Saint of the Day – December 7 – Saint Ambrose

Saint Ambrose’s Story (337 – April 4, 397)

One of Ambrose’s biographers observed that at the Last Judgment, people would still be divided between those who admired Ambrose and those who heartily disliked him. He emerges as the man of action who cut a furrow through the lives of his contemporaries. Even royal personages were numbered among those who were to suffer crushing divine punishments for standing in Ambrose’s way.

When the Empress Justina attempted to wrest two basilicas from Ambrose’s Catholics and give them to the Arians, he dared the eunuchs of the court to execute him. His own people rallied behind him in the face of imperial troops. In the midst of riots, he both spurred and calmed his people with bewitching new hymns set to exciting Eastern melodies.

In his disputes with the Emperor Auxentius, he coined the principle: “The emperor is in the Church, not above the Church.” He publicly admonished Emperor Theodosius for the massacre of 7,000 innocent people. The emperor did public penance for his crime. This was Ambrose, the fighter sent to Milan as Roman governor, and chosen while yet a catechumen to be the people’s bishop.

There is yet another side of Ambrose—one which influenced Augustine of Hippo, whom Ambrose converted. Ambrose was a passionate little man with a high forehead, a long melancholy face, and great eyes. We can picture him as a frail figure clasping the codex of sacred Scripture. This was the Ambrose of aristocratic heritage and learning.

Augustine found the oratory of Ambrose less soothing and entertaining but far more learned than that of other contemporaries. Ambrose’s sermons were often modeled on Cicero, and his ideas betrayed the influence of contemporary thinkers and philosophers. He had no scruples in borrowing at length from pagan authors. He gloried in the pulpit in his ability to parade his spoils—“gold of the Egyptians”—taken over from the pagan philosophers.

His sermons, his writings, and his personal life reveal him as an otherworldly man involved in the great issues of his day. Humanity for Ambrose was, above all, spirit. In order to think rightly of God and the human soul, the closest thing to God, no material reality at all was to be dwelt upon. He was an enthusiastic champion of consecrated virginity.

The influence of Ambrose on Augustine will always be open for discussion. The Confessions reveal some manly, brusque encounters between Ambrose and Augustine, but there can be no doubt of Augustine’s profound esteem for the learned bishop.

Neither is there any doubt that Saint Monica loved Ambrose as an angel of God who uprooted her son from his former ways and led him to his convictions about Christ. It was Ambrose, after all, who placed his hands on the shoulders of the naked Augustine as he descended into the baptismal fountain to put on Christ.

Reflection

Ambrose exemplifies for us the truly catholic character of Christianity. He is a man steeped in the learning, law, and culture of the ancients and of his contemporaries. Yet, in the midst of active involvement in this world, this thought runs through Ambrose’s life and preaching: The hidden meaning of the Scriptures calls our spirit to rise to another world.

Saint Ambrose is the Patron Saint of:

Beekeepers
Beggars
Learning
Milan

//Franciscan Media//


Saint of the Day – September 10 – Saint Ambrose Edward Barlow

St. Ambrose Edward Barlow (1585-1641) was born near Manchester, England, to a noble family. He was baptized Catholic at his birth, but was raised Protestant when Catholicism was outlawed by the reigning monarchy. His grandfather died while imprisoned for his Catholic faith, and his father had two-thirds of his estate confiscated for refusal to conform to the Church of England. Ambrose returned to Catholicism as an adult, recognized his vocation to the priesthood, and traveled to France to enter seminary. He was ordained in 1617 in the Order of St. Benedict. He returned to England to minister to underground Catholics in his native south Lancashire for 24 years, being financially supported with a pension arranged by his grandmother. Ambrose said Mass daily and administered the sacraments secretly to avoid detection by the authorities. He was arrested four times during his priesthood, each time being released without charge. When the king issued a decree that all Catholic priests should immediately flee the country or be arrested and condemned as traitors, St. Ambrose chose to stay, reasoning that he could not die a better death than to be martyred for being a Catholic priest. On April 25, 1631, just as he ended Easter Sunday Mass at Morley Hall near Manchester, he was arrested by a 400-strong armed mob led by the local Anglican vicar. He freely admitted to the charge of being a Catholic priest, and gave a defense of the true faith before his judge. He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, quartered, and boiled in oil on September 10, 1641. His dead body was publicly displayed on a pike as a warning to other Catholic priests. St. Ambrose Edward Barlow is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is September 10th.

//Catholic Company//