Welcome back! We hope you're ready for the first full week of Lent Madness action. Today, we head up to the Confusion Corner quadrant of the bracket as Melania the Elder faces Hilary of Poitiers. What's not confusing is that both of our contestants come to us via the 4th century. Spanish nun vs. French bishop.
On Saturday, Madeleine Sophie Barat slipped past Mesrop Mashtots 53% to 47%. We also test drove a new voting system which most, but not everyone, was able to successfully navigate. Thanks to everyone for your forbearance as we seek to balance security with ease of voting. With some tweaks, it should be smoother today.
Now back to voting!
Melania the Elder
Melania the Elder was born in Spain in the fourth century to a wealthy Roman family. When she was fourteen, she married (most likely, the Roman prefect Valerius Maximus) and moved to Rome. When she was 22 years old, her husband, probably many years older than she was, and two of her three children died within months of each other. Shortly thereafter, she sold her possessions and left for Egypt to adopt an ascetic life. She left her surviving son in the care of a guardian.
Melania (along with Rufinus Aquileia, her monastic companion) ultimately found her way to Jerusalem. While there, she established a monastery for 50 monastic women and funded the monastery founded by Rufinus. She and Rufinus worked closely together until around 400 when she returned to Rome to be with her son and his family. While in Rome, she had a deep impact on her granddaughter, Melania the Younger, who would ultimately follow in her ascetic footsteps.
Melania the Elder was one of the more scholarly and learned ascetic women of her time. She was known to esteemed theologians such as Evagrius Ponticus and Augustine of Hippo. She was a student of theology and studied Origenism extensively. Origen (also a fellow Lent Madness contestant) was a third-century theologian whose writings became a lightning rod at the end of the fourth century. As the Origenist controversy roiled the church, Melania worked both to defend Origenism as well as to promote unity. Saint Jerome’s early praise of her and later vitriol directed toward her perhaps best illustrates her intellectual prowess and the threat that she posed to his own theological sensibilities.
In addition to her scholarly work, Melania also financially supported and promoted monastics throughout her life. In addition to the monasteries that she founded and funded in Jerusalem, she offered regular support to other monastics as various theological controversies regularly shifted balances of power. Melania the Elder returned to her ascetic life in North Africa before finally journeying back to Jerusalem where she died in 410. She left a considerable endowment to support the continued work of the monastery that she established there.
Collect for Melania the Elder
Most High and Merciful God, who called your servant Melania to forsake earthly comforts in order to devote herself to studying the scriptures and to welcoming the poor: Instruct us in the ways of poverty and the grace of hospitality, that we might comfort those who have no place to rest and teach the way of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hilary may have been a leader of the church more than 1,700 years ago, but his keen understanding of the Trinity along with his profound teachings remain hallmarks of Christianity today.
Born in 310 CE in Poitiers, France, Hilary was a highly educated son of pagan parents. His study of both the Old and New Testaments led to his conversion to Christianity.
He was unanimously elected bishop of Poitiers in 350. He came into authority during a deep dispute and quickly became embroiled in a controversy about the Trinity: he supported Athanasius’s understanding of the Trinity and the full divinity of the Son. Unfortunately, this position put Hilary out of favor with Emperor Constantius II, who, in 355, ordered all bishops to sign a condemnation against Athanasius. Hillary refused, which prompted a four-year exile to Phrygia, located in modern-day Turkey.
He was not idle in exile. Hilary continued to function as bishop to his diocese, writing two of his most important books, an epistle, and many letters to leaders throughout the church. Among his many achievements, Hilary introduced Greek doctrine to Western Christianity. He was a prolific writer, including the critically important book, De Trinitate (On the Trinity). Three hymns are attributed to Hilary, including “Hail this day’s joyful return,” found in the 1982 Hymnal.
Hilary’s legacy is far-reaching, with Saint Augustine of Hippo calling him “the illustrious doctor of the churches,” and Saint Jerome considering him “the trumpet of the Latins against the Arians.” Pope Pius IX named Hilary a doctor of the church in 1851, one of only 36 doctors of the church, so named in recognition of his significant contributions to theology. He is considered the patron saint of lawyers. Hilary died in 367 in the same city where he was born, and his feast day is celebrated on January 13.
Hilary’s depth of understanding about the existence of God is exemplified in one of his more famous quotations: “There is no space where God is not; space does not exist apart from Him. He is in heaven, in hell, beyond the seas; dwelling in all things and enveloping all. Thus He embraces, and is embraced by, the universe, confined to no part of it but pervading all.”
Collect for Hilary of Poitiers
Keep us steadfast, Lord God, in that true faith that we professed at our baptism; that, like your servant Hilary of Poitiers, we may rejoice in having you for our Father, and may abide in your Son, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; for you live and reign for ever and ever as one God in Trinity of Persons. Amen.
287 comments on “Melania the Elder vs. Hilary of Poitiers”
I am loathe to comment negatively in this space (or anywhere, really), but here I am. I recognize that Hilary of Poitiers' contributions to the Church are profound. I realize that he was very much of his time and place and that it is an extremely fraught proposition to critique generations past based upon modern sensibilities. And I realize that there is no one righteous; no, not one. However, like other heroes of the faith (here's looking at you, Martin Luther), it is difficult in today's climate to overlook Hilary's clear and strident anti-semitism, which - given his influence - was not historically benign. But that's a problem for us in our own day as well, right? Should a glaring negative nullify an entire body of work, or can we acknowledge it, call it what it is, and say, “Nevertheless…” While I'm mulling that over today, Melanie gets my vote.
