Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/95

ST. MELANIA 83 St. Medrissina, Medbtstme. St. Medrysyme, Nov. 22 (Madk- BASMA, Mab^ME, MeDBISSINA), Y. hOD- onred at Soissens. The Martyrology of SaitBhury has on this day, *' The feest of saynt Mbdbysyme, V. moche gloryoos in myraoles." St Medula, Jan. 25, M., bnrnt with a companion. Gn6rin. St. Mefrida, Minyeb. St. Meg^etia, Mebetia, Mioena or Mioetius, June 15, M. at Constantinople. AA.SS. St Mdgine, Apnl 29, M. at Perugia. Ga6rin. St Meille, who gives name to a chnroh in the diocese of Ansche, is perhaps Emilia or Emiuana. Chastelain, Vac, Hag. St Melana, Melania. St Melang^ell or Monacella, May 27, patron of hares. Founder and patron of the church of Pennant Melan- gell, near Llangnnog in Montgomery- shire. The chancel and nave of this church were divided by a carved screen, on which was represented the legend of the tutelar saint. She was the daughter of an Irish monarch ; she had a vow of celibacy and fled to Wales to avoid being married to a nobleman of her own country. She lived unseen for fifteen years until 604, when Brochwel Yseythrog, prince of Powys, hunting in the neighbourhood, ran a hare into a thicket and found it nestling in her dress; she, deep in prayer and meditation, had not heard the dogs or the horn. The prince in- vited her to leave her solitude, but as that was not her wish, he gave her the adjacent lands on which to build a church. All the hares wont to her for safety and followed her about. Hares were thence called Wyn Melangell, Mona- cella's lambs. For centuries no one would kill a hare in the parish, and if any one shouted after a hunted hare, '^Ood and Monacella be with thee," it was sure to escape. Blackwood's Maga- zine, November 1875, Legends and Folk-lore of North Wales.*' Bees, Welsh Saintty p. 269, says she was a Welsh woman, her mother Irish, and that her cell is to be seen in a rock near the church. Her relics were still shown in 1811. St. Melania (l), Melana or Me- LANiUM, Oct. 22, Dec. 30, and perhaps June 8, + c. 410, commonly called the Elder. A Boman lady of Spanish de- scent, very rich and highly connected, the daughter or grand-daughter of Mar- cellinus, who had been consul. She was left a widow at twenty-two; two of her three children died in the same year as her husband. According to the custom of the time, she made a great funeral for them and, carrying her only remaining child in her arms, she followed to the family mausoleum, the bier on which lay the two little corpses. She did not, however, devote herself to her son. The motherly instinct was not so strong in her as the inclination to as- ceticism and the attraction of the East with its holy places of pilgrimage. She left the infant Publicola to the care of , the Urban Pr8Btor,'an officer who had the charge of orphans; and thanking Gk)d that she was free, she set off to see the places and persons who so strongly engaged her sympathies. Her action was much discussed in Bome. Many of the Christians disapproved, and many who were hesitating between Christianity and Paganism, having been half-won over by the admirable lives of the Christian women, decided against a religion which seemed less favourable to domesticity than the ancient Boman customs. She travelled with a con- siderable retinue. In her suite was a certain Bufinus, who seems to have had some influence over her, and who spent many years in her service. At Alex- andria she made the acquaintance of St. Athanasius, who presented her with the sheep-skin that had been worn by the holy Marcarius. The desert of Nitria was the resort of innumerable hermits and communities of monks; holes in the banks were used for cells, and hymns could be heard when no human form was to be seen. Melania obtained access to many of these saintly persons, begging their prayers and bless- ing and making offerings such as they would accept. Among others she visited the Abbot Pambo, and found him plaiting