Melissa Yorio
Class: 2023
Program: MA in ECS
Area(s) of Interest: Hagiography; Late Roman & Early Christian cultural history and material culture; Syncretism of female religious figures in the early Christian world; Epigraphy; Historical Linguistics; Early monasticism; Christian mysticism; Historiography
Melissa Yorio is originally from Palm Coast, FL, and received her B.A. cum laude in Medieval & Renaissance Studies and Classics from Washington and Lee University in 2021. As an undergraduate, she wrote an honors thesis titled "Mary Among the Ancients: Female Intercessory Figures during Classical and Late Antique Plagues," which focused primarily on the role of the Virgin Mary during the First Plague Pandemic. At Notre Dame, she plans to continue her interdisciplinary studies of the early Christian period and she looks forward to being a teaching assistant.