Ambrose

Ambrose, known in Latin as Aurelius Ambrosius, was bishop of Milan in the later fourth century and one of the principal Latin Fathers of the Church. He was born at Trier, then an imperial residence in the western provinces, into a Christian family of senatorial rank. His father, also named Ambrosius, held the office of praetorian prefect of Gaul. After the father's death the family lived in Rome, where Ambrose received the standard aristocratic education in literature, rhetoric, and law. He pursued a civil career, serving as an advocate and subsequently as consular governor of Liguria and Aemilia, residing at Milan, which was at that time the chief imperial seat in Italy. His sister Marcellina became a consecrated virgin; a brother, Satyrus, later assisted him in the administration of church property.

In 374 the death of Auxentius, the Arian bishop of Milan, produced a violent contest between Nicene and Arian parties over the succession. Ambrose attended the assembly in his capacity as governor in order to keep the peace. Contemporary tradition records that the people unexpectedly acclaimed him bishop, although he was still a catechumen and not yet baptized. After attempting to refuse, he yielded, received baptism, and was consecrated, an event commemorated on 7 December. He then gave his property to the poor and to the Church, adopted an austere personal life, and undertook intensive study of Scripture and of Greek Christian writers, with Simplicianus among his mentors. He was never married and lived as a celibate bishop.

Throughout his episcopate Ambrose was a determined opponent of Arianism and a shaper of Western ecclesiastical practice. He resisted pressure from the empress Justina and the court of Valentinian II to hand over a Milanese basilica for Arian worship, and he took part in the controversy over the Altar of Victory in the Senate house at Rome. His surviving works include dogmatic treatises, sermons, letters, a handbook of clerical ethics entitled De officiis ministrorum, writings on virginity and widowhood, and Latin hymns that contributed to the tradition later associated with Ambrosian chant and the Ambrosian rite of Milan. He exercised notable moral authority over the emperors Gratian and Theodosius I. After the massacre of civilians at Thessalonica in 390 he required Theodosius to perform public penance before being readmitted to communion, an episode often cited as a landmark in relations between Church and imperial power.

In 387 Ambrose baptized Augustine of Hippo at Milan, a turning point that Augustine later recounted in the Confessions. Ambrose died at Milan on 4 April 397 and was buried in the basilica now known as Sant'Ambrogio, where his relics are still venerated. He was honored as a saint from the time of his death, without a later formal process of canonization, and in the thirteenth century he was numbered among the Doctors of the Church. His principal feast day in the Latin calendar is 7 December, the traditional date of his episcopal consecration. He is invoked as a patron of Milan, of students and learning, of beekeepers and bees, and of candlemakers, among other causes.