What is St. Ambrose?

Saint Ambrose
Saint Ambrose, mosaic in the basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan
Born	between AD 337 and 340,  Trier, southern Gaul
Died	4 April AD 397,  Milan, Italy
Venerated in	Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church Lutheran Church
Major shrine	Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan, where is his body
Feast	December 7[1]
Attributes	Beehive, child, whip, bones
Patronage	bee keepers; bees; candle makers; domestic animals; French Commissariat; learning; Milan, Italy; students; wax refiners

Saint Ambrose^[2] (c. 338 – 4 April 397), was a Frankish bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the fourth century. He is counted as one of the four original doctors of the Church.

Life

Worldly career

Ambrose was a Frankish citizen of Rome, born and raised between about 337 and 340 in Trier, into a Christian family. He was the son of a praetorian prefect of Gallia Narbonensis^[1]; his mother was a woman of intellect and piety. There is a legend that as an infant, a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle, leaving behind a drop of honey. His father considered this a sign of his future eloquence and honeyed-tongue. For this reason, bees and beehives often appear in the saint's symbology.

After the early death of his father, Ambrose followed his father's career. He was educated in Rome, studying literature, law, and rhetoric. Praetor Anicius Probus first gave him a place in the council and then in about 372 made him consular prefect of Liguria and Emilia, with headquarters at Milan, which was then beside Rome the second capital in Italy^[1]. Ambrose made an excellent administrator in this important position and soon became very popular.

Bishop of Milan

There was a deep conflict in the diocese of Milan as well as the rest of the Church between the Trinitarians and the Arians. In 374, Auxentius, bishop of Milan, died, and the Arians challenged the succession. The prefect went personally to the basilica where the election should take place, to prevent an uproar which was probable in this crisis. His address was interrupted by a call "Ambrose for bishop!" which was taken up by others upon which he was univocally elected bishop.

Ambrose was a likely candidate in this situation, because he was known to be personally Trinitarian, but also acceptable to Arians due to the charity shown in theological matters in this regard. At first he energetically refused the office, for which he was in no way prepared - he was so far only catechumen with no theological training.^[1] Only by intervention of the emperor he gave in and got within a week baptism and ordination and was duly installed as bishop of Milan.

As bishop, he immediately adopted an ascetic lifestyle, apportioned his money to the poor, donating all of his land, making only provision for his sister Marcellina, and committed the care of his family to his brother.

Ambrose and Arians

According to legend, Ambrose immediately and forcefully stopped the Arian heresy in Milan. He moved more realistically and deliberately. At that time Arianism dominated especially among the higher levels of society. In his pursuit of the study of theology with Simplician, a presbyter of Rome he was to excel. Using his excellent knowledge of Greek, which was then rare in the West, to his advantage, he studied the Hebrew Bible and Greek authors like Philo, Origenes, Athanasius and Basil of Caesarea, with whom he was also exchanging letters. (See letter of Basil to Ambrose) He applied this knowledge as preacher, concentrating especially on exegesis of the Old Testament, and his rhetorical abilities impressed Augustine of Hippo, who hitherto had thought poorly of Christian preachers.

In the confrontation with Arians, Ambrose sought to theologically refute their propositions, considered as heretical. The Arians appealled to many high level leaders and clergy in both the Western and Eastern empires. Although the western Emperor Gratian held orthodox belief in the Nicene creed, the younger Valentinian, who became his colleague in the empire, adhered to the Arian creed. Ambrose did not sway the young prince's position. In the East, Emperor Theodosius I likewise professed the Nicene creed; but there were many adherents of Arianism throughout his dominions, especially among the higher clergy.

In this contested state of religious opinion, two leaders of the Arians, bishops Palladius of Ratiaria and Secundianus of Singidunum, confident of numbers, prevailed upon Gratian to call a general council from all parts of the empire. This request appeared so equitable that he complied without hesitation. However, Ambrose feared the consequences and prevailed upon the emperor to have the matter determined by a council of the Western bishops. Accordingly, a synod composed of thirty-two bishops was held at Aquileia in the year 381. Ambrose was elected president and Palladius, being called upon to defend his opinions, declined. A vote was then taken, when Palladius and his associate Secundianus were deposed from the episcopal office.

