Ambrose: bishopric and apostolate

 

Nicea and Serdica canons foresaw the election of the bishop among the people of the clergy, but Ambrose, though being secular (he was an imperial magistrate) and not baptized, was even acclaimed, according to his biographer Paulinus; why ? Among the reasons of this unusual election there were surely his impartiality demonstrated by him till that time during his action in the governement as consularis, the consent given by the clergy and by the region's bishops, the favour of the emperor himself.
Who was this man able even to
influence Saint Augustin ?
Ambrose, since the very beginning of his episcopate, professed himself as a disciple before being a teacher, that brought him to develope a strong love for the silence, a great search of the solitudeGiotto: The doctors of the Church
and an intense study of Holy Scriptures (he is considered the patron of learning). It was such "praise of silence" that impressed Augustin so much during his visit payed in Milan (Confessiones V 13).
Moreover Ambrose radically lived his own evangelical choise, with a sober and active dayly style of life, accustomed to the fasting, the assiduous prayer and resistance to the hard work, in the study and in the pastoral care. Something that influenced Augustin so much was the constant
understanding of the bishop with his people, who was also ready to die for him. In fact Ambrose's ideal was a Church open to various itineraries of faith and to the various social classes: single or married, great or humble, learned or simple.
With Ambrose
came to end in the West the Caesar-papism, that is the submission of the religious authority to the Emperor (in the 386's he wrote a letter to the Emperor Valentinian II claiming the Church authonomy); and when in the 390's in Milan came the news about Theodosius that had ordered the massacre of Thessalonika, in which more than seven thousand people were killed, Ambrose was horrified and wrote a letter to the Emperor to reproach him and to order him not Coin of Theodosiusentering into the church anymore. Theodosius for the first time in the history of the Empire recognized himself as officially submissed to the christian law and he did penance.
The importance of Ambrose in the Church's history is confirmed by the survival of the ambrosian rite (although the origins of this peculiarity of the Milan diocese are not so evident). In comparison with the gregorian reform of the liturgy (which was followed by all the rest of the catholic world) the one of Milan Church has perhaps kept more of the ancient roman tradition, with inserts from other liturgies.
Main difference between the ambrosian and the roman rite may be identified into the Lent's duration (starting the first sunday after Ash-wednesday, leaving 3 days for Ambrosian Carnival)the not liturgic aspect (without any Mess celebration) of Lent's friday, the order of the Mess parts, the baptism, that is carried out by immersion and not by sprinkling, the houses blessing at Christmas and not at Easter, using red colour for the Saint Sacrament instead of white one, and duration of Advent (6 weeks instead of 4).
Other basic aspects of Ambrose episcopate and apostolate should be pointed out. He promotes the
evangelisation of alpine valleys; he also, considering himself disciple and imitator of the men of faith in the past, promotes the cult and the adoration of the Saint Martyrs among the people: he goes looking for the relics of saints who can give a fair example of testimonials to the people. In 386 A.D. he discovers in a cemetery the bones of martyrs Protasius and Gervasius and putsThe heretic Arius (Basilica of St.Ambrose: pulpit) them under the altar of the Church which will be named Basilica Martyrum and then St.Ambrose basilica.; in next years he discovers the bones of Nabor and Felix, Celsus and Nazarius, Vitales and Agricola.
About Ambrose it's important to remember that he fought and sent away from Northern Italy Arianism, a very widely spread heresy at that time. It's famous an episode in 386 (see Augustin
Confessiones IX 7): Empress Justine had proclaimed freedom of cult and meeting that foresaw the cession of some churches to the arians. Ambrose with th whole Ccatholic people, particularly some merchants, made opposition, occupying the Basilica Portiana for days and days (it's just in that occasion that the hymnography was born: during the night watches Ambrose made the believers sing and pray). On Holy Thursday the soldiers besieging the basilica brought the news that the Empress gave up her support to the arians.

 

Arius: pulpit of St. Ambrose basilica

 


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By Myriam Frittoli (transl.: M.Tufarulo)