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Saint Melania, was born into a Christian rich family. A family extremely rich, and looked on their daughter as an heiress. But Melania since her childhood was yearning for a religious, chaste life. At fourteen years of age her father forced her to live according to the family's status. Thus, He married her against her will to  Pinian , a young Roman noble.

From the very beginning of their married life, Saint Melania besought her husband to trade wealth and sex for chastity and prayer or else release her from the marriage. At first Pinian refused  and answered: "When through the will of the Lord we come to have two children as heirs to the property, then together we shall renounce the world." Soon Melania gave birth to a daughter, whom the young parents dedicated to God. Continuing to live together in marriage, Melania in secret wore an hair shirt and spent her nights at prayer. The second time Melania gave birth, it was premature and with severe complications. A boy was born, they baptized him, and at once he expired to the Lord. Seeing the suffering of his wife, who nearly died in childbirth, Pinian besought the Lord to preserve Saint Melania alive, and he gave a vow to spend the rest of their life together without conjugal relations. Soon their daughter died. Recovering, Saint Melania did away once for all with her wealth. First of all she bestowed all her silk upon the holy alter. Then, she shipped her gold to the East to the churches and monasteries, in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. In the West, she distributed four times as much to churches and monasteries, and gifts to the poor. She also released eight thousand of her slaves.

The parents were against the desire of the young couple to devote themselves to God. It was only when Saint Melania's father became deathly sick, that he asked forgiveness of them and gave his permission for them to follow their chosen path, meanwhile asking them to pray for him. The saints then quit the city of Rome, and a new life began for them, completely dedicated to the service of God. Pinian at this time was 24 years of age, and Melania age 20. They began to visit the sick, to take in wanderers, and generously to help the indigent. They made the rounds of the prisons, places of those exiled and mine-convicts and the destitute.

In 406, Melania, Pinian and their group, set sail for Africa. Arriving then in Africa, they rendered help to all the needy there, and with the blessing of the local bishops they made offerings to churches and monasteries. During this while Saint Melania continued to humble her flesh by strict fasting, and she fortified her soul by constant reading of the Word of God, making copies of the sacred books and distributing them to those that lacked them. In Africa the saints spent seven years. They met St. Augustine. Then, freed of all their wealth, on the command of Christ, they set off to Jerusalem in 417. Along the way, at Alexandria, they were welcomed by the bishop, Saint Cyril. After a short visit to Egypt, where the saints visited many of the desert fathers, saint Melania inspired by a tour of the monastic settlements in Egyptian desert, she secluded herself into a solitary cell on the Mount of Olives, and only occasionally saw Saint Pinian. After fourteen years her mother died and Pinian died a year later.  Melania buried them near the Mount of Olives. She became close to St Paula, her cousin, and St. Jerome. Gradually around her cell there arose a monastery, where gathered eventually nine women. Saint Melania, out of humility, lived and prayed in solitude.

Saint Melania wanted to build a men's monastery on the Mount of the Ascension of the Lord. The Lord blessed her intent, by sending a benefactor who provided the means for the monastery. Joyfully accepting it, Saint Melania finished the great work in a single year.  Having finished her tasks, the saint left Jerusalem for Constantinople to go to her pagan uncle in hope of saving his soul. Under her influence the sick man gave up paganism and died a Christian. Many miracles were worked through the prayer of the saint. 

Returning then to her own monastery, the saint at Christmas,439 sensed the nearness of death, and began to make her farewells. "I think the Enemy himself," she told her sisters, "will not at the last judgment accuse me of ever having gone to sleep with bitterness in my heart." They  listened to her final instructions in deep sorrow and with tears.  Saint Melania died on December 31,439, at the age of fifty-six.