Ambrose

You will most likely be handed the work before you feel ready for it, and no one will wait while you catch up. Ambrose was pushed from the governor's bench to the bishop's chair inside a week and admitted in writing that he was teaching what he had not yet learned; the first thing he says he had to learn was silence, so that he might be able to speak. That is not modesty for its own sake. It is the discipline of a man who knew that his own voice could condemn him before anyone else acquitted him, and who went on to spend that voice on emperors when it mattered. Where has something been asked of you that you do not feel qualified to carry, and what would it look like to begin learning inside the work rather than waiting to be ready before it?

What we know of Ambrose comes first from Ambrose. About ninety of his letters survive, along with his treatises and three funeral orations, and the great episodes of his episcopate are documented in his own hand: Letter 20 to his sister from inside the besieged basilica, the sermon against Auxentius preached during the same crisis, Letter 51 to Theodosius after Thessalonica, Letter 40 on Callinicum. These are a bishop's account of his own conflicts and carry a bishop's framing, but they are contemporary and they are his.

Beside them stand two near witnesses. Augustine was in Milan from 384 to 387 and writes about Ambrose throughout the Confessions, not as a hagiographer but as a supporting character's biographer: the preaching, the crowds of petitioners, the martyrs' relics of 386, his own baptism in 387. Paulinus of Milan, Ambrose's own notary, wrote the Life of Ambrose at Augustine's request, dated by scholars somewhere between about 412 and 422; he is the source for the deathbed and for the legend of bees settling on the infant's face. He should not be confused with Paulinus of Nola, a contemporary poet-bishop, nor with the eighth-century Lombard historian Paulinus the Deacon. Fifth-century Greek historians (Rufinus, Socrates, Sozomen) corroborate the public episodes from outside Milan, and the imperial legal record supplies dating anchors independent of the church's own memory.

The public chronology is firm: the consecration of 7 December 374, the Council of Aquileia in 381 at which the Arian bishops Palladius and Secundianus were deposed, the basilica standoff of 385 and 386, Callinicum in 388, Thessalonica in 390, the death on 4 April 397. The private chronology is thinner and rests largely on a nineteenth-century chronological table. His birth year is given as 339 or 340; the 339 figure rests on his own Letter 49, dated 392, in which he says he is fifty-three, which requires both the letter's date and the round number to be exact. He was born at Trier, most likely; older reference works name Arles and Lyons as rivals for the honour. His father is traditionally identified as an Ambrosius who was praetorian prefect of Gaul, though some scholars have proposed instead an official named Uranius addressed in an imperial constitution of 3 February 339, a document dated inside the disputed birth year. His mother is unnamed in every source. The year his brother Satyrus died is given as 378 in one standard reference and 379 in another, and no source reconciles them.

Two things the tradition remembers should be stated plainly. The scene of Ambrose barring Theodosius at the cathedral door, painted by Rubens and by van Dyck and dramatized as early as the mid-fifth century by Theodoret, is called by modern historians a pious fiction; the attested instrument is Letter 51. And the discovery of Gervasius and Protasius in June 386, martyrs with no attested veneration before Ambrose found them, came within about a year of his public defeat of the Arian court, in a conflict where relics were useful. The coincidence is documented and dateable. The obvious suspicion about it, this research pass could not attach to any named scholar in print, and it is left where it stands: Augustine, present and not credulous, recorded the healing as verified and widely witnessed.

Ambrose was never formally canonized; the papal process did not yet exist, and his standing rests on veneration reaching back beyond memory to his burial in 397. The one traceable formal act came in 1298, when Boniface VIII named him with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great as the four great Doctors of the Latin Church and ordered their feasts kept throughout the Church.

He is shown with a beehive, from the tradition that bees settled on the sleeping infant's mouth and left honey there, a sign his father read as future eloquence; with a knotted scourge, for his firmness against the Arians; with book and quill, as a Doctor; and with an ox, which belongs properly to Luke and reaches Ambrose only because he wrote the commentary on Luke's Gospel. A gold-ground mosaic of the fifth century in the chapel of San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro, attached to his own basilica, is held to be the oldest surviving portrait of him.

