Ambrose Totally Explained

Everything about Ambrose Of Milan totally explained

Saint Ambrose (c. 338 – 4 April 397) was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the fourth century. He is counted as one of the four original doctors of the Church.

Life

Worldly career

Ambrose was born into a Frankish Christian family between about 337 and 340 and was raised in Trier. He was the son of a praetorian prefect of Gallia Narbonensis He argued:

Our Savior has appointed two kinds of resurrection in the Apocalypse. 'Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection,' for such come to grace without the judgment. As for those who don't come to the first, but are reserved unto the second resurrection, these shall be disciplined until their appointed times, between the first and the second resurrection.

It has been noted that Ambrose's theology was significantly influenced by that of Origen and Didymus the Blind, two other early Christian universalists.

We confess, that Christ the Lord was born from a virgin, and therefore we reject the natural order of things. Because not from a man she conceived but from the Holy Spirit.

Christ isn't divided but one. If we adore him as the Son of God, we don't deny his birth from the virgin... But nobody shall extend this to Mary. Mary was the temple of God but not God in the temple. Therefore only the one who was in the temple can be worshipped.

Yes, truly blessed for having surpassed the priest (Zechariah). While the priest denied, the Virgin rectified the error. No wonder that the Lord, wishing to rescue the world, began his work with Mary. Thus she, through whom salvation was being prepared for all people, would be the first to receive the promised fruit of salvation.

Writings

Writings of St. Ambrose including "On beliefs in Resurrection" and "On the Holy Spirit"

In matters of exegesis he is, like Hilary, an Alexandrian. In dogma he follows Basil of Caesarea and other Greek authors, but nevertheless gives a distinctly Western cast to the speculations of which he treats. This is particularly manifest in the weightier emphasis which he lays upon human sin and divine grace, and in the place which he assigns to faith in the individual Christian life.

De fide ad Gratianum Augustum (On Faith, to Gratian Augustus)

De officiis (On the Offices of Ministers, an important ecclesiastical handbook)

De Spiritu Sancto (On the Holy Ghost)

De incarnationis Dominicae sacramento (On the Sacrament of the Incarnation of the Lord)

De mysteriis (On the Mysteries)

Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam (Commentary on the Gospel according to Luke)

Ethical works: De bono mortis (Death as a Good); De fuga saeculi (Flight From the World); De institutione virginis et sanctae Mariae virginitate perpetua ad Eusebium (On the Birth of the Virgin and the Perpetual Virginity of Mary); De Nabuthae (On Naboth); De paenitentia (On Repentance); De paradiso (On Paradise); De sacramentis (On the Sacraments); De viduis (On Widows); De virginibus (On Virgins); De virginitate (On Virginity); Exhortatio virginitatis (Exhortation to Virginity); De sacramento regenerationis sive de philosophia (On the Sacrament of Rebirth, or, On Philosophy [fragments])

Homiletic commentaries on the Old Testament: the Hexaemeron (Six Days of Creation); De Helia et ieiunio (On Elijah and Fasting); De Iacob et vita beata (On Jacob and the Happy Life); De Abraham; De Cain et Abel; De Ioseph (Joseph); De Isaac vel anima (On Isaac, or The Soul); De Noe (Noah); De interpellatione Iob et David (On the Prayer of Job and David); De patriarchis (On the Patriarchs); De Tobia (Tobit); Explanatio psalmorum (Explanation of the Psalms); Explanatio symboli (Commentary on the Symbol).

De obitu Theodosii; De obitu Valentiniani; De excessu fratris Satyri (funeral orations)

91 letters

A collection of hymns

Fragments of sermons

Ambrosiaster or the "pseudo-Ambrose" is a brief commentary on Paul's Epistles, which was long attributed to Ambrose.

Church music

Ambrose is traditionally credited but not actually known to have composed any of the repertory of Ambrosian chant also known simply as "chant, a method of chanting, or one side of the choir alternately responding to the other, much as the later pope St. Gregory I the Great isn't known to have composed any Gregorian chant, the plainsong or "Romish chant. However, Ambrosian chant was named in his honor due to his contributions to the music of the Church; he's credited with introducing hymnody from the Eastern Church into the West. Catching the impulse from Hilary and confirmed in it by the success of Arian psalmody, Ambrose composed several original hymns as well, four of which still survive, along with music which may not have changed too much from the original melodies. Each of these hymns has eight four-line stanzas and is written in strict iambic tetrameter. Marked by dignified simplicity, they served as a fruitful model for later times.

Deus Creator Omnium

Aeterne rerum conditor

Jam surgit hora tertia

Jam Christus astra ascendante"

Veni redemptor gentium (a Christmas hymn)

Text of some Ambrosian Hymns In his writings, Ambrose refers only to the performance of antiphonal psalms, in which solo singing of psalm verses alternated with a congregational refrain called an antiphon.
   St. Ambrose was also traditionally credited with composing the hymn Te Deum, which he's said to have composed when he baptised Saint Augustine, his celebrated convert.
Ambrose and reading
Ambrose is the subject of a curious anecdote in Augustine's Confessions which bears on the history of reading:
The extraordinary aspect of this passage, of course, is that Augustine felt it noteworthy that Ambrose could read silently, implying that hardly anyone else could at the time.
   Others opine that what was well written was intended to be read aloud in the ancient world, and this was customary. Ambrose surprised Augustine not by his ability to read silently, but by his habit of reading silently.

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