Ambrose of Milan, 337-397.

Patristic Latin father of the Christian church.

Energetic and highly influential Archbishop of Milan, St. Ambrose was arguably the single person most responsible for bringing the western Roman Empire back to (Nicene) Catholic Christianity and driving Arian Christianity out of the Roman ecclesiastical establishment.  St. Ambrose is regarded as one of the four "Great Doctors" of the Church and his theological views continued to be highly influential on later Scholastics. 

Born of Frankish roots, Ambrose initially carved out a career in the Roman civil service, eventually becoming consular prefect of Liguria and Emilia. Upon the death of Auxentius,  the (Arian) Bishop of Milan in 374, Ambrose, although only an catechumen, was urged by the Nicene party to take the episcopal seat.  Although refusing at first, Ambrose eventually consented and was baptized, ordained and invested swiftly. Ambrose enjoyed a productive relationship with Roman emperors Gratian the Younger and Theodosius the Great, although he had frosty relations with Arian co-emperor Valentinian II and his mother Justina (at one point in 385, Ambrose famously barricaded himself the Milan cathedral to prevent it from being used by the emperor for Arian services; Ambrose's outsized influence in Milan led Valentinian II to eventually relocate his court to Vienne).  Ambrose presided over the Synod of Aquileia in 381 which deposed several Arian prelates, and welcomed the results of 381 Ecumenical Council of Constantinople restoring the Nicene creed.  Ambrose of Milan was the principal force behind the 382 Council of Rome, presided by Pope Damasus I, which issued the Gelasian decree (a comprehensive list of uncanonical and heretical books) and commissioned St. Jerome to write the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. St. Augustine credits his own conversion from Manichaeism to Christianity in 387 to the personal influence of Ambrose.  Ambrose encouraged the Theodosian decrees of 391, banning paganism and establishing (Nicene) Catholic Christianity as the state religion of the Roman empire.

Ambrose best-known work is probably his De Officiis Ministrorum, a treatise on duties and ethics addressed to clergy, openly imitating Cicero's De Officiis.  Ambrose articulates essentially a philosophy of Classical Stoicism in new Christian dress.  The Ambrosian twist lies in identifying pagan concepts, such as 'the good' and 'the useful' with Christian concepts of piety and justice.  Like the Stoics, Ambrose emphasizes virtue and condemns the distractions of worldly riches, albeit not for its own sake, but as the key to eternal life.  St. Ambrose's ethics of self-reliance contrasts sharply with the total human 'helplessness' of St. Augustine.

Ambrose's De Tobia is one of the first Christian works addressing usury, which Ambrose condemned wholeheartedly, basing himself partly on the Old Testament (e,g, Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:36, Deuteronomy 23:19), partly on common prejudice against the practice of usurers, but mostly in the general context of Christian charity (cf. De Officis, Bk. 3.3).  His famous declaration in Bono Mortis, "Si quis usuram accipit, rapinam facit, vita non vivit" ("If someone accepts usury, he commits robbery, he shall not live", Bono Mortis, s.56) was widely quoted by later authors.  Ambrose condemned luxury in De Helia et ieiunio and  avarice in De Nabuthe Jezraelita.  However, he does allow the usury charged to heretics and infidels, on the justification "ubi jus belli, ibi jus usurae" ("where war is justified, usury is justified").

Ambrose is the patron saint of Milan, and his remains are found in the Basilica Cathedral of Sant' Ambrogio in Milan.

Top

Top

Top

All rights reserved, Gonçalo L. Fonseca