His body has never been divided or moved to another city, which is unusual among ancient saints. It was placed with the two martyrs in a porphyry sarcophagus under the altar by Archbishop Angilbert II in 835, forgotten, and found again during restoration in 1864; since 1897 the three lie visibly together in a glass and silver urn in the crypt beneath the high altar of Sant'Ambrogio. The Ambrosian Rite and Ambrosian chant, which bear his name though their content is not simply what he wrote, are still celebrated in about a thousand parishes around Milan. The seventh of December is a civic holiday in the city he served.

Ambrose is said of a stone named ambra, which is much sweet, odorant and precious, and also it is much precious in the church, and much sweet smelling in deeds and in words. Or Ambrose may be said of ambra and syos which is as much to say as God, for Ambrose is as much to say as amber of God, for Ambrose felt God in him, and God was smelled and odoured by him over all where as he was. Or he was said of ambor in Greek, which is to say as father of light, and of sior, that is a little child that is a father of many sons by spiritual generation, clear and full of light in exposition of holy Scripture, and was little in his humble conversation. Or thus as is said in the glossary, Ambrose is odour and savour celestial, he was odour of heaven by great renomee smelling, savour by contemplation within him, an honeycomb by sweet exposition of scriptures, meat of angels by his glorious life. And Paulinus, bishop of Volusian, wrote his life unto S. Austin.

Of the Life of S. Ambrose.

S. Ambrose was son of Ambrose, provost of Rome, of whom it happed as he lay in his cradle in the hall of the prætorium, that there came a swarm of bees which fell on his visage and his mouth, and after, they departed and flew up in the air so high that they might not be seen. When this was done, the father, which was hereof dismayed, said: If this child live, there shall be some great thing of him. After, when he was a little grown, he beheld his mother and his sister, which was a sacred virgin, kiss the priests' hand when they offered, and he playing with his sister put forth his hand for to kiss, and said that so behoved her to do to him. And she, not understanding him, refused it. After, he was set to school at Rome, and became to be so good a clerk that he determined the causes of the palace, and therefore Valentinian the emperor delivered him to govern, two provinces named Liguria and Æmilia. Then when he came into Milan it happed that the bishop was dead, and the people were assembled to provide for another, but, between the Arians and the good christian men, for the election, fell a great sedition and discord. And Ambrose for to appease this sedition went thither, and the voice of a child was heard saying: Ambrose ought to be bishop: and anon all the people accorded thereto wholly, and began for to cry: Ambrose! Ambrose! But Ambrose defended as much as he might, and alway the people cried: Ambrose! Then for to make the people cease, he went out of the church, and went up on a scaffold, and made the people to be beaten, against the usage and custom, for to let them, that they should name him no more. But yet they left not for all that, but the people said: Your sin be upon us. Then he being sore troubled, went home, and suffered common women to enter openly into his house, to the end that when the people saw that, they should revoke their election; but for all that they cried as they did tofore and said: Your sins be upon us. When S. Ambrose saw that he might not empesh the election he fled away, but the people awaited upon him and took him at the issue of the gate, and kept him so long till they had grant of the emperor. And when the emperor knew hereof he had great joy, because that the judge that he had sent for the provinces was chosen to be their bishop, and also he was glad because his word was accomplished, for the emperor said to Ambrose when he sent him thither: Go, said he, and abide not there as a judge but as a bishop.

S. Ambrose in the meanwhile that they abode the answer of the emperor fled yet away, but he was taken again and was baptized, for he was not tofore baptized, how well that he was christian in will. And the eighth day after he was consecrate and stalled bishop of Milan. And four years after that he went to Rome, and there his sister, the virgin, kissed his hand as of a priest, and he smiling said: Lo! as I told you, now you kiss my hand as of a priest.

