major figures in early Christian history, using their wealth, status, and forceful personalities to shape the development of nearly every aspect of the religion we now know as Christianity. This volume examines their influence on late antique  Christianity and provides an insightful portrait of their legacies in the modern world. Departing from the traditionally patriarchal viewMelania gives a poignant and sometimes surprising account of how the rise of Christian institutions in the Roman Empire shaped our understanding of women’s roles in the larger world.

Introduction
Catherine M. Chin and Caroline T. Schroeder

PART ONE. ARISTOCRACY
1. Apostles and Aristocrats
Catherine M. Chin
2. Namesake and Inheritance
Christine Luckritz Marquis
3. Exemplary Women
Caroline T. Schroeder

PART TWO. BODY AND FAMILY
4. Holy Households
Maria Doerfler
5. Wounded by Divine Love
Kristi Upson-Saia

PART THREE. GENDER AND MEMORY
6. Memories of the Martyrs
L. Stephanie Cobb
7. The Memory of Melania
Rebecca Krawiec

PART FOUR. WISDOM AND HERESY
8. A Life in Letters
Robin Darling Young
9. Friends and Heretics
Susanna Drake
10. Posthumous Orthodoxy
Christine Shepardson

PART FIVE. IN THE HOLY PLACES
11. The Lost Generation
Andrew S. Jacobs
12. Sing, O Daughter(s) of Zion
Stephen J. Shoemaker

PART SIX. MODERNITIES
13. Afterlives
Michael Penn
14. Monastic Revivals
Stephen J. Davis
15. The Future of Sainthood
Elizabeth A. Castelli
Afterword
Randall Styers

List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index