Ambrose of Milan

Life events

1. Born — 339

   Ambrose was born into a Roman Christian family of Greek descent in Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier), capital of the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. His father was either the praetorian prefect of Gaul or a senior official named Uranius who received an imperial constitution dated 3 February 339.

2. Educated

   After his father's death and the family's relocation to Rome, Ambrose studied literature, law, and rhetoric, then entered public service as a judicial councillor under Praetorian Prefect Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus.

3. Other — 372

   Praetorian Prefect Probus appointed Ambrose governor of the province of Liguria and Emilia, with his headquarters in Milan — the civil office he held immediately before his elevation to the episcopate.

4. Baptized — 374

   Acclaimed bishop by the Milan congregation while still unbaptized, Ambrose was baptized, ordained, and consecrated within a single week in 374 — the first time in the West that a senior imperial official had accepted the episcopal office.

5. Consecrated — 374

   Ambrose was consecrated Bishop of Milan in 374 by popular acclamation. Upon appointment he immediately adopted an ascetic lifestyle, gave his land and money to the poor, and reserved only provision for his sister Marcellina.

6. Council — 381

   Ambrose presided over a synod of thirty-two Western bishops at Aquileia in 381, convened in place of an empire-wide general council. Arian bishops Palladius of Ratiaria and Secundianus of Singidunum declined to defend their positions and were deposed.

7. Wrote

   Ambrose composed De officiis ministrorum (c. 377–391), an ethical guide for his Milan clergy modelled on Cicero's De officiis. The work argues that concern for one another's interests binds society together and that avarice leads to social breakdown; it became one of the most influential texts of patristic literature.

8. Died — 397

   Ambrose died on 4 April 397 in Milan and was succeeded as bishop by Simplician. His body has been continuously venerated in the church of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan, alongside remains identified in his lifetime as those of Saints Gervase and Protase.

Relationships

Documented claims

• A legend about Ambrose's infancy recounts that a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle, leaving behind a drop of honey his father took as an omen of future eloquence; bees and beehives consequently appear throughout his iconography. (legendary)
• Western Christianity grouped Ambrose with Augustine, Jerome, and Pope Gregory the Great as one of the four Great Latin Church Fathers; all four were declared Doctors of the Church in 1298. (certain)
• Ambrose is commonly credited with baptizing Augustine of Hippo; Augustine's Confessions record attending his sermons and finding the bishop too occupied to grant a personal audience, calling him 'a happy man as the world counted happiness'. (plausible)
• Four hymns — 'Aeterne rerum conditor,' 'Deus creator omnium,' 'Iam surgit hora tertia,' and 'Veni redemptor gentium' — are universally accepted as Ambrose's, attributed by Augustine; each has eight four-line stanzas in strict iambic tetrameter. (certain)
• In his Sermon Against Auxentius (386), Ambrose articulated a foundational church-state boundary: 'The emperor is in the church, not over the church,' asserting that doctrine, moral order, and ecclesiastical discipline lay outside imperial authority. (certain)

Sources

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