It happed after that, when S. Ambrose went to another city to the election of a bishop, Justina the empress, and others of the sect of the Arians would not consent to the good christian men, but would have one of their sect. Then one of the virgins of the empress, much fair, took S. Ambrose and drew him by his vestments and would have made him to be beaten because he would not hold the party of the women. Then S. Ambrose said to her: If I be not worthy to be a bishop, yet you ought not to lay hand upon me ne none other bishop, you have laid hand on me, you ought much redoubt and dread the judgment of God. And therefore God confirmed his sentence on her, for the next day she was borne to her grave and was dead. Thus was she rewarded for the villainy that she had done, and all the other were thereby sore afraid. After this, when he was returned to Milan he suffered many assaults and persecutions of the empress Justina, for she moved, by gifts and by honours, much people against S. Ambrose, and many there were that enforced them to send him in exile, and among all others there was one mounted in so great madness and fury against him, that he hired him an house by the church because he would have therein a cart for to set S. Ambrose thereon and lead him in to exile. But that same fell to him, for he himself was sent in exile in the same cart the same day that he would have led away S. Ambrose. To whom yet S. Ambrose did good for evil, for he ministered to him his costs and necessaries. S. Ambrose also established in the church, song and offices at Milan first.

There were at that time in Milan many men vexed and beset with devils, which cried with high voice that S. Ambrose tormented them thus, but the empress Justina and the Arians said that S. Ambrose made them to say so for money that he gave to them. Then it happed that one of the Arians was out of his mind and said thus: Be they all tormented as I am that consent not to S. Ambrose, and therefore the other Arians drowned him in a deep piscine or pit. There was another heretic and an Arian, a sharp man and so hard that he was inconvertible, because no man might convert him to the faith. On a time he heard S. Ambrose preach, and he saw at his ear an angel that told him all that he preached, and when he had perceived this he began to sustain the faith to which he had been contrary.

After this it happed that an enchanter called devils to him and sent them to S. Ambrose for to annoy and grieve him, but the devils returned and said that they might not approach to his gate because there was a great fire all about his house. And this enchanter, after, when he was tormented of the provost for certain trespasses, he cried and said that he was tormented of S. Ambrose.

There was a man that had a devil within him, and after went to Milan, and anon, as he entered the city, the devil left him, and as soon as he went out of the city the devil re-entered in him again. Then he demanded him why he did so, and he answered because he was afeard of Ambrose.

After, it happed that a man being conducted and hired of Justina the empress, went to the bedside of S. Ambrose and would have put and riven his sword through his body, but anon his arm was dried up. Another that was vexed with a devil said that S. Ambrose tormented him, but S. Ambrose made him to be still, for Ambrose torments none, but that does the envy of you, for you see men ascend from whence you are fallen, and that is it which torments you, for Ambrose cannot be so blown and swollen as you are; then was he still and spake not.

When S. Ambrose went into the town he saw a man laugh because he saw another fall, then said Ambrose to him: You that laugh, beware that you fall not also, and after he fell, and thus was he taught that he should not mock his fellow. On a time S. Ambrose went unto the palace for to pray for a poor man, but the judge made to close the gate that he might not enter in; then S. Ambrose said: You shall come for to enter into the church, but you shall not enter, and yet shall the gates be open. And so it happed that after, the judge doubted his enemies and went to the church, but he might not enter in, and yet the gates were open.

S. Ambrose was of so great abstinence that he fasted every day save the Sunday or a solemn feast. He was of so great largess that he gave all to poor people and retained nothing for himself. He was of so great compassion that when any confessed to him his sin, he wept so bitterly that he would make the sinner to weep. He was of so great doubt that, when it was told to him of the death of any bishop, he would weep so sore that unnethe he might be comforted, and when it was demanded him why he wept for the death of good men, for he ought better to make joy because they went to heaven, then he answered: I weep not because they go tofore me, but because that unnethe and with great pain may any be found for to do well such offices. He was of so great steadfastness and so established in his purpose that he would not leave, for dread ne for grief that might be done to him, to reprove the emperor ne the other great men when they did things that they ought not to do, ne he would flatter no man. There was brought once tofore him a man which was grievously mismade; then said S. Ambrose: The body must be delivered to the devil and that the flesh go to the death, by which the spirit may be saved. Unnethe was the word out of his mouth but the devil began to torment him.

