Father Ambrose

“ Bitter were the tears shed in secret, and none to see or comfort her but Father Ambrose and her maiden, Marie Alloadec, her trusted friend and companion. And, after all, it was surprising how ill they comprehended, these two. The good father would strive to comfort her with a homily on the necessity of obedience and submission to Heaven, and would only shake his head gravely when she replied, weeping, that Heaven could have no share in breaking a maiden's heart, or else suggest, half hesitatingly, that perhaps her father might listen to her entreaties to enter the cloister. ”

“ Ambrose: 'God wishes all whom He creates to be saved; would to God, O men, that you would not fly and hide yourselves from Him; but even if you do He seeks you, and does not wish you to perish.' It is more probable that though many can and will fight God to the end and be lost, they will be fewer far than those whom He will tenderly, and in His own way, bring home to Himself. God is not only the Creator but the Father of all men without any exception. He has commanded us to address Him by this title : ' Our Father, who art in heaven.' All Christians do so ”

“ PALLADIUS said; ‘The Father is greater than the Son.’
Ambrose, Bishop, said; ‘In respect of the flesh the Son is less than the Father: in respect of Godhead He is equal to the Father: I read therefore that the Son of God is equal to the Father, as also the instances that have been adduced testify. But why should you wonder that He is less in respect of the flesh, when He has called Himself a servant, a stone, a worm, when He has said that He is less than the angels, for it is written: Heb. ”

“ Ambrose questions the heretics and exhibits their answer, which is, that the Son existed, indeed, before all time, yet was not co-eternal with the Father, whereat the Saint shows that they represent the Godhead as changeable, and further, that each Person must be believed to be eternal. ”

“ Ambrose placed the golden apple in the prettiest part of the country and tapped its side with the rod and it became a beautiful castle of gold, in which he married his sweetheart and lived with her happily. Some time after he returned to his father's land, where an immense number of strong soldiers had grown up since Ambrose had killed the dragons. The old king distributed his realm among his three sons, giving the most beautiful empires to Ambrose, who took his father to him and kept him in great honour. His wife bore pretty children who rode out every day on the Tátos. ”

“ His mother was a woman of intellect and piety. Ambrose was early destined to follow his father’s career, and was accordingly educated in Rome. He made such progress in literature, law and rhetoric, that the praetor Anicius Probus first gave him a place in the council and then made him consular prefect of Liguria and Emilia, with headquarters at Milan, where he made an excellent administrator. In 374 Auxentius, bishop of Milan, died, and the orthodox and Arian parties contended for the succession. ”

“ I think it necessary to make a record of another action worthy of mention performed by this bishop. A pagan of distinction insulted Gratian, affirming that he was unworthy of his father; and he was in consequence condemned to death. As he was being led out to execution, Ambrose went to the palace to implore a pardon. ”

“ In this treatise St. Ambrose shows that the Holy Spirit is God, and of one nature and substance with the Father and the Son. He makes use of the Greek writers, SS. Didymus, Basil the Great, and Athanasius, and was on this ground attacked by St. Jerome. See Rufinus, Apol. adv. Hieron. II. 23–25.
3. De Incarnationis Dominicæ Sacramento. The book on the Mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation owed its origin to a challenge to dispute publicly given to St. Ambrose by two Arian chamberlains of Gratian. On the day appointed they were, as Paulinus relates in his life of St. ”

“ I am amazed at the favour which was shown me yesterday at the Church of St. Ambrogio. I was accidentally allowed to be present at a private exposition of the relics of St. Ambrose and the Saints Gervasius and Protasius. I have seen complete every bone in St. Ambrose's body. There were present a great many of the clergy, three medici, and Father Secchi, who was there on account of his great knowledge of the Catacombs, to testify to the age, etc., of the remains. It was not quite in chance, for I wanted to go to Milan, solely to venerate St. ”

