The Life of Saint Ambrose, by Paulinus of Milan

Wherefore I beseech all of you, into whose hands this book shall come, to believe that the things we have written are true; and let no one suppose that I have set down anything lacking in faith out of zeal of love; since indeed it would be better to say nothing at all than to put forth something false, seeing that we know we shall render account of all our words. Nor do I doubt that, even if not all things are known by all, yet different things are known by different persons, and that some things are known which even I myself was less able to hear or see. Whence I shall take the beginning of my narration from the day of his birth, that the grace of the man, what it was from the cradle, may be recognized.

Therefore, when his father Ambrose had been set in the administration of the prefecture of the Gauls, Ambrose was born. As an infant, placed in a cradle in the courtyard of the praetorium, while he slept with mouth open, suddenly a swarm of bees came and filled his face and mouth; so that they repeated their comings in and goings out of his mouth. His father, who was walking about there with his wife and daughter, forbade them to be driven off by the maidservant who had taken charge of nursing the infant (for she was anxious lest they harm the child), and with fatherly affection awaited to what end that miracle would come. But after some time those bees flew away, lifted up to such a height in the air that they could scarcely be seen by human eyes. Terrified by this, the father said: If this little child shall live, he will be something great.

For the Lord was even then already working in the infancy of his servant, that what was said might be fulfilled: Good words are as a honeycomb; for that swarm of bees was already begetting for us the honeycombs of his writings, which would announce heavenly gifts, and lift up the minds of men from earthly things to heaven.

But afterward, when he had grown up, and was established in the city of Rome with his widowed mother and his sister, who had already professed virginity, in the company of another virgin, whose sister Candida, herself also of the same profession, now lives at Carthage as an old woman; when he saw the hands of the priests being kissed by the household, by his sister, or by his mother, he himself, playing, offered his right hand, saying that this ought to be done to him also, since indeed he foretold that he would be a bishop; for the Spirit of the Lord, who was nurturing him for the priesthood, was speaking in him; but she, as regarding him as a mere youth who knew not what he said, rejected it.

But after he had been instructed in the liberal disciplines, he departed from the City, and having declared himself in the court of the prefecture of the praetorium, he pleaded cases so splendidly that he was chosen by the illustrious man Probus, then prefect of the praetorium, to give counsel. After this he received the insignia of the consular rank, to govern the provinces of Liguria and Aemilia, and he came to Milan.

At this same time, Auxentius, bishop of the Arian perfidy, having died (who, when Dionysius, the confessor of blessed memory, had been sent into exile, was brooding over the Church), when the people rose in sedition demanding a bishop, and it fell to him to have care of quelling the sedition, lest the people of the city turn to their own peril, he proceeded to the church; and there, while he was addressing the people, suddenly the voice of an infant is reported to have sounded among the people: Ambrose bishop. At the sound of this voice the faces of all the people turned, acclaiming Ambrose bishop; so that those who before had been most violently at odds—since the Arians desired a bishop of their own, and the Catholics of their own, each side overcoming the other—suddenly, with wonderful and incredible harmony, agreed together upon this one man, to be ordained.

When he learned of this, he left the church and had a tribunal prepared for himself; for, soon to be bishop, he mounted to higher things: then, against his own custom, he ordered torture to be applied to persons. And while he did this, the people nonetheless kept crying out: Thy sin be upon us. But this people did not cry out then as the people of the Jews had cried; for they with their voices shed the blood of the Lord, saying: His blood be upon us; but these, knowing him to be a catechumen, promised him with faithful voice the remission of all his sins through the grace of baptism. Then he, troubled, returning home, wished to profess philosophy—destined, however, to be a true philosopher of Christ, who, having despised worldly pomps, would follow the footsteps of the fishermen, who gathered peoples to Christ not with cosmetics of words but with simple speech and the reason of true faith, sent without wallet, without staff, who converted even the philosophers themselves.

When it was ensured that he should not do this, he was called back; he had public women brought publicly in to himself, for this purpose only, that the people's intention, upon seeing these, might be turned away. But the people cried out all the more: Thy sin be upon us.

But when he saw that his intention could accomplish nothing, he prepared flight; and having gone forth from the city in the middle of the night, thinking that he was making his way to Ticinum, in the morning he was found at the gate of the city of Milan which is called Roman; for God, who was preparing for his catholic Church a wall against her enemies, and was raising up the tower of David against the face of Damascus, that is, against the perfidy of the heretics, impeded his flight. Being found, and kept under guard by the people, a report was sent to the most clement emperor, then Valentinian, who received with the greatest joy the news that a judge whom he himself had appointed was being sought for the priesthood. Probus the prefect also rejoiced, that his word should be fulfilled in Ambrose; for he had said to him as he set out, when instructions were being given to him, as is the custom: Go, act not as a judge, but as a bishop.

While the report was pending, he again prepared flight, and hid for some time on the estate of a certain Leontius, a most illustrious man. But when the report was answered, he was betrayed by this same Leontius; for it had been commanded to the vicar that he press on with carrying out the matter: who, wishing to fulfill what was enjoined upon him, having posted an edict, called all together, that, if they wished to consult their own interest and their own affairs, they should give up the man. He was betrayed accordingly, and brought to Milan; and when he understood that the will of God concerned him, and that he could no longer resist, he asked to be baptized by none but a catholic bishop; for he was carefully on guard against the perfidy of the Arians. Having been baptized, he is said to have fulfilled all the ecclesiastical offices, and on the eighth day he was ordained bishop, with the greatest grace and joy of all.

