The horror with which the news of this tragical scene filled the breast of St. Ambrose and his colleagues is not to be expressed; but our saint thought it best to give the emperor a little time to reflect, and enter into himself. The emperor was not then at Milan; but was to return in two of three days. St. Ambrose, that he might not see him too soon, left the town, and wrote him a very tender strong letter, which is extant, exhorting him to and penance, and declaring that he neither could nor would receive his offering, or celebrate the divine mysteries before him, till that obligation was satisfied; for, how much soever he loved and respected him, he gave the preference to God; and he loved his majesty, not to his prejudice, but to him salvation.³⁷ Soon after, the bishop came to town, and the emperor, according to his custom, went to church. But St. Ambrose went out and met him at the church-porch, and, forbidding him any further entrance said, “It seems, sir, that you do not yet rightly apprehend the enormity of the massacre lately committed. Let not the splendor of your purple robes hinder you from being acquainted with the infirmities of that body which they cover. You are of the same mould with those subjects which you govern; and there is one common Lord and Emperor of the world. With what eyes will you behold his temple? With what feet will you tread his sanctuary? How will you lift up to him in prayer those hands which are still stained with blood unjustly spilled? Depart, therefore, and attempt not by a second offence, to aggravate your former crime; but quietly take the yoke upon you which the Lord has appointed for you. It is sharp, but it is medicinal, and conducive to your health.” The prince offered something by way of extenuation, and said that David had sinned. The holy bishop replied, “Him whom you have followed in sinning, follow also in his repentance.”* Theodosius submitted, accepted the penance which the church prescribed, and retired to his palace, where he passed eight months in mourning, without ever going into the church, and clad with penitential or mourning weeds. After this term, the feast of Christmas being come, he remained still shut up in his palace, shedding many tears. Ruffinus, the master of the offices, and prefect or comptroller of his household or palace, who was not baptized before the year 391, asked him the reason of his grief, and told him he had only punished criminals, and had no cause to fall into depression of mind: for piety required not so cruel an affliction. Thus this courtier, after having induced his master to commit a crime, attempted by his flatteries to weaken his repentance. But the emperor, redoubling his tears and sighs, said to him, “Ruffinus, thou dost but make sport and mock me. Thou little knowest the anguish and trouble I feel. I weep and bewail my miserable condition. The church of God is open to beggars and slaves; but the church doors, and consequently the gates of heaven too, are shut against me. For our Lord has peremptorily declared, Whatever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven.” Ruffinus said, “If you please, I will run to the bishop, and will use so many arguments with him, that I will persuade him to absolve you.” The emperor answered, “It will not be in your power to do it. I know the justice of the sentence he has passed, and he is an inflexible man where the laws of religion are concerned, and will never, out of respect to the imperial dignity, do any thing against the law of God.” He added, that it was better to finish his penance than vainly demand the favor of an over-hasty absolution. Ruffinus insisted upon it that he should prevail. Whereupon the emperor said, “Go quickly then.” And, flattering himself with the hopes that Ruffinus had given him, he followed him soon after. St. Ambrose no sooner saw the comptroller coming towards him, but he abruptly broke out, and said, “Ruffinus, you carry your assurance and boldness beyond all bounds. You were the adviser and author of this massacre. How can you then intercede for another? You have laid aside all shame, and neither blush nor tremble at the remembrance of so great a crime, and an assault made upon the image of God.” Ruffinus fell to entreaties, and besought the bishop with all possible earnestness, adding, that the emperor would be there by-and-by. “If so,” said the bishop, “I tell you plainly, I shall forbid him to enter the church-porch And, if he think good to turn his power into force and tyranny, here I am, most ready to undergo any death, and to present my throat to the sword.” Ruffinus, seeing the resolution of the bishop, dispatched a messenger to the emperor, to inform him of what had passed, and to advise him to stay at home. The prince received the information in the midst of