Melania the Elder
Melania the Elder (l. c. 350-410) was a Desert Mother honored for her devotion to God and support of Christian orders.
Category Archives: Religion
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Paula of Rome
Saint Paula (l. 347-404) was the close associate of Saint Jerome who encouraged him to translate the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin, thus creating the Vulgate Translation, which continued in use for the next 1,500 years as the authoritative scripture of Christianity.
Faltonia Betitia Proba
Proba (l. c. 322-370) is the first female Christian writer solidly attested by documentation.
Jeanne de Jussie
Jeanne de Jussie’s Short Chronicle (1535) is an eyewitness account by the nun Jeanne de Jussie (l. 1503-1561) relating how the Protestant Reformation in Geneva, Switzerland, impacted the lives of the sisters of her convent of Poor Clares.
Marie Durand
Protestant Marie Durand (c. 1715-1776) was imprisoned for 38 years in the Tower of Constance at Aigues-Mortes in the south of France, liberated in 1768, and returned to her natal village where she died in 1776.
Poppaea Sabina
Poppaea Sabina (30-65 CE) was the wife of Praetorian prefect Rufrius Crispinius and then Marcus Salvius Otho (r. 69 CE) before she became the second wife of Roman emperor Nero (r. 54-68 CE).
Anna Reinhart
Anna Reinhart was a young woman of Zürich known for her exceptional beauty who secretly married one John von Knonau in 1504 after his father forbade their relationship.
Syncletica of Alexandria
Amma Syncletica of Alexandria (l. c. 270 to c. 350) is one of the best-known Desert Mothers and an early founder of the monastic tradition.
Macrina the Younger
Macrina the Younger (l. c. 330-379) was a Christian ascetic whose devotion to God inspired the work and life of her far more famous younger brothers, Saint Basil the Great (l. c. 329-379) and Saint Gregory of Nyssa (l. c. 335 to c. 395).
Cwenthryth of Mercia
Cwenthryth of Mercia (9th century CE) was the daughter of King Coenwulf (r. 796-821 CE). Little is known of her actual life but she later became infamous in the 12th century CE through the legend of St. Kenelm as the scheming sister who arranges her brother Kenelm’s death.