Therefore, some years after his ordination, he journeyed to the city of Rome, that is, to his own native soil, and there he found the holy maiden, of whom we have made mention above, to whom he had been accustomed to offer his hand, in her own house with her sister, just as he had left her, their mother now being dead. And when she kissed his right hand, he said to her, smiling: Behold, as I used to tell you, you are kissing the hand of a priest.

At this same time, when he had been invited across the Tiber to the house of a certain most illustrious lady, and was offering the sacrifice in her house, a certain bath-woman, who lay paralyzed in her bed, having learned that the Priest of the Lord was there, had herself carried in a small chair to that same house to which he had come, invited, and touched the garments of him as he prayed and imposed his hands. When she kissed them, immediately, her health restored, she began to walk; that this saying of the Lord to the apostles might be fulfilled: Greater things than these shall you do, believing in my name. This sign of healing, however wonderful it was, was nonetheless not hidden; for I, established in the City, learned of this in that same region after very many years, from holy men who reported it.

When he had gone to Sirmium to ordain the bishop Anemius, and there Justina, at that time queen, by her power and by a gathered multitude, was trying to drive him from the church, so that not by him, but by heretics, an Arian bishop might be ordained in that same church; and he had taken his seat on the tribunal, caring nothing for the things being stirred up by the woman; one of the Arian virgins, more shameless than the rest, mounting the tribunal, and seizing the garment of the Priest, wishing to drag him toward the party of the women, that he might be beaten by them and driven out of the church, he said to her, as he himself was accustomed to relate: Although I am unworthy of so great a priesthood, yet it is not fitting for you to lay hands upon your profession's own priest, be he whatever he may; wherefore you ought to fear the judgment of God, lest some evil befall you.

This saying the outcome confirmed; for on another day he escorted her, now dead, to her tomb, rendering grace in return for the insult. And this deed struck no small fear into the adversaries, and gave great peace to the catholic Church in the ordaining of the bishop.

The catholic priest having thus been ordained, he returned to Milan, and there he endured innumerable snares of the aforesaid woman Justina, who, by gifts and honors offered against the holy man, was stirring up the people. But the minds of the weak were being deceived by such promises; for she promised military tribuneships and various other dignities to those who would seize him from the church and lead him into exile. And when many were attempting this, but by the protection of God could not accomplish it, one more unfortunate than the rest, named Euthymius, was excited to such fury that he prepared for himself a house next to the church, and set up in it a cart, by which he might more easily carry him off, having placed him upon the vehicle, and lead him into exile.

But his iniquity came down upon his own head; for after a year, on that very day on which he thought he would carry him off, he himself was placed upon that same cart, and from that same house he himself was sent into exile, reflecting that by the just judgment of God this had been turned back upon himself; that he should be driven into exile in that very cart which he had prepared for the Priest. To whom the Priest afforded no small comfort, giving him expenses and other things that were necessary.

But this confession of the man restrained neither the fury of the woman nor the madness of the frenzied Arians; for, inflamed with greater madness, they strove to invade the Portian basilica: an armed force also was sent to guard the doors of the church, so that no one might dare to enter the catholic church. But the Lord, who is accustomed to grant to his Church triumphs over her adversaries, turned the hearts of the soldiers to the defense of his Church; so that, with shields turned about, they guarded the doors of the church, and did not allow those inside to leave, but did not in the least prevent the catholic people from entering the church. But this was not enough for the soldiers who had been sent, unless they also acclaimed together with the people on behalf of the catholic faith. At this time antiphons, hymns, and vigils began first to be celebrated in the church of Milan.

The devotion of this celebration remains to this present day, not only in that same church, but through almost all the provinces of the West.

At this same time the holy martyrs Protasius and Gervasius revealed themselves to the Priest. For they had been laid in the basilica in which today lie the bodies of the martyrs Nabor and Felix: but while the holy martyrs Nabor and Felix were visited with the greatest frequency, the names of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius, and likewise their tombs, were unknown, to such an extent that all who wished to reach the railings by which the tombs of the holy martyrs Nabor and Felix were protected from injury walked over their very tombs. But when the bodies of the holy martyrs were raised and placed upon litters, the sicknesses caused by Satan in many there present were laid bare. Even a blind man named Severus, who now still serves religiously in that same basilica which is called Ambrosian, into which the bodies of the Martyrs have been translated, as soon as he touched the garment of the martyrs, immediately received his sight. Bodies also possessed by unclean spirits were healed, and returned home with the greatest thanksgiving.

But by these benefits of the martyrs, in the same measure as the faith of the catholic Church grew, so much did the perfidy of the Arians diminish.

Finally, from this time the persecution began to be quieted, which had been kindled by the fury of Justina, so that the Bishop should be driven from the Church. Nevertheless, within the palace the multitude of Arians gathered together with Justina mocked at so great a grace of God, which the Lord Jesus deigned to bestow upon the catholic Church through the merits of His martyrs; and they were saying that the venerable man Ambrose had hired with money men who would falsely pretend to be vexed by unclean spirits, and would say that they were tormented by him just as by the martyrs. But this the Arians spoke with a Jewish mouth, being indeed their equals; for the Jews said of the Lord that He cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons; these spoke concerning the martyrs, or concerning the Bishop of the Lord, saying that it was not by the grace of God, which worked through them, that the unclean spirits were driven out, but that they falsely pretended to be tormented for a bribe.