After, as it is said, on a time he went to Rome, and when he was on a time by the way harboured with a rich man, S. Ambrose began to demand him of his estate. That rich man answered: Sir, mine estate is happy enough and glorious, for I have riches enough, servants, varlets, children, nephews, cousins, friends, and kinsmen which serve me, and all my works and besoins come to my will, ne I have never thing that may anger ne trouble me. Then said S. Ambrose to them that were with him: Flee we hence, for our Lord God is not here, haste you fair children, haste you and let us abide here no longer lest the vengeance of God take us, and that we be not wrapped in the sins of these people. They departed and fled anon, but they were not gone far but that the earth opened and swallowed in all the house of this rich man, and there abode not as much as the step ne of himself ne of all that ever he had. Then said S. Ambrose: behold fair children how great pity and how great mercy God does to them that have adversity in this world, and how wroth he is to them that have the wealth and riches of this world. Of which thing appears yet the pit or foss which endures into this day in witness of this adventure.

When S. Ambrose beheld that avarice, which is root of all evils, grew more and more in much people, and specially in great men and in them that were in most great estate, which sold all for money, and with the ministers of the church he saw simony reign, he began to pray to God that he would take him away from the miseries of this world, and he impetred that which he desired. Then he called his fellowship, and said to them, in joying, that, he should abide with them unto the resurrection of our Lord. And a little tofore that he lay sick, as he expounded to his notary the forty-fourth psalm, suddenly, in the presence and sight of his notary, a fire in the manner of a shield covered his head and entered into his mouth. Then became his face as white as any snow, and anon after it came again to his first form, and that day he left his writing and inditing. Then began his malady to grieve him, and the Earl of Italy which was then at Milan called the gentlemen of the country, and said to them that if so great and good a man should go from them it should be great pity and great peril to all Italy, and said to them that they all should go with him to this holy man and pray him that he would get grant of our Lord of space and longer life. When S. Ambrose had heard their request he answered: Fair sons, I have not so lived among you that I am ashamed to live if it please God, ne I have no fear re dread of death, for we have a good Lord. In this time assembled his four deacons and began to treat who should be a good bishop after him, and they named secretly among themselves, that unnethe they themselves heard it, Simplician. S. Ambrose was far from them, they weened that he might not have heard them, and he cried on high thrice: He is old and he is good. When they heard him they were much abashed and departed, and sith after his death they chose the same Simplician for the good witness that S. Ambrose had borne of him.

A bishop which was named Honorius, that abode the death of S. Ambrose, slept and heard a voice that thrice called him and said: Arise you up for he shall go his way anon. Then he arose anon hastily and went to Milan and gave to him the holy sacrament, the precious body of our Lord. And anon S. Ambrose laid his arms in form of a cross and made his prayers, and so departed and gave up his ghost among the words of his prayers, about the year of our Lord three hundred and eighty, the vigil of Easter. And when his body in the night was borne in to the church many children that were baptized, saw him, as they said, sitting in a chair honorably, and others showed him with their fingers to their father and others, and some said that they saw a star upon his body. There was a priest, that sat at meat with others, which said not well of him, but mislaid, but anon God so chastised him that he was borne from the table and died anon after. In the city of Carthage were three bishops together at dinner, and one of them spake evil by detraction of S. Ambrose, and there was a man that told what was befallen for such language to this aforesaid priest, but he mocked and japed so much that he felt a stroke mortal; that that same day he died and was buried.