Nevertheless, the increasing strength of the Arians proved a formidable task for Ambrose. In 386 the emperor and his mother Justina, along with a considerable number of clergy and laity, especially military, professed the Arian faith. They attempted to turn over two churches in Milan, one in the city, the other in the suburbs, to the Arians. Ambrose refused and was required to answer for his conduct before the council.^[1] He went, his eloquence in defense of the Church reportedly overawed the ministers of Emperor Valentinian, so he was permitted to retire without making the surrender of the churches. The day following, when he was performing divine service in the basilica, the prefect of the city came to persuade him to give up at least the Portian church in the suburbs. As he still continued obstinate, the court proceeded to violent measures : the officers of the household were commanded to prepare the Basilica and the Portian churches to celebrate divine service upon the arrival of the emperor and his mother at the ensuing festival of Easter.

In spite of Imperial opposition, Bishop Ambrose declared:

If you demand my person, I am ready to submit: carry me to prison or to death, I will not resist; but I will never betray the church of Christ. I will not call upon the people to succour me; I will die at the foot of the altar rather than desert it. The tumult of the people I will not encourage: but God alone can appease it.

Ambrose and emperors

The imperial court was displeased with the religious principles of Ambrose, however his aid was soon solicited by the Emperor. When Magnus Maximus usurped the supreme power in Gaul, and was meditating a descent upon Italy, Valentinian sent Ambrose to dissuade him from the undertaking, and the embassy was successful.

On a second attempt of the same kind Ambrose was again employed; and although he was unsuccessful, it cannot be doubted that, if his advice had been followed, the schemes of the usurper would have proved abortive; but the enemy was permitted to enter Italy; and Milan was taken. Justina and her son fled; but Ambrose remained at his post, and did good service to many of the sufferers by causing the plate of the church to be melted for their relief.

Ambrose was equally zealous in combating the attempt made by the upholders of the old state religion to resist the enactments of Christian emperors. The pagan party was led by Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, consul in 391, who presented to Valentinian II a forcible but unsuccessful petition praying for the restoration of the Altar of Victory to its ancient station in the hall of the Roman Senate, the proper support of seven Vestal Virgins, and the regular observance of the other pagan ceremonies.

To this petition Ambrose replied in a letter to Valentinian, arguing that the devoted worshipers of idols had often been forsaken by their deities; that the native valour of the Roman soldiers had gained their victories, and not the pretended influence of pagan priests; that these idolatrous worshipers requested for themselves what they refused to Christians; that voluntary was more honourable than constrained virginity; that as the Christian ministers declined to receive temporal emoluments, they should also be denied to pagan priests; that it was absurd to suppose that God would inflict a famine upon the empire for neglecting to support a religious system contrary to His will as revealed in the Holy Scriptures; that the whole process of nature encouraged innovations, and that all nations had permitted them even in religion; that heathen sacrifices were offensive to Christians; and that it was the duty of a Christian prince to suppress pagan ceremonies. In the epistles of Symmachus and of Ambrose both the petition and the reply are preserved.

To support the logic of his argument, Ambrose halted the celebration of the Eucharist, essentially holding the Christian community hostage, until Theodosius agreed to abort the investigation without requiring reparations to be made by the bishop.

Theodosius I, the emperor of the East, espoused the cause of Justina, and regained the kingdom. Theodosius was threatened with excommunication by Ambrose for the massacre of 7,000 persons at Thessalonica in 390, after the murder of the Roman governor there by rioters.^[1] Ambrose told Theodosius to imitate David in his repentance as he had imitated him in guilt - Ambrose readmitted the emperor only after several months of penance to the Eucharist. This incident shows the strong position of a bishop in the Western part of the empire, even when facing a strong emperor - the controversy of John Chrysostom with a much weaker emperor a few years later in Constantinople led to a crushing defeat of the bishop.