For the demons were crying out: We know you are martyrs; and the Arians were saying: We do not know that they are martyrs. We have already read this too in the Gospel, where the demons said to the Lord Jesus: We know you, that you are the Son of God; and the Jews said: But we do not know where this man is from. But here the testimony of demons is not accepted, but their confession; whence the Arians or Jews are the more wretched, in that what the demons confess, they themselves deny.

God, however, who is accustomed to increase the grace of His Church, did not allow His saints to be long insulted by the faithless. And so one of that very multitude, suddenly seized by an unclean spirit, began to cry out that those who denied the martyrs, or who did not believe in the unity of the Trinity which Ambrose taught, were tormented just as he himself was being tormented. But they, confounded by this voice—they who ought to have been converted, and to have performed a penance worthy of such a confession—instead plunged the man into a pool and killed him, adding homicide to their faithlessness; for a fitting necessity led them to this end. But the holy bishop Ambrose, being a man of the greater humility, kept in reserve the grace given to him by the Lord, and grew daily in faith and love before God and men.

At that same time there was a certain man of the heresy of the Arians, an exceedingly keen disputant, hard and unconvertible to the catholic faith. This man, standing in the Church while the Bishop was preaching, saw (as he himself afterward related) an Angel speaking into the ears of the preaching Bishop, so that the Bishop seemed to be announcing to the people the words of the angel. Having seen this, he was converted, and began himself to defend the faith which he had been assailing.

There were also at that time two chamberlains of the emperor Gratian, of the heresy of the Arians, who proposed a question to the Bishop as he was preaching, to hear the answer to which they promised they would be present the next day at the Portian basilica; for the question concerned the incarnation of the Lord. But on the other day these pitiable men, filled with the swelling of pride, and unmindful of their promise, despising God in His own Priest, and taking no thought for the wrong done to the waiting people, forgetful too of the words of the Lord, that whoever shall scandalize one of these little ones, it were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea—mounting into a carriage, as if for the sake of taking the air, they went out from the city, while the Priest and the people waited, assembled in the Church.

But what the end of this contumacy was, I shudder to relate; for suddenly thrown from the carriage, they gave up their souls, and their bodies were committed to burial. But holy Ambrose, not knowing what had happened, and being no longer able to keep the people waiting, ascended the tribunal and began a sermon on the very question that had been proposed, saying: "I desire, brethren, to pay a debt, but I do not find my creditors of yesterday," and the rest which is written in the book entitled Concerning the Incarnation of the Lord.

And so, after the emperor Gratian was slain, he undertook a second embassy to Maximus, for the purpose of recovering his body. With what constancy he conducted himself before him, whoever wishes to know will confirm it when he has read the letter of that very embassy, addressed to Valentinian the younger; for it seemed to us foreign to our promise to insert it here, lest the length of the appended letter should bring weariness to the reader. But Maximus himself he separated from the fellowship of communion, admonishing him that he should do penance for the blood shed of his lord, and—what is graver—of an innocent man, if he wished that things should be well for him before God. But he, declining penance with a proud spirit, lost not only future but also present salvation, and laid down, in a certain womanish way, through fear, the rule which he had wrongly seized, so that he confessed himself to have been a mere procurator of the republic, not an emperor.

Now after Justina died, a certain soothsayer named Innocentius—not indeed in deed—when he was being tortured by a judge in a case of sorceries, began to confess something other than what he was asked; for he cried out that greater torments were being applied to him by an angel than to the one who was guarding Ambrose; because in the days of Justina, to stir up the hatreds of the people against the Bishop, he had climbed to the peak of the church's roof and made a sacrifice at midnight. But the more urgently and anxiously he practiced his evil works, the more the love of the people for the catholic faith and for the Lord's Priest grew strong.

He confessed also that he had sent demons who would destroy him utterly; but the demons had reported back that they were not able to draw near even to the doors of the house in which the Bishop dwelt, much less to him himself; because an unconquerable fire fortified the whole of that building, so that even those standing far off were burned; and thus their arts had ceased, by which they had thought themselves able to do something against the Lord's Priest. Another, too, bearing a sword, came even to the bedchamber, that he might kill the Priest; but when he had raised his hand, with the sword drawn, his right hand remained stiffened, stretched out in the air. Then, after he confessed that he had been sent by Justina, the arm which had wrongly been stretched out and had stiffened, was healed by his confession.

At that same time, when the illustrious man Probus had sent his boy notary, who was grievously vexed by an unclean spirit, to the Bishop, the devil released him as soon as he had gone out of the City, fearing to be led to the holy man. And so as long as the boy was at Milan with the Bishop, no domination of the devil appeared in him; but when he had left Milan and had come near the City, the same spirit that had possessed him before began again to vex him. And when he was asked by the exorcists why, for as long as he was at Milan, he had not appeared in him, the devil confessed that he had feared Ambrose, and had therefore withdrawn for a time, and had waited in that place from which he had withdrawn from him, until he should return; and that on his return he had sought again the vessel which he had abandoned.

After Maximus was destroyed, and Theodosius had been established emperor at Milan, and Bishop Ambrose himself had gone to Aquileia, in the regions of the East, in a certain small town, a synagogue of the Jews and a grove of the Valentinians were burned by Christian men in a fire, because the Jews or the Valentinians had been insulting Christian monks; for the heresy of the Valentinians worships thirty gods. But concerning a deed of this kind the count of the East sent a report to the emperor; on receipt of which the emperor ordered that the synagogue should be rebuilt by the bishop of the place, and that vengeance should be taken upon the monks.