“ Ambrose is more corrupt than that of any other Father. See Alzog, Patrologie, p. 296. Ed. i.] —Cave, Hist. Lit. Vol. I. 262.—Schœneman, Biblíotheca historica PP. Lat. I. 388–419.—Silbert, Leben des heiligen Ambrosius, Vienna, 1841—Baunard, Histoire de St. Ambroise, Paris, 1872 [translated into German, Freiburg, 1873] .—Life of St. Ambrose, by Archdeacon Thornton, London, and other shorter sketches.—Fessler [Jungmann] , Institutiones Patrologiæ, I. 655 [also Patrologies of Mœhler, Alzog, etc.] . ”

“ Simplicianus ‘became a successor of the most blessed Ambrose, Bishop of the Church of Milan’ (Aug. Retract. ii. 1) . To him St. Augustin wrote two books, De Diversis Quæstionibus (Op. t. vi. p. 82 sq.) , and calls him ‘father’ (ibid.) ”

“ Ambrose should turn his Amanuensis out of doors, because of an indecent motion of his head, which went backwards and forwards like a flail;—or that Democritus should conceive Protagoras to be a scholar, from seeing him bind up a faggot, and thrusting, as he did it, the small twigs inwards.—There are a thousand unnoticed openings, continued my father, which let a penetrating eye at once into a man's soul; ”

“ When Simplicianus is spoken of above as “the father of Ambrose in receiving Thy grace,” reference is doubtless made to his having been instrumental in his conversion—he having “begotten” him “through the gospel” (1 Cor. iv. 15) . Ambrose, when writing to him (Ep. 65) , concludes, “Vale, et nos parentis affectu dilige, ut facis.”↑ Col. ii. 8.↑ i.e. the Platonists.↑ In like manner Augustin, in his De Civ. Dei (viii. 5) , says: “No philosophers come nearer to us than the Platonists;” and elsewhere, in the same book, he speaks, in exalted terms, of their superiority to other philosophers. ”

“ Hereafter, you will, by God’s favour, reach a more mature age, and then you will judge what kind of Bishop he must be who submits the rights of the priesthood to laymen. Your father, who by God’s favour attained a riper age, used to say: ‘It is not for me to judge between Bishops:’ your Majesty now says, ‘I ought to judge.’ He, although baptized into Christ, considered himself unequal to the weight of so important a judgment ”

“ In each house father, mother, and children fall on their knees before the image or picture of some saint, and repeat their prayers. The devotions over, each child kisses the hand of his father and his mother, at the same time wishing them good evening. ”

“ The contrary opinions condemned in Palladius, 53 &c. No man can say ‘Our Father’ who denies the Son of God, 443. Christians made sons of God by the Holy Spirit, 228. Through the death of Christ, 443. Spirit, the Holy Teaches how to pray, 233. Makes intercession for us, 234. S. Ambrose promises to write a treatise on, 41. True life His work, 228. Stater In the fish’s mouth, meaning of, 23. Stephen Supported in his death by the sight of Jesus, 349. Saw Jesus standing as his Advocate, 360. Soul Its nature, 224. Opinions of philosophers upon, ib. How subject to vanity, 225. Does not die, 42. ”

“ Amphilochius, at this time between thirty and forty years of age, was soon ordained and consecrated, perhaps, like Ambrose of Milan and Eusebius of Cæsarea per saltum, to the important see of Iconium, recently vacated by the death of Faustinus. Henceforward the intercourse between the spiritual father and the spiritual son, both by letters and by visits, was constant. The first visit of Amphilochius to Basil, as bishop, probably at Easter 374, not only gratified the older prelate, but made a deep impression on the Church of Cæsarea. ”

“ This fault therefore the priests cannot remove, nor the sin of him who offers himself in guile, and still harbours a desire of transgressing. For they cannot eat of that which is full of fraud, and has the serpent’s scar within; for the food of the priest lies in the remission of sins. Wherefore Christ the chief of Priests says, S. John iv. 34. My meat is to do the will of My Father which is in heaven. What is the will of God but this, Isa. xxx. 15. In returning and rest shall ye be saved? In the guileful man therefore there is no food. ”