the high street; but said, “I will go, and receive the affront and rebuke which I deserve.” When he came to the enclosure of the holy place he did not go into the church; but went to the bishop, who was sitting in the auditory, and besought him to give him absolution. St. Ambrose stood up, and said, “What! do you come here to trample upon the holy laws of God?” “I respect them,” said the emperor, “I will not enter the sacred porch contrary to the rules: but I beseech you to free me from these bonds; and not shut agains me the door which the Lord hath opened to all penitents.” The bishop said, “What penance have you done, after having been guilty of such a crime?” “It is your part,” said the emperor, “to inform me what I ought to do; to prescribe the remedies, and apply the plaster: and it is mine to submit, and to comply with the prescriptions.”³⁸ St. Ambrose ordered him to place himself among the public penitents in the church. Sozomen assures us, that the emperor made a public confession of his sin: and St. Ambrose, in his funeral oration, describes how he knelt at the church door, and lay long prostrate in the rank of the penitents, repeating, with David: My soul hath cleaved to the pavement: O Lord, restore my life, according to thy word.³⁹ He remained in this posture, beating his breast from time to time, tearing his hair, and, with tears running down his cheeks, begged pardon of God, lamenting his sin in the sight of all the people, who were so touched at it as to weep along with him, and to pray a long while. St. Ambrose enjoined him, before he gave him absolution, to draw up a law to cancel all decrees that are made in haste or passion, and to command a respite of thirty days before execution of all warrants or sentences which regard life or the forfeiture of estates, that it may be discovered if any surprise or passion had any part in it. This law the emperor forthwith commanded to be drawn up, and signed it with his own hand, promising always to observe it. Such a law in part had been made by Gratian, eight years before, with which this of Theodosius is now joined in one.⁴⁰ Theodosius, after his absolution, passed no day to his death on which he did not bewail afresh this offence, into which he was drawn by surprise, and through the instigation of others, as St. Ambrose remarks.

Theodoret mentions another example of humility and religion which this great emperor showed while he was at Milan; which some moderns placed before, and others after his penance.⁴¹ It happened on a great festival, that, having brought his offering to the altar, he remained within the rails of the sanctuary, that is, within the chancel or choir: St. Ambrose asked him if he wanted any thing. The emperor said he stayed to assist at the holy mysteries, and to communicate. The bishop sent his archdeacon to him with this message: “My lord, it is lawful for none but the sacred ministers to remain within the sanctuary. Be pleased therefore to go out, and continue standing with the rest. The purple robe makes princes, but not priests.” Theodosius answered, that he stayed not with a design of doing any thing against the church, or out of any affectation to distinguish himself from all the rest: but that he thought the custom was the same at Milan as at Constantinople, where his place was in the sanctuary; and, after having thanked the archbishop for being so kind as to inform him of his duty, he went out of the rails, and took his place among the laity. At his return to Constantinople, on the first great holiday that he went to the great church, he went out of the sanctuary after he had made his offering. The archbishop Nectarius sent to desire him to come back, and resume the place designed for him. The pious emperor answered, with a sigh, “Alas! how hard is it for me to learn the difference between the priesthood and the empire! I am encompassed with flatterers, and have found but one man that has set me right, and told me the truth. I know but one true bishop in the world, this is Ambrose.” From that time he kept without the rails or chancel, a little above the people, in which he was imitated by succeeding emperors. Theodosius, after staying almost three years in the West, left Valentinian in peaceable possession of that empire, and would carry home no other recompense of his labors and victories than the glory of having restored that prince, and afforded so many nations a disinterested protection. In his return into the East, all the people came out to meet him with extraordinary joy, and his reception in every city on the road was a kind of triumph especially at Constantinople, where he arrived on the 9th of November 391; and he appeared more glorious by the marks of love which he received of his subjects than by the victories he had gained over his enemies.