But when the tenor of this decree came to the ears of the venerable man Bishop Ambrose, he sent a letter to the emperor, since he himself was not able at the time to hasten there, in which he pressed upon him that what had been decreed by him should be revoked, and that an audience ought to be reserved to him by the emperor; because if he were not worthy to be heard by him, neither would he be worthy to be heard for him by the Lord, or one to whom he should entrust his prayers or his vows; declaring also that he was prepared to undergo death for such a cause, lest by his own silence he should make the emperor a transgressor, who had ordered things so unjust against the Church.

Afterward, when he had returned to Milan, with the emperor present in the Church, he discoursed before the people on this same matter. In this discourse he introduced the person of the Lord speaking to the emperor: "I raised you up from the lowest estate to be emperor, I delivered to you the army of your enemy, I gave to you the forces which he had prepared against you for his own army, I brought your enemy into your power, I set you, of your own seed, upon the throne of the kingdom, I made you triumph without labor: and do you give to my enemies triumphs taken from me!" To the emperor, as he came down from the platform, and said: "You have spoken against us today, Bishop," he replied that he had spoken not against him, but for him. Then the emperor said: "In truth I had harshly ordered, against the bishop, that the synagogue should be rebuilt; and that vengeance should be taken upon the monks.

So it was also said by the counts who were present at the time." To whom the Bishop said: "I am now dealing with the emperor; but with you I must deal otherwise." And so he obtained that those things which had been decreed should be revoked; nor would he approach the altar before the emperor had testified that he would act according to his—the Bishop's—assurance. To whom the Bishop said: "Then I act on your assurance." The emperor answered: "Act on my assurance." This pledge having been repeated, the Priest, now secure, performed the divine mysteries. These things are written in the letter which he wrote to his sister, in which he inserted the discourse he gave on that same day concerning the walnut rod, which is described as having been seen by the prophet Jeremiah.

At that same time, the affair of the city of Thessalonica brought no small tribulation upon the Priest, when he learned that the city had been almost destroyed; for the emperor had promised him that he would grant pardon to the citizens of the aforesaid city: but the counts, acting secretly with the emperor, the Priest being ignorant of it, gave the city over to the sword until the third hour, and very many innocent persons were slain. When the Priest learned of this deed, he denied the emperor the opportunity of entering the Church; nor did he judge him worthy of the assembly of the church, or of the communion of the sacraments, until he should perform public penance. To this the emperor objected that David had committed both adultery and homicide together.

But the answer was immediately given: "You who have followed him in his sin, follow him also in his correction." When the most clement emperor heard this, he took it so to heart that he did not shrink from public penance; and the progress of this correction won for him a second victory.

At that same time two most powerful and most learned men of the Persians came to Milan on account of the fame of the Priest, bringing with them very many questions, that by these they might test the man's wisdom; with whom, from the first hour of the day until the third hour of the night, they disputed through an interpreter, and departed from him full of admiration. And that they might prove that they had come for no other reason than to know for certain, with greater certainty, the man of whom they had heard the report, on another day, having bid farewell to the emperor, they set out for the city of Rome, wishing there to become acquainted with the power of the illustrious man Probus, which having become acquainted with, they returned to their own land.

But when Theodosius had left Italy and had settled at Constantinople, and Valentinian Augustus had been placed within the Gauls, an embassy was sent under the name of the senate by Symmachus, then prefect of the City, concerning the restoration of the Altar of Victory and the expenses of the ceremonies. But when the Priest learned of it, having sent a petition to the emperor, he requested that copies of the report be sent to him, so that he might make a reply on behalf of his side.

Having received this report, he composed a most distinguished treatise, so that Symmachus, that most eloquent man, never dared to make any reply to it: but after Valentinian, of august memory, ended his life in the city of Vienne (which is a city of the Gauls), Eugenius took up the empire, who, when he had begun to reign, not long after, at the petition of Flavian, then prefect, and of the count Arbogastes, granted the Altar of Victory and the expenses of the ceremonies—which Valentinian, of august memory, though still established in younger years, had refused to those who asked—forgetful of his own pledge.

When the Priest learned of this, he left the city of Milan, to which Eugenius was hastening, and withdrew to the city of Bologna, and thence proceeded even to Faenza. When he had spent some days there, being invited by the people of Florence, he went down even into Tuscany, avoiding rather the sight of the sacrilegious man, not fearing the injury of the ruler; for he even sent a letter to him, in which he confronted his conscience, from which I have thought fit to set down a few of many passages. "And although imperial power is great, yet consider, Emperor, how great God is. He sees the hearts of men, He searches the inward conscience, He knows all things before they happen, He knows the inward parts of your breast. Do you not allow yourselves to be deceived by Him, and yet wish to conceal yourselves from God? Has nothing come into your mind?

If they were acting so persistently, was it not your part, Emperor, to resist more persistently still, for the veneration of the most high, true, and living God, and to refuse what was an injury to the sacred law (Numbers 7)?" And again: "Since therefore I am bound by my own words both before God and before all men, I have understood that one thing is not lawful for me, another not fitting, except that I should take counsel for myself, since I could not for you."

And so, in the aforesaid city of the Florentines, while he was staying in the house of a certain most illustrious man, Decens, and—what is more—a Christian, his son, Pansophius by name, quite a small child, was afflicted by an unclean spirit, and was healed by the repeated prayer and laying on of the Priest's hand: but after some days the little infant, seized by a sudden illness, breathed out his spirit. His mother, a most religious woman, and full of faith and fear of God, having taken him from the upper part of the house, went down to the lower rooms, and laid him upon the Priest's bed, he himself being absent.