“ Palladius said; ‘Christ is a name of the flesh: Christ is a man’s name: do you answer me.’
Eusebius, Bishop, said; ‘Why do you dwell upon useless topics? When Arius’ impious words were read, who says of the Father that He alone hath immortality, you cited a testimony in confirmation of Arius’ impiety, quoting from the Apostle, Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto. ”

“ There also is Japhet the youngest of the brethren, Ib. 23. who with pious reverence may cover his father’s nakedness, whom his father may see even in sleep and never dismiss from his remembrance, but keep him ever in his sight and in his bosom, and when he wakes may know Gen. ix. 24. what his younger son has done unto him. In Latin his name signifies ‘health,’ in that Ps. xlv. 3. grace is spread over his lips and over his life, wherefore God hath blessed him, because he, going backward, one may say, to Bologna, covered his father with the pious garment of charity, and shewed honour to piety ”

“ We ought not therefore to despair of the members adhering to their Head; especially since from the beginning we have Eph. i. 5. been predestinated by Jesus Christ to adoption as children of God in Himself: which predestination He has ratified, instructing us that the prediction made from the first, that Gen. ii. 24. a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh, is a sacrament of Christ and the Church. If therefore the union of Adam and Eve is Eph. ”

“ For the nature of our flesh having stirred up anger discord and dissension, and the law having bound us with the chains of condemnation, Christ Jesus subdued by mortification the wantonness and intemperance of the flesh, and made void Ib. 15. the law of commandment contained in ordinances, declaring thereby that the decrees of the spiritual Law are not to be interpreted according to the letter; putting an end to the slothful rest of the Sabbath and to the superfluous rite of outward circumcision, and opening to all Ib. 18. access by one Spirit unto the Father. ”

“ But by the time the messenger reached Milan, Ambrose had escaped again, and was hiding in the house of a friend outside the walls. However, this effort to avoid the greatness thrust upon him was as vain as the rest, and he saw that he must accept what fate had brought him. Within a week he had been baptized, ordained priest, and consecrated bishop, knowing as little as any man might of the studies hitherto considered necessary for his position. But it is quite possible that his ignorance of these may have been a help instead of a hindrance in the carrying out of his duties. ”

“ The materials for a biography of the Saint are chiefly to be found scattered through his writings, since the "Life" written after his death by his secretary, Paulinus, at the suggestion of St. Augustine, is extremely disappointing. Ambrose was descended from an ancient Roman family, which, at an early period had embraced Christianity, and numbered among its scions both Christian martyrs and high officials of State. ”

“ Not a few works have been falsely attributed to St. Ambrose; most of them are found in the Benedictine Edition of his writings (reprinted in Migne) and are discussed in the manuals of patrology (e.g. Bardenhewer) . Some of his genuine works appear to have been lost, e.g. the already mentioned work on baptism. St. Augustine (Ep. 31, 8) is loud in his praise of a (now lost) work of Ambrose written against those who asserted an intellectual dependency of Jesus Christ on Plato. ”

“ Many others in keeping with his style and inspiration have been preserved and subjected to critical study with the result that eighteen hymns on varied themes are generally conceded to be Ambrosian. Had Ambrose never conferred upon the church his gift of hymnody he would still remain one of the great Latin Fathers of the fourth century, in his functions as statesman, organizer and scholar. His contribution to ecclesiastical poetry and music have made him influential century after century. ”

“ Most of his writings are really homilies, spoken commentaries on the Old and New Testaments, taken down by his hearers, and afterwards reduced to their present form, though very few of these discourses have reached us exactly as they fell from the lips of the great bishop. In Ambrose the native Roman genius shines out with surpassing distinctness; he is clear, sober, practical, and aims always at persuading his hearers to act at once on the principles and arguments he has laid down, which affect nearly every phase of their religious or moral life. ”

“ Endowed with an active and critical mind, he at first neglected the simple teaching of the Gospel for the more philosophic systems of heresy (Orig. in Johann. tom. v.) . However, when he met Origen he recognized his true teacher, and embraced the orthodox faith (Epiph. l.c.) . From that time to his death Ambrose devoted his whole energy to encouraging his great master in his labours on Holy Scripture, and used his fortune to further them (Eus. H. E. vi. 23) . ”