[Antiquitas] "Melania the Younger, aristocrat and ascetic" - lecture by Juliette Day

[Sini Mikkola]

Dear recipients,

The Finnish Society of Church History organizes a lecture once a month  
to present some of the latest historical scholarship. On Monday, April  
7 the lecture is given by PhD, University lecturer Juliette Day. Her  
topic is:

"Melania the Younger, aristocrat and ascetic"

Melania the Younger was the only daughter of a leading Roman  
senatorial family who tried and failed to be allowed to remain  
unmarried, but who died as the founder of a woman's monastery on the  
Mount of Olives c.440; a journey which takes her to Augustine's circle  
in North Africa, to the desert monks in Egypt and to the imperial  
palace in Constantinople. Much recent scholarship on her biography has  
despaired at finding any history behind the typically biased literary  
representation of women and behind the generic conventions of  
hagiography. In this paper I will present the story of Melania and  
show how social, cultural, political and theological studies of late  
antiquity support the historicity of the Vita and that the genre may  
reveal the intended readers and not just obscure the author and subject.

Date and time: Monday, April 7, 5:15 pm
Place: The faculty room (Vuorikatu 3, Helsinki, 5th floor), Faculty of  
theology

Welcome!

Best regards,
Sini Mikkola


-- 
Sini Mikkola, sihteeri/secretary

Suomen kirkkohistoriallinen seura/The Finnish Society of Church History
PL 4/P.O.B. 4
00014 Helsingin yliopisto/00014 University of Helsinki

sini.mikkola at helsinki.fi
+358 9 19122012

http://www.skhs.fi
http://www.facebook.com/SuomenKirkkohistoriallinenSeura