When the Priest, returning—for at that time he was outside the house—found the child lying on the little bed, he pitied the mother, and, moved by consideration of her faith, laid himself upon the body of the infant like Elisha, and by praying deserved to restore alive to the mother the one he had found dead: for this little infant he even wrote a small book, so that what he could not know through the infancy of his age, he might come to know by reading it. However, he did not record the deed itself in his writings: but it is not for us to judge with what feeling he declined to record it.

In the same city too he founded a basilica, in which he deposited the relics of the martyrs Vitalis and Agricola, whose bodies he had raised up in the city of Bologna; for the bodies of the Martyrs had been placed among the bodies of Jews: nor was this known to the Christian people, unless the holy martyrs had revealed it to a priest of that Church. When these relics were being laid beneath the altar which is set up in that same basilica, there was great joy and exultation there of all the holy people, the punishment of the demons confessing the merits of the martyrs.

At about this time Count Arbogastes made war against his own nation, that is, the Franks, and in fighting cut down no small multitude by his own hand, while with the rest he made peace firm. But when at a banquet he was asked by the kings of his own nation whether he knew Ambrose; and he had answered that he knew the man, and was loved by him, and was accustomed frequently to dine with him, he heard: "That is why you conquer, Count, because you are loved by that man who says to the sole one, 'Stand,' and it stands." I have set this down for this reason, that readers may recognize of what fame the holy man was even among barbarian peoples. For I too learned this from a certain young man, a very religious attendant of Arbogastes, who was present at the time; for he was, at the time when these words were spoken, the wine-server.

The Priest therefore, having set out from the parts of Tuscia, returned to Milan, Eugenius having already gone forth from there against Theodosius; there he awaited the coming of the Christian emperor, secure in the power of God that He would not hand over one trusting in Him to unjust men, nor leave the rod of sinners upon the lot of the just, lest the just extend their hands to iniquities. For Count Arbogastes at that time, and Flavian the prefect, when setting out from Milan, had promised that, when they had returned victorious, they would make a stable of the basilica of the Milanese church, and would put the clergy to the test under arms: but the wretched men, together with their demons, having been evilly credulous, and opening their mouth in blasphemy before God, took from themselves the hope of victory. Now the cause of the disturbance was this, that the gifts of the emperor who had involved himself in sacrilege were rejected by the Church, nor was fellowship of prayer with the Church granted to him.

But the Lord, who is accustomed to protect His Church, hurled judgment from heaven, and transferred all victory to the religious emperor Theodosius.

Eugenius therefore and his satellites having been destroyed, when he received letters from the emperor, no greater care was his than that he should intercede for those whom he found guilty. He first besought the emperor by letter, sending a deacon: after that, indeed, John, then a tribune and notary, who is now a prefect, was sent for the protection of those who had fled to the Church; he himself also went to Aquileia to pray for them, for whom pardon was easily obtained; for the Christian emperor himself, falling at the feet of the Priest, testified that he had been preserved by his merits and prayers.

Returning therefore from the city of Aquileia, he preceded the emperor by one day: nor did the emperor Theodosius, of most clement memory, remain much longer in this light after receiving his sons in the Church and handing them over to the Priest: after whose death he survived for nearly three years. In which time he transferred the body of the holy martyr Nazarius, which had been placed in a garden outside the city, raised up to the basilica of the Apostles which is in the Roman quarter. We saw, moreover, in the tomb in which the body of the martyr lay (who, as to when he suffered, we cannot know to this day) the blood of the martyr so fresh, as though it had been shed that same day. His head also, which had been cut off by the impious, was so whole and incorrupt, with the hairs of the head and the beard, that it seemed to us as if, at the very time it was being raised up, it had been washed and arranged in the tomb.

And what wonder, since the Lord in the Gospel had before promised that a hair of their head should not perish? We were also filled with such a fragrance that it surpassed the sweetness of all spices.

When the body of the martyr had been raised up and laid upon a litter, we went at once with the holy Priest to prayer at the tomb of the holy martyr Celsus, who is placed in the same garden. Yet we have never found that he had prayed before in that same place: but this was a sign of the revealed body of the martyr, that the holy Priest had gone to pray at a place to which he had never gone before. We learned, moreover, from the guardians of that place, that it had been handed down to them by their parents not to depart from that place through every generation and offspring of their own; because great treasures had been placed in that same place. And truly great treasures, which neither rust nor moth destroys, nor do thieves dig through and steal; because their guardian is Christ, and their place the heavenly hall, for whom to live was Christ, and to die was gain.

The body of the Martyr, then, having been transferred to the basilica of the Apostles, where formerly the relics of the holy Apostles had been laid with the utmost devotion of all, while the Bishop was giving a sermon, a certain man from the people, filled with an unclean spirit, began to cry out that he was being tormented by Ambrose. But he, turning to God, said to him: "Be silent, devil; for it is not Ambrose who torments you, but the faith of the saints and your own envy; because you see men ascending there, from where you were cast down; for Ambrose does not know how to be puffed up." When this was said, the one who had been crying out fell silent, and was thrown prostrate to the ground, nor did he utter any further voice with which he might make an uproar.

