{"id":142693,"date":"2024-12-31T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=142693"},"modified":"2024-12-31T06:00:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T11:00:48","slug":"st-melania-the-younger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/st-melania-the-younger\/","title":{"rendered":"St Melania the Younger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Melanie,<\/span><\/p>\n

I always used to make a little retreat on New Year\u2019s Eve \u2013 go off for a few hours to a quiet chapel or convent and reflect on the past year. \u00a0I would thank God for all his many gifts, his blessings, his great patience with me, and then I would ask pardon for all the ways in which I let him down, obstructed the work he wanted to do through me or rejected his graces. \u00a0And then I would come up with a relevant, deep, spiritual New Year\u2019s Resolution. I would also choose a Bible verse to be my motto for the coming year. And with that, I would be thoroughly refreshed in my spirit, and ready to celebrate the annual transition with a few good friends (I tended to avoid the riotous wing-dings \u2013 too many temptations). \u00a0Here in my cubicle-cell, I am doing my best to follow this little tradition, which I picked up from a very old monk I met when traveling through Eastern Europe as a junior in college. I wanted to send you this note today to tell you about it because I am convinced that you are spiritually mature enough to adopt it for yourself. It\u2019s actually the kind of thing your namesake would have done (happy Saint\u2019s Day, by the way). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Melania really was a remarkable woman. \u00a0Her parents were Christians, but her dad was also a noble Roman, fabulously wealthy, and filled with ambition \u2013 he became a Senator (his name was Publicola). \u00a0Melania was their only child, and in order to ensure the continuance of his family line, her father arranged a marriage for her to a kinsman of great position and reputation. \u00a0Melania, however, had long since harbored a deep desire to be dedicated to God alone. Her father wouldn\u2019t hear of it, and she was married. She asked her husband, Pinian, if they might live together in continence, as a way of devoting themselves more fully to spiritual things, but he refused, and so their first child was born, a daughter who died within a year of birth. \u00a0Soon she was pregnant again, gave birth prematurely to a son who died the next day, leaving her sick and on the verge of death herself for weeks. She recovered, and Pinian now agreed to join her in living a more supernatural nuptial union, but her father was furious. <\/span><\/p>\n

For five years he forced them to maintain all the pomp and glitz of the Roman aristocracy when all they wanted was to retreat to the country and dedicate themselves to serving the poor and freeing slaves. \u00a0On his deathbed, her father finally realized his mistake. As he lay dying, he conferred on her his vast estates and asked for her forgiveness because, \u201cfearing the ridicule of evil tongues, I have grieved you by opposing your heavenly vocation.\u201d \u00a0Melania was then free to spend her life pleasing God. She, together with her husband and her mother, Albina, retired to a villa outside of Rome and formed a proto-religious community, the first of countless endeavors she would undertake in favor of Christ\u2019s Kingdom throughout the coming decades. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I find it particularly appropriate that she passed away on New Year\u2019s Eve. \u00a0She preferred hard work and self-discipline when her social status offered her the sumptuous pleasures of cultivated luxury, and I am sure it wasn\u2019t always easy. \u00a0But as her worldly peers were frolicking mindlessly at some New Year\u2019s Eve party that last day of the year 439, she was being welcomed into heaven\u2019s precincts \u2013 and I\u2019m sure the celebration she has enjoyed ever since was well worth the sacrifice of a few earthly soirees. <\/span><\/p>\n

Happy New Year, sincerely, your uncle, Eddy<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Melanie, I always used to make a little retreat on New Year\u2019s Eve \u2013 go off for a few hours to a quiet chapel or convent and reflect on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSt Melania the Younger - Regnum Christi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/st-melania-the-younger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"St Melania the Younger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Melanie, I always used to make a little retreat on New Year\u2019s Eve \u2013 go off for a few hours to a quiet chapel or convent and reflect on […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/st-melania-the-younger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Regnum Christi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RegnumChristiEn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-31T11:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Uncle-Eddy-Header.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. 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He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2003 and earned his doctorate in moral theology in 2010. He provided spiritual support on the set of Mel Gibson\u2019s\u00a0The Passion of the Christ\u00a0while researching the 2005 Catholic best seller,\u00a0Inside the Passion, the only authorized, behind-the-scenes explanation of the film. Fr. John has contributed news commentary regarding religious issues on NBC, CNN, Fox, and the BBC. He also served as the English-language press liaison for the Vatican\u2019s 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. His most widely known books are The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer and 60 Days to Becoming a Missionary Disciple. His most recent book is\u00a0Spiritual But Not Religious: The Search for Meaning in a Material World. Fr. John resides in Atlanta and serves as Territorial Vicar for the Legionaries of Christ. See all books, Regnum Christi Essays, Retreat Guides, posts, and online classes from Fr. John Bartunek, LC.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/jbartunek\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142693"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=142693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}