It is found written in a chronicle that the emperor Valentinian was wroth because that in the city of Thessalonica the people had stoned to death his judges that were sent thither in his name, and for to avenge the same the emperor did do slay five thousand persons, great and little, good and evil, and as well them that had not trespassed as them that had deserved it. And when after this occision he came to Milan and would enter into the church, S. Ambrose came against him and defended him the entry, and said to him that after so great woodness you ought not to do so great presumption, but peradventure your power suffers not you to acknowledge your trespass. It appertains that reason surmount power. You are emperor, but that is for to punish the evil people. How are you so hardy to enter so boldly into the house of God whom you have horribly angered? How dare you with your feet touch his pavement? How dare you stretch your hands which be all bloody, and of whom the blood of innocents run and drop off. By what presumption dare you put forth your mouth to receive the precious body and blood of our Lord, of which mouth you have done the commandment of the devil? Go hence! go hence! and put not sin upon sin. Take the bond that our Lord has bounden you with, for it is given to you in the way of medicine. When the emperor heard these words, he was obedient and began to wail and weep, and returned into his palace and abode there long weeping. Then Ruffin the master of his knights demanded wherefore he so sorrowed and wept, and he answered Ruffn, you know not my sorrows, for I see that servants and poor beggars may enter into the church that I may not enter, for Ambrose has excommunicated me. And he saying this, at every word he sighed. Then said Ruffin to him, if you will I shall make him anon to assoil you. He answered: You may not, for Ambrose doubts not the force ne the power of the emperor, to the end that he hold firmly the law of God. And when Ruffin said more and more that he should make him incline to assoil him, then he sent him to Ambrose, and the emperor followed soon after much humbly. When S. Ambrose saw Ruffin come, he said to him: You have no more shame than an hound for to do such occision, and now come boldly to me. When Ruffin had prayed him long for to assoil the emperor, which came following him, S. Ambrose said to him: Certainly I defend to him the entry into the church, and if he will be a tyrant I will much gladly receive the death. Then returned Ruffin to the emperor, and recounted to him how he had done, and the emperor said: Certainly I shall go to him that I may receive of him villainy enough, for it is well right. When he was come to him he demanded of him absolution much devoutly. S. Ambrose demanded of him what penance have you done for so great wickedness? The emperor alleged to him that David had sinned and after had mercy. S. Ambrose said: You that have followed him that sinned, follow also him repentant. Then said the emperor: It appertains to you to give and enjoin penance, and I shall do it. Then he bade him do open penance and common tofore all the people, and the emperor received it gladly and refused it not. When the emperor was reconciled to the church he stood in the chancel. Then said to him S. Ambrose: What seekest thou here? He answered: I am here for to receive the sacred mysteries; and Ambrose said: This place appertains to no man but to priests. Go out, for you ought to be without the chancel and abide there with other. Then obeyed the emperor humbly and went out. And after, when the emperor came to Constantinople, and he stood without with the lay people, the bishop came and said to him that he should come into the chancel with the clerks, he answered that he would not, for he had learned of S. Ambrose what difference there was between an emperor and a priest. I have found a man of truth, my master Ambrose, and such a man ought to be a bishop.

The lives of the Saints Tyburtius and Valerian be contained in the life of Cicely, Virgin and Martyr.

The Iife of S.

• Ambrosius (am-BROH-zee-uhs)/æmˈbroʊziəs/
• Paulinus (paw-LY-nuhss)/pɔˈlaɪnəs/
• Θεοδόσιος (Theodosius, thee-uh-DOH-shus)/ˌθiːəˈdoʊʃəs/
• Aemilia-Liguria (ih-MIL-ee-uh li-GYOOR-ee-uh)/ɪˈmɪliə lɪˈɡjʊəriə/
• Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessalonica, thess-uh-luh-NY-kuh)/ˌθɛsələˈnaɪkə/
• consularis (kon-syoo-LAIR-iss)/ˌkɑnsjʊˈlɛərɪs/
• Deum (DAY-um)/ˈdeɪəm/
• Te Deum (tay-DAY-uhm)/teɪ ˈdeɪəm/
• Augustine/əˈɡʌstɪn/

British (Received Pronunciation): Paulinus /pɔːˈlaɪnəs/; consularis /ˌkɒnsjʊˈlɛərɪs/; Augustine /ɔːˈɡʌstɪn/

Almighty God, you gave your servant Ambrose special gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth revealed in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Readings for a Teacher of the Faith

Proverbs 3:13–26 · Psalm 119:89–106 · 1 John 1:1–10 · Matthew 13:47–52