At about this time, when the emperor Honorius, during the time of his consulship, was presenting in the city of Milan a spectacle of Libyan wild beasts, and the people were flocking there, opportunity was given, soldiers having then been sent by Count Stilicho at the urging of the prefect Eusebius, that a certain Crescontius should be seized from the church; and the holy Bishop, together with the clergy who were present at the time, surrounded him as he fled to the altar of the Lord, in order to defend him. But the multitude of soldiers, which had leaders of Arian perfidy, prevailed against the few; and, having taken away Crescontius, they returned exulting to the amphitheater, leaving no small grief to the Church; for the Priest, prostrate before the altar of the Lord, wept long over what had happened.

But in time, when they had returned and reported to those by whom the soldiers had been sent, leopards, let loose, leapt swiftly to that very place where those who had triumphed over the Church were seated, and, climbing up, left them grievously torn. When Count Stilicho then saw this, he was moved by repentance, so that for many days he made satisfaction to the Priest, and released unharmed indeed the man who had been taken away: but because he was guilty of the gravest crimes, and could not otherwise be amended, he sentenced him to exile, indulgence following not long after.

At about this time, when he was proceeding to the palace, and we, on account of our office, were following him, Theodulus then being a notary, who afterward with the highest favor ruled the church of Modena, when by chance a certain man slipped and fell, and lay prostrate on the ground, the Priest, turning to the one who was laughing at the mishap, said: "And you who stand, take heed lest you fall". When this was said, at once he who had laughed at another's fall grieved over his own.

At about this time a certain Frigitil, queen of the Marcomanni, when she heard, from a certain Christian man who by chance had come to her from the parts of Italy, the report of the man's fame, believed in Christ, recognizing him as His little servant, and having sent gifts to Milan to the Church, requested through envoys that she might be instructed by his own writings as to how she ought to believe. To her he wrote a most excellent letter in the manner of a catechism, in which he also admonished her to persuade her husband to keep peace with the Romans: which letter having been received, the woman persuaded her husband to surrender himself with his people to the Romans. When she had come to Milan, she grieved very greatly that she had by no means found the holy Priest, to whom she had hastened; for he had already departed from this light.

In the times of Gratian, indeed, to go back a little, when he had gone to the praetorium of Macedonius, then Master of Offices, to intercede for a certain man, and by order of the aforesaid man had found the doors closed, nor had obtained opportunity to enter, he said: "You too will come to the church, and though the doors are not closed, you will not find a way to enter." This came to pass; for when Gratian had died, Macedonius, fleeing to the church, though the doors stood open, could not find a way in.

Now the venerable Bishop himself was a man of much abstinence, of many vigils and labors, wasting his body with daily fasting, for whom it was never customary to dine, except on the Sabbath day, and the Lord's day, or when there were birthdays of the most celebrated martyrs. There was also great assiduity of praying by day and by night: nor did he shirk the work of writing books with his own hand, except when his body was held back by some infirmity. There was in him also solicitude for all the Churches, and great assiduity and constancy in intervening. He was also most vigorous in fulfilling divine matters, to such a degree that what he alone was accustomed to accomplish concerning the baptizing of candidates, five bishops afterward, at the time of his death, could scarcely accomplish. He was also exceedingly solicitous for the poor and captives; for at the time when he was ordained bishop, all the gold and silver that he could possess he bestowed on the Church or the poor.

The estates too which he had, reserving the usufruct to his sister, he gave to the Church, leaving nothing for himself that he might call his own here; that as a naked and unencumbered soldier he might follow Christ the Lord: Who, though He was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we might be enriched by His poverty.

He was also rejoicing with those who rejoiced, and weeping with those who wept; indeed, whenever anyone confessed his lapses to him in order to receive penance, he wept in such a way that he compelled the other to weep as well; for it seemed to him that he was lying down together with the one who lay prostrate. But the matters of the crimes which were confessed to him he spoke of to no one but the Lord alone, before whom he interceded; leaving a good example to priests who came after, that they should be intercessors before God rather than accusers before men. For also, according to the Apostle, charity is to be confirmed toward such a man; because he is his own accuser, nor does he wait for an accuser, but forestalls him; so that by confessing he himself lightens his own offense; lest the adversary have anything to charge. And so Scripture says: "The just man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech".

For he snatches the voice from the adversary, and, as it were, breaks certain teeth already prepared for the prey of hostile accusation, by the confession of his own sins, giving honor to God, to whom all things are naked, and who wills rather the life of the sinner than his death. For to the penitent himself confession alone does not suffice, unless amendment of the deed follows; so that the penitent may not do things requiring penance, and may also humble his soul, as did holy David, who, after he heard from the prophet, "Your sin is forgiven", became more humbled in the amendment of his sin, so that he ate ashes like bread and mixed his drink with weeping.

He also wept most bitterly whenever it happened that news was brought to him of the death of any holy priest whatsoever, to such a degree that we strove to console him, being ignorant of the man's devoted feeling, and not understanding for what reason he wept so. To whom he gave a reply of this sort: that he did not weep because the one reported dead had departed, but because he had gone before, or because it was difficult to find a man who might be judged worthy of the high priesthood. He himself, moreover, foretold beforehand concerning his own death that he would be with us until Easter: which indeed he obtained by beseeching the Lord, that he might the sooner be freed from here.

For he groaned vehemently when he saw the root of all evils, avarice, sprouting up, which can be diminished neither by abundance nor by want, growing more and more among men, and especially in those who were established in positions of power; so that interceding with them was a most burdensome labor for him, because all things were sold at a price. This thing first brought every evil upon Italy, and from then on everything has tended toward the worse. And what shall I say, if in persons of this kind he thus exercises his madness, who are wont to put forward as pretext either the causes of their sons or of their kin: To make excuses in sins; since it has seized even many celibate priests or levites, whose portion is God, so that they too seek after it? And woe to us wretched ones!

