Memorial of St. Ambrose

Advent: December 7th: Memorial of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.

"St. Ambrose (340-397) was born at Treves in Gaul, a territory which embraced modern France, Britain, Spain, and part of Africa. He studied in Rome and later became governor of Liguria and Aemelia with residence at Milan. While supervising the election of a new bishop of Milan in 374, he himself was suddenly acclaimed the bishop. He was only a catechumen at the time. He was ordained a priest and consecrated a bishop on Dec. 7. He wrote much on the Scriptures and Fathers, preached a homily every Sunday, resisted the interference of the secular powers with the rights of the Church, opposed the heretics, and was instrumental in bringing about the conversion of St. Augustine. He composed many hymns, promoted sacred chant, and took a great interest in the Liturgy." (from Catholicculture.org)

Read from the writings of St. Ambrose at CCEL.

Emperor Theodosius Forbidden by St. Ambrose To Enter Milan Cathedral,
by Sir Anthony van Dyck. Oil on canvas, 1619-20; National Gallery, London. 

Eusebius: "The only King of all creation"

“THE true Christ, the divine and heavenly Logos, the only High Priest of the world, the only King of all creation, the only Archprophet of prophets of the Father.”

~Eusebius Pamphili, Bishop of Cæsarea in Palestine (AD 260 - 340): Ecclesiastical History, I, 3, 8.

St. Gregory of Nyssa: "The purifying fire"

"IF a man distinguish in himself what is peculiarly human from that which is irrational, and if he be on the watch for a life of greater urbanity for himself, in this present life he will purify himself of any evil contracted, overcoming the irrational by reason. If he have inclined to the irrational pressure of the passions, using for the passions the cooperating hide of things irrational, he may afterward in a quite different manner be very much interested in what is better, when, after his departure out of the body, he gains knowledge of the difference between virtue and vice and finds that he is not able to partake of divinity until he has been purged of the filthy contagion in his soul by the purifying fire."

~St. Gregory of Nyssa: Excerpt from Sermon on the Dead. (A.D. 382)

11th century mosaic of St. Gregory of Nyssa.
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, Ukraine.

Saints

“What saint has ever won his crown without first contending for it?”
—St. Jerome: Letters, 22, 39.

“And if among all the saints some are more saintly than others, it is only because God dwells in them more abundantly.”
—St. Augustine: Letters 187.

Crucifixion and Saints, by Fra Angelico.
Fresco,1441-42; Convento di San Marco, Florence.

St. Augustine: "God, towards whom faith rouses us"

 St. Augustine, by Vincenzo Foppa

"God, from whom to be turned away, is to fall: to whom to be turned back, is to rise again: in whom to abide, is to stand firm. God, from whom to go forth, is to die: to whom to return, is to revive: in whom to have our dwelling, is to live. God, whom no one loses, unless deceived: whom no one seeks, unless stirred up: whom no one finds, unless made pure. God, whom to forsake, is one thing with perishing; towards whom to tend, is one thing with living: whom to see is one thing with having. God, towards whom faith rouses us, hope lifts us up, with whom love joins us."
~St. Augustine: Soliloquies, I, 3.

St. Gregory the Great: "Life of the Pastor"

St. Gregory the Great,
by Bicci di Lorenzo.

OFTEN, however, a spiritual director swells with pride by virtue of being placed in a position of authority over others. Because everything serves his needs and his orders are quickly performed according to his wishes and all of the laity praise him for the things he does well but have no authority to critique what goes wrong, and because they often praise what should really be rebuked, the mind of the priest is often seduced by the approval of those below him, and as a consequence he is exalted inordinately. And while he is outwardly encircled with immense favor, internally he loses his sense of truth. Forgetful of who he is, he scatters himself among the voices of others and believes what he hears them say about him rather than what he should discern about himself from within. [Such a leader] despises the laity and does not believe that they are his equal by nature. And those whom he surpassed by the accident of power, he believes himself to have transcended by the merits of his life. He estimates that he is wiser than those whom he sees himself to have surpassed in rank. Indeed, he constructs his own elated sense of self, and though he shares the same natural conditions as others, he disdains to regard others as his equal. Instead, he brings himself into equality with the one of whom it is written in Scripture: “He sees every high and is king over all the sons of pride.” [Job 41.25] the one who desired a singular height and despised a life in common with the angels said: “I will place my seat in the north and I will be like the Most High.” [Isa 14.13-14] Through a fitting judgment, this one came upon an internal downfall while he outwardly exalted himself on the height of power. In like manner, whenever someone disdains to be like other humans, it is as if he became an apostate angel.

Such was the case of Saul, who after cultivating the merit of humility, later became swollen with pride because of his temporal authority. For his humility he was preferred, for his pride he was rejected, as the Lord attests, saying: “When you were little in your own sight, did I not make you the head of the tribes of Israel?” [1 Sam 15.17] He had previously seen himself to be of little consequence, but after he received temporal authority, he began to think of himself as greater than everyone else. In a wonderful way, when he was small to himself, he was great to the Lord; but when he thought of himself as great, he became small to the Lord. For often when a soul is inflated because of the authority it holds over the laity, it becomes corrupted and moved to pride by the allure of power. In truth, one controls this power well if he knows how both to temper and to assert it. For he controls this power well if he knows how to use to gain a mastery over sin and also knows how to mingle with others as equals. For the human mind is subject to pride even when it is not propped up by a position of authority. How much more, then, does it exalt itself when it is combined with temporal power? But he dispenses his power over the laity rightly if he is careful to take what is useful and reject what is tempting and also if he uses it to realize his equality with others and put himself before sinners with an avenging zeal.

~St. Gregory the Great (c. 540 – 604)

Excerpted from The Book of Pastoral Rule: St. Gregory the Great (Popular Patristics Series), Part II.

“It is worth noting that Gregory was the only Latin author of the patristic era whose works were translated into Greek during his own lifetime. Most notably, after reading the Book of Pastoral Rule, the Byzantine emperor Maurice ordered the book to be translated and disseminated to every bishop in his empire.” (From the Introduction)

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St. Isidore: On Heresy

“THEREFORE, heresy is so called from the Greek word meaning ‘choice,’ by which each chooses according to his own will what he pleases to teach or believe. But we are not permitted to believe whatever we choose, nor to choose whatever someone else has believed. We have the apostles of God as authorities, who did not themselves of their own will choose what they would believe, but faithfully transmitted to the nations the teaching received from Christ. So, even if an angel from heaven should preach otherwise, he shall be called anathema.”

~St. Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 636): Etymologies, 8, 3.

Statue of Isidore of Seville by José Alcoverro, 1892,
outside the Biblioteca Nacional de España, in Madrid.
(Photo credit: Luis García)