St. Sylvester was ordained and succeeded Pope Miltiades on January 31, 314 A.D. He sent representatives to the Council of Arles and at the first General Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. Arles condemned Donatism while Nicaea condemned Arianism. Tradition says that Sylvester received great grants of territory from Constantine after he cured the Emperor from leprosy. During his pontificate, many churches were built, including the basilica of St. Peter and St. John Lateran (died ca. 335 A.D.).
St. Columba of Sens is mentioned in Tradition as a Spaniard who left her parents when she was sixteen. She went to Gaul, was privately baptized at Vienne, and settled at Sens with a group of other Spaniards. She and her companions were executed for their faith by being beheaded near Meaux during the reign of Emperor Aurelian (died ca. 273 A.D.).
St. Melania the Younger was married against her will by her father. Her husband agreed however to respect her desire to devote her life to God. When her father passed away, she turned her family estate into a religious center. She became a religious philantrophist - helping churches and monasteries in Europe. In 406 A.D., because of the invading Goths, she, her husband and her mother and her followers, were led to Tagaste in Numidia, were they settled. Melania founded a monastery for men, and another for women. When her husband and her mother passed away, Melania built a cell near their tombs. As she started to attract others by her holiness, she built a convent for them (died ca. 439 A.D.).
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