Because not even by the end of the world are we provoked to wish to be freed from so heavy a yoke of servitude, which sinks us down to the depth of hell; that we might make for ourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, who might receive us into eternal dwellings. Yet blessed is he who, once converted, having broken the chains and cast off the yoke of such domination, will seize and dash its little ones against the rock, that is, will dash all its intentions against Christ, who according to the Apostle is the rock, which destroys all who are dashed against it, itself remaining inviolable, and does not make guilty him who dashes against it, worse offspring than the wickedest womb, but innocent; so that he can say securely: The Lord is my portion. Because to him who has nothing in the world, Christ is truly his portion: And he who has despised little things shall receive many, and moreover shall possess eternal life.

But a few days before he was confined to his bed, while he was dictating the forty-third psalm, with me both taking it down and watching, suddenly, in the manner of a small shield, a fire covered his head, and little by little it entered through his mouth as an inhabitant into a house: after which his face became like snow, and afterward his countenance returned to its own appearance. When this happened, I was stunned with amazement and stood rigid, and could not write down what was being said by him, except after the vision itself had passed; for at that time he was speaking a testimony of divine Scripture, which I retained very well.

For that very day he made an end of writing or dictating; indeed he was not able to finish that psalm. But I at once related what had been seen by me to the honorable man Castus the deacon, under whose care I was living; and he, filled with the grace of God, taught me that I had seen in him the coming of the Holy Spirit, by reading the Acts of the Apostles.

In the days before, when a servant of Stilicho, then a count, who had suffered from a demon, was now remaining well in the Ambrosian basilica, commended by his master (for it was said that he was gladly kept by him): he made false letters of a tribunate, to such an extent that men who were going to render service were being detained: but when it came to the person of his own servant, count Stilicho was unwilling to take vengeance on him. The men also who had been deceived, he released at the intervention of the Bishop, but he complained to the Bishop about the servant himself. The holy man, as he was going out from the Ambrosian basilica, had him sought out and brought to him. And when he had questioned him, and had found him to be the author of so great a crime, he said: He must be handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, lest anyone in the future dare to commit such things.

At that very moment, while the word was still in the Bishop's mouth, the unclean spirit seized him and began to tear him apart: seeing which, we were filled with no small fear and wonder. Many also in those days we saw purged from unclean spirits by his laying on of hands and command.

At the same time a certain Nicentius, formerly a tribune and notary, who was so held by pain in his feet that he was rarely seen in public; when he had come to the altar to receive the sacraments, and had by chance been stepped on by the Bishop, cried out, and heard: Go, and from now on you will be well. And he testified with tears that his feet no longer pained him, at the time when the holy Bishop passed from this light.

But after these days, when a bishop had been ordained for the Church of Pavia, he fell into an illness, in which, while he was confined to his bed for many days, count Stilicho is reported to have said that, with so great a man departing from the body, ruin threatened Italy. Whereupon, having summoned to himself the noble men of that city, whom he knew to be loved by the holy Bishop, partly he threatened them, partly he persuaded them with mild speech, that they should go to the holy Bishop, and urge him to ask of the Lord a respite for his life. When he had heard this from them, he replied: I have not so lived among you that I should be ashamed to live: nor do I fear to die; for we have a good Lord.

At the same time, when in the farthest part of the portico in which he was lying, placed together, Castus, Polemius, Venerius, and Felix, then deacons, were discussing among themselves in so subdued a voice that they scarcely heard one another, as to who ought to be ordained bishop after his death, and when they spoke the name of the holy Simplicianus, as though it pertained to their discussion, he, though lying far off from them, approving, cried out three times: An old man, but a good one. For Simplicianus was of a mature age. When this voice was heard, they fled in terror; yet when he had died, no other succeeded him to the bishopric except the one whom he had marked with a threefold voice as the good old man. To this Simplicianus, Venerius, whom we mentioned above, was successor: Felix indeed now, up to this time, rules the Church of Bologna: but Castus and Polemius, nourished by Ambrose, good fruits of a good tree, discharge the office of deacon in the Church of Milan.

Yet in that same place in which he was lying (as we learned from the account of the holy Bassianus, bishop of the Church of Lodi, who had heard it from him), while he was praying together with the aforesaid Bishop, he had seen the Lord Jesus come to him, and smiling upon him: and not many days after he was taken from us. But at the very time when he departed to the Lord, from about the eleventh hour of the day until that hour in which he gave up his spirit, he prayed with hands outstretched in the manner of a cross: and we indeed saw his lips move, but we did not hear his voice. Honoratus also, bishop of the Church of Vercelli, when he had settled himself to rest in the upper part of the house, heard three times a voice calling him, and saying to him: Rise, hasten, for he is now about to depart.

And when he had come down, he offered the holy body of the Lord: which, when he had received and swallowed it, he gave up his spirit, carrying a good viaticum with him; that, refreshed by the power of the food of the soul, he might now rejoice in the company of angels, whose life he lived on earth, and in the fellowship of Elijah; because just as Elijah never feared to speak before kings or any powers, so neither did this man fear, out of fear of God, to speak.

And from there his body was carried to the great Church at the hour before dawn on which he died; and it lay there that same night, on which we kept vigil for Easter: and many infants, who had been baptized, on coming from the font, saw him, so that some said he was sitting in the chair on the tribunal, while others, pointing with their finger, showed him walking to their parents: but those others, though seeing, could not see, because they did not have cleansed eyes: and many related that they had seen a star above his body. But at daybreak on the Lord's day, when his body, after the divine sacraments had been performed, was being lifted from the Church, to be carried to the Ambrosian basilica, in which it was laid, there a crowd of demons cried out so loudly that they were being tormented by him, that their wailings could not be borne.