Ambrose's influence upon Theodosius is credited with eliciting the enactment of the "Theodosian decrees" of 391 (see entry Theodosius I).

In 392, after the assassination of Valentinian II and the usurpation of Eugenius, Ambrose supplicated the emperor for the pardon of those who had supported Eugenius after Theodosius was eventually victorious. Soon after acquiring the undisputed possession of the Roman empire, Theodosius died at Milan in 395, and two years later (April 4, 397) Ambrose also died. He was succeeded as bishop of Milan by Simplician. Ambrose's body may still be viewed in the church of S. Ambrogio in Milan, where it has been continuously venerated — along with the bodies identified in his time as being those of Sts. Gervase and Protase — and is one of the oldest extant bodies of historical personages known outside Egypt.

Character

Many circumstances in the history of Ambrose are characteristic of the general spirit of the times. The chief causes of his victory over his opponents were his great popularity and the reverence paid to the episcopal character at that period. But it must also be noted that he used several indirect means to obtain and support his authority with the people.

He was liberal to the poor; it was his custom to comment severely in his preaching on the public characters of his times; and he introduced popular reforms in the order and manner of public worship. It is alleged, too, that at a time when the influence of Ambrose required vigorous support, he was admonished in a dream to search for, and found under the pavement of the church, the remains of two martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius. The bodies, though they would have to have been hundreds of years old, looked as if they had just died. The applause of the people was mingled with the derision of the court party.

Theology

Ambrose ranks with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great, as one of the Latin Doctors of the Church. Theologians compare him with Hilary, who they claim fell short of Ambrose's administrative excellence but demonstrated greater theological ability. He succeeded as a theologian despite his juridical training and his comparatively late handling of Biblical and doctrinal subjects.

His spiritual successor, Augustine, whose conversion was helped by Ambrose's sermons, owes more to him than to any writer except Paul.

Ambrose's intense episcopal consciousness furthered the growing doctrine of the Church and its sacerdotal ministry, while the prevalent asceticism of the day, continuing the Stoic and Ciceronian training of his youth, enabled him to promulgate a lofty standard of Christian ethics. Thus we have the De officiis ministrorum, De viduis, De virginitate and De paenitentia.

Writings

• Writings of St. Ambrose including "On beliefs in Resurrection" and "On the Holy Spirit"

In matters of exegesis he is, like Hilary, an Alexandrian. In dogma he follows Basil of Caesarea and other Greek authors, but nevertheless gives a distinctly Western cast to the speculations of which he treats. This is particularly manifest in the weightier emphasis which he lays upon human sin and divine grace, and in the place which he assigns to faith in the individual Christian life.

• De fide ad Gratianum Augustum (On Faith, to Gratian Augustus)
• De officiis (On the Offices of Ministers, an important ecclesiastical handbook)
• De Spiritu Sancto (On the Holy Ghost)
• De incarnationis Dominicae sacramento (On the Sacrament of the Incarnation of the Lord)
• De mysteriis (On the Mysteries)
• Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam (Commentary on the Gospel according to Luke)
• Ethical works: De bono mortis (Death as a Good); De fuga saeculi (Flight From the World); De institutione virginis et sanctae Mariae virginitate perpetua ad Eusebium (On the Birth of the Virgin and the Perpetual Virginity of Mary); De Nabuthae (On Naboth); De paenitentia (On Repentance); De paradiso (On Paradise); De sacramentis (On the Sacraments); De viduis (On Widows); De virginibus (On Virgins); De virginitate (On Virginity); Exhortatio virginitatis (Exhortation to Virginity); De sacramento regenerationis sive de philosophia (On the Sacrament of Rebirth, or, On Philosophy [fragments])
• Homiletic commentaries on the Old Testament: the Hexaemeron (Six Days of Creation); De Helia et ieiunio (On Elijah and Fasting); De Iacob et vita beata (On Jacob and the Happy Life); De Abraham; De Cain et Abel; De Ioseph (Joseph); De Isaac vel anima (On Isaac, or The Soul); De Noe (Noah); De interpellatione Iob et David (On the Prayer of Job and David); De patriarchis (On the Patriarchs); De Tobia (Tobit); Explanatio psalmorum (Explanation of the Psalms); Explanatio symboli (Commentary on the Symbol).
• De obitu Theodosii; De obitu Valentiniani; De excessu fratris Satyri (funeral orations)
• 91 letters
• A collection of hymns
• Fragments of sermons
• Ambrosiaster or the "pseudo-Ambrose" is a brief commentary on Paul's Epistles, which was long attributed to Ambrose.

