Veni, redemptor gentium! The feast day of Saint Ambrose of Milan ~ December 7

Saint Ambrose absolving Theodosius the Great by French artist
Pierre Subleyras, ca. 1745.

December 7 is the feast day of Saint Ambrose of Milan—one of the most celebrated and brilliant of the early Church fathers. Born around the year AD 340, Ambrose would rise through the ranks of the secular Roman world, only to find himself hailed to the bishopric of Milan by popular acclamation. He would hold that position through the turbulent period at the end of the 4th century until his death in AD 397.

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To help celebrate the feast day of Saint Ambrose, check out this reprint of The Life of Saint Ambrose—an ancient biography written by Paulinus of Milan.

I have spent a considerable quantity of pixels on Saint Ambrose in the past. In previous posts, we saw a prodigy involving bees that covered him as an infant, the unusual circumstances surrounding his consecration as bishop, his miraculous discovery of the relics of saints Gervasius and Protasius, how he eulogized Valentinian II and his public rebuke of the emperor Theodosius the Great.

For this post, let's take a look at how Ambrose's consecration as bishop of Milan put put him on a collision course with the Empress Justina, mother of Valentian II.

Justina was originally the wife of a man named Magnus Magnentius, who rose to become a western usurper in the mid 4th century. He would be defeated and slain by Constantinus II and Justina, his widow, would go on to marry another powerful man, Valentinian I. While Valentinian I tended to favor orthodoxy Christianity, though without much apparent zeal, Justina was an ardent Arian. After the death of her husband, Justina ruled from behind the throne of her six-year old son, Valentinian II, and was keen to promote Arianism at every turn.

When Ambrose was made bishop at the insistence of the people of Milan, he soon made it clear that he would uphold the orthodox Christian beliefs. As a result, Justina began seeking ways to get rid of him. As recorded by Paulinus:

[Ambrose] returned to Milan and there withstood countless insidious attacks of the above mentioned woman Justina who, by bestowing offices and honors, aroused the people against the holy man. And the weak were deceived by such promises, for she promised tribuneships and various other offices of authority to those who would drag him from the church and lead him into exile.

While many tried this but through the protection of God were not strong enough to accomplish it, one more wretched than the rest, Euthymius by name, was incited to such a pitch of fury that he bought a house for himself near the church and in it placed a wagon in order that he might the more easily seize him and, having placed him in the cart, carry him into exile. But his iniquity came down upon his own head, for a year from that very day on which he planned to seize him, he himself, placed in the same cart, was sent from the same house into exile, reflecting that this had been turned upon him by the just judgment of God, that he was being taken into exile on that very cart which he himself had prepared for the bishop. And the bishop offered him no little consolation by giving him expenses and other things which were necessary.

The failure of Euthymius to seize the bishop did not lessen the desire of the Arian faction to have him removed, however:

...Roused with greater madness, [the Arians] endeavored to break into the Portian Basilica, even an army under arms was sent to guard the doors of the church that no one might dare to enter the Catholic church. But the Lord, who is wont to grant triumphs to His Church over its adversaries, moved the hearts of the soldiers to the defense of His church, so that turning their shields, they guarded the doors of the church, not permitting anyone to go out but also not preventing the Catholic people from entering the church. But not even this could suffice for the soldiers who had been sent, for they too acclaimed the Catholic faith along with the people.

At this time antiphons, hymns, and vigils began first to be practiced in the church of Milan. The devotion to this practice continues even to this very day not only in the same church but almost through all the provinces of the West.

Justina would never manage to lay hands on Ambrose, and would eventually perish after fleeing to Theodosius the Great when the usurper Magnus Maximus took over most of her son's domain.

The last paragraph from Paulinus above refers, of course, to Ambrose's subsequent fame as a hymnodist. Amazingly, some of Ambrose's hymns have survived to this day including this one which is quite fitting for the Advent season:


Here is the text as taken from the preces-latina.org website (see English translation there):

Veni, redemptor gentium,
ostende partum Virginis;
miretur omne saeculum:
talis decet partus Deum.

Non ex virili semine,
sed mystico spiramine
Verbum Dei factum est caro
fructusque ventris floruit.

Alvus tumescit Virginis,
claustrum pudoris permanet,
vexilla virtutum micant,
versatur in templo Deus.

Procedat e thalamo suo,
pudoris aula regia,
geminae gigas substantiae
alacris ut currat viam.

Aequalis aeterno Patri,
carnis tropaeo cingere,
infirma nostri corporis
virtute firmans perpeti.

Praesepe iam fulget tuum
lumenque nox spirat novum,
quod nulla nox interpolet
fideque iugi luceat.

Sit, Christe, rex piissime,
tibi Patrique gloria
cum Spiritu Paraclito,
in sempiterna saecula. Amen.