This grace of the Bishop remains not only in that place, but also in very many provinces even to this day: crowds of men and women also threw their kerchiefs or girdles, that the body of the Saint might be touched by them in some measure. For the crowd at the funeral was innumerable, of every rank and both sexes, and of nearly every age, not only of Christians, but also of Jews and pagans; yet with greater grace went before them the order of those who had been baptized.

On the very day on which he died (as the text of a letter tells, which was received by his successor, the venerable man Simplicianus, from the parts of the East, addressed to him as though still living among us, which letter is even now kept at Milan in the monastery), he appeared to certain holy men, praying with them, and laying hands upon them; for the letter that was sent bears a date, and when it was read, we found that day to be the very one on which he died.

In Tuscany also, in the city of Florence, where the holy man Zenobius is now bishop—because he had promised those who asked that he would often visit them—he was seen, frequently praying at the altar which is in the Ambrosian basilica established there by himself, as we learned from the account of the holy Bishop Zenobius himself. In the same house also, in which, avoiding Eugenius, he had stayed, at the time when Radagaisus was besieging the aforesaid city, when the men of that city had already utterly despaired of themselves, he appeared to a certain person in a vision, and promised that safety would come to them on another day. When this was reported, the spirits of the citizens were lifted up; for on the next day, with Stilicho, then a count, arriving with an army, a victory was won over the enemy. We learned this from the account of Pansophia, a religious woman, the mother of the boy Pansophius.

To Mascezel also, who despaired of his own safety, and of that of the army which he was leading against Gildo, an old man appeared in a vision of the night holding a staff in his hand, and when Mascezel had rolled himself down at the feet of the holy man, the old man, striking the ground three times with the staff by which he was supported (for in this appearance he had shown himself), said: Here, here, here, marking the place; and he gave the man understanding, whom he had judged worthy of the visitation, that he should recognize that in that very place in which he had seen the holy Bishop of the Lord, on the third day he would obtain victory: and so, secure, he began the war and completed it.

We indeed learned this at Milan, from the account of Mascezel himself; for even in this province, in which we are now placed writing these things, he related this same thing to very many priests, and by their account also, we thought it more assured to add these things, thus known to us, to this book.

Of Sisinnius also and Alexander, the martyrs who in our own times, that is, after the death of the holy Ambrose, in the region of Anaunia, obtained the crown of martyrdom at the hands of persecuting pagans, when we were receiving their relics at Milan with the greatest devotion, we learned this from the account of a certain blind man who came forward, who on that same day, upon touching the reliquary in which the relics of the saints were being carried, received his sight, which he had received, as he told, through a vision of the night in which he saw a ship drawing near to the shore, in which was a multitude of men clothed in white; and when they had come down to the land, he begged one of the crowd to know who those men were, and heard: Ambrose and his companions.

When he heard this name, and begged that he might receive his sight, he heard from him: Go to Milan, and meet my brothers, who are to come there, naming the day, and you shall receive your sight. For he was a man, as he himself declared, from the shore of Dalmatia, and he declared that he had not come into the city before he had met the relics of the saints by a direct journey, not yet seeing: but upon touching the reliquary, he began to see.

Having gone through these things, I do not think it will seem burdensome if I have somewhat exceeded the bounds of my promise, so as to show that the Lord's word, which he spoke through those of the holy prophets, has been fulfilled: Sitting against your brother, and speaking evil of him in secret, I was persecuting; and elsewhere: Do not love to speak evil, lest you be uprooted; so that whoever perhaps has been caught by a habit of this kind, when he has read how vengeance was taken upon those who dared to speak evil of the holy man, may himself also be corrected in other matters.

So then, a certain Donatus, an African by nation, but a presbyter of the Church of Milan, when placed at a banquet, at which there were several religious military men, spoke evil against the memory of the Bishop, while those present rejected it and shunned his wicked tongue; he was suddenly struck by a grievous wound, and was lifted by the hands of others from the very place in which he was lying, and was placed on a bed, and from there was carried all the way to the tomb. In the city of Carthage also, when I had come together with Vincentius, bishop of Colossae, and Muranus also, bishop of Bolita, and other bishops and deacons besides, to a banquet at the house of the deacon Fortunatus, brother of the venerable man bishop Aurelius; then, to bishop Muranus, who was speaking evil of the holy man, I related the end of the presbyter mentioned above: which he, though spoken of another, proved by his own timely end to be an oracle spoken of himself.

For from that same place in which he was lying, when he was suddenly struck by a huge wound, he was carried by the hands of others all the way to his bed, and from there was led to the house in which he was lodging, and there closed his final day. This was the end of the men who spoke evil against him, which those who were then present, seeing, marveled at.

Wherefore I exhort and beseech every man who shall read this book, that he imitate the life of the holy man, praise the grace of God, and turn aside from the tongues of detractors; if he wishes rather to have fellowship with Ambrose in the resurrection of life, than to undergo with those detractors the punishment which no wise man fails to shun.

I also beseech your beatitude, father Augustine, that for me, the most humble sinner Paulinus, together with all the saints who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in truth, you would deign to pray; that since in obtaining grace I am not worthy to have fellowship with so great a man, having obtained pardon for my sins, it may be my reward to have escaped punishment.