SKHS:n uuden tutkimuksen ilta 7.4.: ”Melania the Younger, aristocrat and ascetic”

Suomen kirkkohistoriallinen seura järjestää kevään viimeisen uuden tutkimuksen illan maanantaina 7.4. klo 17.15 alkaen. Tilaisuudessa esitelmöi yliopistonlehtori ja seuran hallituksen uusi jäsen Juliette Day englanniksi aiheenaan ”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.

Paikka: Teologisen tiedekunnan tiedekuntasali (Vuorikatu 3, Helsinki, 5. krs)

Tervetuloa!

Lisätietoja:

Suomen kirkkohistoriallisen seuran sihteeri Sini Mikkola, sini.mikkola@helsinki.fi