Thank you for this caveat. I am glad I didn't vote for Hilary. I looked him up based on your comment; he wrote: “Jews are a perverse people accursed by God forever.” I could not vote for this person, however adept he was at trinitarian gymnastics. Sadly, anti-semitism has deep roots in Christian ideology. Even the anglican divines of the 16th and 17th centuries deprecated vestments on account of their "Aaronism." Koinonia House has a site discussing Replacement Theory and its "enablers," including Origen, Hilary, Augustine, and Jerome, which I found sobering and disheartening:
https://www.khouse.org/articles/2020/1372/
I voted for Melania, but I am really not enthusiastic about saints who leave their spouses and children to become ascetics and "serve God." The church seems to have leaned towards these extreme types. I lean towards the Visitation sisters who taught me and whose founders were widows who took their children with them as they founded convents.
Weird day. I kinda expected to struggle wanting to vote for both (as I did Saturday) and was surprised to find I couldn't connect to either via today's write ups. (Which surely connected with other people and personalities, just fell flat for me...)
But for the first time in however many year's I've been doing this, it occurred to me Saturday to pull out my Celtic Daily Prayers book and check to see who all might be in there (I knew Teresa and Hild are and that's what initiated it) and, lo and behold, Hilary was in there, too! Just a little blurb. But in one of my favorite books. So that was my tipping point today!
Good to live in the west so the problems can be ironed out before I rise. I have sympathy for the specialists who resolved the problem as well as our esteemed leaders. Remember, we wouldn't be here if everyone played honestly.
My vote went through, but the one I really wanted to vote for was John Cabot. That is one great poem.
Move to the Pacific Coast where I had no trouble voting . Hilary for me
Not sure my vote registered, and it’s past noon EST.
It was for Hilary, by the way.
Voting worked fine for me! Hopefully whatever the glitch was is fixed now. I had to go with Hilary today. I just couldn't get past the fact that Melania left her poor surviving little boy with a guardian and left to start a new life. Poor little guy.
Melania may have been a devout Christian, but I cannot imagine abandoning a child and losing siblings and father!!!
No one has commented on the clever pairing of Melanie vs. Hilary (even tho H was a man)! I for one laughed out loud
The SEC rocks.
Women who are mothers are mothers over and above anything else to me. People do have reasons for adopting their children out but leaving her son behind to become an ascetic lost my vote. Going to visit him as an adult doesn't count.
Clearly, it pays to come here in the middle of the day to vote. I was able to cast my lot in with Hilary.
Both candidates contributed mightily to the foundations of Christian thought, but Hilary seems more central to the story. Plus, he stood up to an emperor for his beliefs. Hilary for the win.
Just a coincidence that there were voting issues on the day that Melania is pitted against Hilary?
It took three tries to be able to vote. Once again, an interesting an interesting cast of characters.
I like Melania because she wanted to worship God all the time. I like that.
(Note from Joanna's mom: we are a house divided today. I cannot vote for someone who abandoned her child, no matter the reason. Joanna voted for Melania, and I will be voting for Hilary.)
Thank you Joanna. You said it very well!
Okay I have to say, I grinned this morning seeing a Melania v. Hilary matchup. The executive committee had fun with a play on names that are in our current political arena!
I really enjoy Lent Madness- Thank you!
Any one who can understand the Trinity deserves to go way beyond the first round.
It’s 1:28, and I voted just fine. I voted for Hilary, because Melania turned me off when she left her child to go be a nun. Raise your child, THEN go be a nun.
Could have used more clarification on the theological positions each candidate took.
Leaving that child may have been a blessing. She had suffered great loss already. You and I don't have enough information on that topic, unfortunately. It's curious why it was included.
Thank you for making it possible to praise a post with a click of the heart. I only just discovered it. Yay! Also, props for the bravery of the Supreme ones in changing a site visited by so many Episcopalians. That takes a kvetch-proof vest (which, if indeed you have them, would make great merch for the Lentorium).
I’m unable to vote again today.
Earlier today my vote didn't go through. (I think?) I'm not double voting.
Had to vote for Hilary. Shout out to Poitiers where my mother in law is from. Current cousins who live there.
I wasn't sure who to vote for. Both candidates accomplishments seem to be primarily theological. I appreciate Melania's support of monasteries, I do consider them to be a positive influence on our society, at least as exemplars of living according to religious principals, something sadly lacking in most of the people you are most likely to see featured in the media today. I have a great interest in contemplative development myself, and for that reason I will cast my vote for Hilary in gratitude for his "there is no space where God is not" line.
Thanks to you, O SEC. My vote (running Windows 11) went right through.
Wanted to vote for Melania, but went with Hilary from my pastoral and academic leanings. Wanted to vote for Melania because she was obviously incredibly rich and used her money for good. We the Church seem to condemn the rich for being rich.
So many parallels and touch points! Such legacies. . .eenie, meanie, miney, moe. . .
I am still having trouble voting. I tried 3 times before vote accepted. It kept saying, no selection. So once again, I may have inadvertently voted several times.
Good works vs. Good words is always a contest breaker for me. I voted for Melania, although I see it's a hopeless loss ahead for her. Oh, well.
Hilary won my vote today- love that hymn!
Patience is a virtue. All you early birds need to calm down and sip your morning cuppa at a leisurely pace. I just voted before 3pm and bingo.