Church music

Main article: Ambrosian Hymnography

Ambrose is traditionally credited but not actually known to have composed any of the repertory of Ambrosian chant also known simply as "chant, a method of chanting, or one side of the choir alternately responding to the other, much as the later pope St. Gregory I the Great is not known to have composed any Gregorian chant, the plainsong or "Romish chant. However, Ambrosian chant was named in his honor due to his contributions to the music of the Church; he is credited with introducing hymnody from the Eastern Church into the West.

Catching the impulse from Hilary and confirmed in it by the success of Arian psalmody, Ambrose composed several original hymns as well, four of which still survive, along with music which may not have changed too much from the original melodies. Each of these hymns has eight four-line stanzas and is written in strict iambic tetrameter. Marked by dignified simplicity, they served as a fruitful model for later times.

• Deus Creator Omnium
• Aeterne rerum conditor
• Jam surgit hora tertia
• ''Jam Christus astra ascendante"
• Veni redemptor gentium (a Christmas hymn)
• Text of some Ambrosian Hymns

In his writings, Ambrose refers only to the performance of antiphonal psalms, in which solo singing of psalm verses alternated with a congregational refrain called an antiphon.

St. Ambrose was also traditionally credited with composing the hymn Te Deum, which he is said to have composed when he baptised Saint Augustine, his celebrated convert.

Ambrose and reading

Ambrose is the subject of a curious anecdote in Augustine's Confessions which bears on the history of reading:

When [Ambrose] read, his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still. Anyone could approach him freely and guests were not commonly announced, so that often, when we came to visit him, we found him reading like this in silence, for he never read aloud.

The extraordinary aspect of this passage, of course, is that Augustine felt it noteworthy that Ambrose could read silently, implying that hardly anyone else could at the time.

Others opine that what was well written was intended to be read aloud in the ancient world, and this was customary. Ambrose surprised Augustine not by his ability to read silently, but by his habit of reading silently.

See also

• Ambrosians
• Ambrosian hymnography
• Ambrosian Liturgy and Rite.
• St. Ambrose Basilica, Milan
• St. Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa
• Ambrose University College

Notes

External links

• Writings of St. Ambrose
• Official Catholic Encyclopedia Live Article on St. Ambrose
• Early Christian writings: Letters of St. Ambrose of Milan
• Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Works of Ambrose of Milan
• Hymni Ambrosii (latin)
• EarlyChurch.org.uk Extensive bibliography
• Ambrose's works: text, concordances and frequency list
• Ambrose at The Online Library of Liberty
• Opera Omnia
• The Most Honorable Order of Saint Ambrose An order of chivalry that claims the Saint as patron.

References

• Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-140-51312-4.
• Saint Ambrose at the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Patron Saints: Ambrose

•  • [ e] Doctors of the Church

St. Gregory the Great St.Ambrose St. Augustine St. Jerome St. John Chrysostom St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzus St. Athanasius St. Thomas Aquinas St. Bonaventure St. Anselm St. Isidore St. Peter Chrysologus St. Leo the Great St. Peter Damian St. Bernard St. Hilary of Poitiers St. Alphonsus Liguori St. Francis de Sales St. Cyril of Alexandria St. Cyril of Jerusalem St. John Damascene St. Bede the Venerable St. Ephrem St. Peter Canisius St. John of the Cross St. Robert Bellarmine St. Albertus Magnus St. Anthony of Padua St. Lawrence of Brindisi St. Teresa of Avila St. Catherine of Siena St. Thrse of Lisieux