Ambrose

Ambrose (339–97), bishop of Milan. He was born at Trier, son of the Pretorian Prefect of Gaul; he studied Greek, rhetoric and poetry, and became a successful advocate. In 370 he became Governor of Aemilia and Liguria, at Milan. On the death of its Arian bishop Auxentius, Ambrose appealed for peace at the assembly convoked to elect his successor. During his speech a voice, often said to be that of a child, cried out: ‘Ambrose for bishop.’ To his astonishment (as he was not even baptized), the whole crowd took up the slogan. In vain did he plead his unsuitability: within a week he was baptized and consecrated bishop (374). He studied Scripture and the writings of Origen and Basil with his tutor Simplicianus. He became an influential protagonist of their thought in the West; he encouraged monasticism, recommending the Virgin Mary as the patron and model of nuns; he also had an important share in the conversion of Augustine in 386.

His daily routine as bishop combined hard work with accessibility to all. As Milan was the administrative capital of the Western Empire, he came to play an important part in politics, guiding and sometimes reproving rulers. To Gratian, a young emperor, he wrote in 377 a work On the Faith to warn him against Arianism, of which his uncle Valens was the protector. After Gratian's murder, Ambrose persuaded the new emperor, Maximus, to be content with a part of the Empire and leave the rest for Valentinian II. An attempt to restore the cult of the goddess of Victory came to nothing through Ambrose's intervention. He also refused to give up a church in Milan for the worship of Arians at court, and was once besieged with his people in another church, for the same reason.

He told Valentinian that the emperor is in the Church, not above it. Not long after, Valentinian fled for protection to Theodosius, emperor of the East, who defeated and killed Maximus, thus becoming the real ruler in the West as well. His enormous power did not deter Ambrose from reproving him after the infamous massacre at Thessalonica of thousands of men, women, and children in reprisal for the death of a governor. Theodosius did public penance.

His principal works are on the Sacraments and on the Office of (clerical) Ministers, as well as catechetical instructions and the Commentary on Luke's Gospel. He also encouraged monasticism and the cults of the martyrs. Ambrose died before he was sixty. His body was translated under the high altar of his basilica in 835. His cult is ancient and well-established. In art he is often represented in episcopal vestments with the emblem of a scourge, symbolizing the penance he imposed on the emperor, or else with a beehive because a swarm of bees, symbolizing his future eloquence, settled on him when he was a child. In England there were no ancient dedications, but there are images of him as one of the four Latin Doctors (with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory).

Neither the present Ambrosian Rite nor the Ambrosian chant can be certainly traced to him, but he taught his people to sing hymns, composed by himself. Some of these survive in the Roman Breviary.

Feast: 7 December (the day of his consecration); but in B.C.P. 4 April (the day of his death).

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

• Contemporary materials for his Life in P.L., xiv. 65–114 (Life by Paulinus, tr. by F. R. Hoare, The Western Fathers, 1954); F. H. Dudden, The Life and Times of St. Ambrose (1935); J. R. Palanque, S. Ambroise et l'empire romain (1933); Works in P.L., xiv–xvii and in C.S.E.L., xxxii, lxii, lxiv, lxxiii, lxxviii–lxxix; Eng. tr. of his important catechetical works by R. H. Connolly (1952) and J. H. Srawley (1950); French tr. by G. Tissot of his influential Commentary on Luke in S.C. (1956–8); recent studies in English by N. B. McLynn (1994) and D. H. Williams (1995)