Saint Melania the Younger of Rome.
Saint Melania the Younger, who was born in 388, was the grand-daughter of Saint Melania the Elder (see June 8). Her father Publicola was an Eparch of Rome. She was joined in wedlock to a husband and became the mother of two children, both of which she lost shortly thereafter. Thus, having agreed with her husband to pass the rest of their lives in abstinence and chastity, and taking her mother Albina with her, she went off to Africa. They ransomed 8,000 captives; furthermore, they built two monasteries – one for men and one for women – in the city of Tagaste, which was in the district of Tunis. After seven years they moved to Jerusalem. Thereafter Melania shut herself up in a small and narrow hermitage by the Mount of Olives, and wearing away her body with fasting and vigil, she reposed in 434.
On this day, we celebrate the Apodosis of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, and the service for December 25th is chanted as set forth in the Typicon. The Service to Saint Melania is chanted on the 30th of this month.
The above account is taken from the Great Horologion,
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