The young Valentinian followed in every thing the advice and instructions of St. Ambrose, honoring and loving him with as much ardor as his mother had formerly persecuted him with fury. Never was prince more ready to correct his faults. When he was told that he was too fond of the sports of the circus, he renounced those diversions, except on indispensable occasions. When some said that his passion for hunting diverted his mind from business, he presently ordered all the wild beasts he kept in a park to be killed. It was said by some that he advanced the hour of his meal too early, out of intemperance: he made use of this advice, and became so abstemious, that he fasted very often, and ate but little, even in the magnificent entertainments which he provided for his courtiers. He eased his subjects of many burdens and taxes, and never imposed any new ones, saying, the people were already too much oppressed. Yet count Arbogastes, general of his forces, came to an open breach with him. This man was a Frank by birth, but had been brought up from his youth in the Roman army, and was a pagan. By the great power to which he arrived, he assumed so much as to command Valentinian, and dispose of all things at pleasure. The emperor at length resolved no longer to brook his imperious behavior, and bear with his insolence. In 392, when they were both together in Gaul, busy in securing the country against the Germans, their misintelligence was carried to the highest pitch. But at length a seeming peace was concluded. The emperor pressed St. Ambrose to come to him at Vienne in Gaul, to be a witness to their reconciliation, and he was desirous to be baptized by him, being then in the twentieth year of his age. In his impatience to see him, and receive the holy sacrament of regeneration, he used often to say, “Shall I be so happy as to see my father?” He never had that happiness, being strangled by Arbogastes while he was diverting himself in the garden of his palace, on the banks of the Rhone, at Vienne, on the 15th of May, 392. St. Ambrose, who was advanced on his journey as far as the Alps, upon hearing this tragical news, returned to Milan, watering all his steps with his tears. Valentinian’s corpse was buried with Gratian’s at Milan, and St. Ambrose pronounced his funeral oration, in which he largely proves, that his desire of baptism supplied the want of it, and promises always to remember him in his sacrifices and prayers. Arbogastes placed the imperial diadem on the head of Eugenius, a rhetorician by profession, a man of parts and learning, who had long been in his service, and, from an ignoble condition, had been raised to high undeserved honors. This man was a nominal Christian, but unsettled in religious principles; for he flattered the heathens, and placed great confidence in divinations and auguries. They hastened their march into Italy, and courted St. Ambrose by very obliging letters; but before they arrived at Milan, the holy bishop had retired to Bologna, where he assisted at the translation of the relics of SS. Vitalis and Agricola. Thence he went to Florence, where he consecrated a church, called afterwards the Ambrosian basilic, like another at Milan, which was mentioned above. At Florence St. Ambrose lived in the house of the most considerable among the citizens named Decentius, whose infant child happened to die. The mother laid him upon the bed of St. Ambrose while he was abroad. The saint, being returned, laid himself upon the child in imitation of Eliseus, and by his prayers restored him to life, as Paulinus assures us. Theodosius refused all terms proposed to him by Eugenius’s ambassadors, and raised a powerful army to march against the traitors. He prepared himself for war by fasts, prayers, and frequent visiting of churches;⁴⁴ and he sent to implore the prayers of St. John of Egypt. That holy hermit, who had formerly foretold him the defeat of Maximus sent him an assurance that this enterprise against Eugenius would be more difficult than the former against Maximus had been, yet that he should obtain a complete victory, but should die shortly after.⁴⁵ Theodosius, before he set out, among many actions of heroic and public charity, justice, devotion, and piety, by a rescript inserted in the Roman law, pardoned all injuries in word or action that had ever been committed against his person. “For,” said he, “if it be by indiscreet levity that any one has spoken against us, we ought not to regard it: if it is by folly, we ought to pity him; if by ill-will, we are very willing to pardon him.”⁴⁶

His army was assembled under Timasius, who commanded the Roman legions; Stilico, a Vandal prince who had married Serena, the emperor’s niece; Gainas, general of the Goths, &c. Theodosius joined them in Thrace, marched through Pannonia and Illyricum, and forced the passes of the Alps, which Arbogastes had so fenced and guarded as to look upon them as not only impregnable, but even inaccessible. Yet Arbogastes was not dismayed, and drew up his army in battalia in the spacious piains of Aquileia, at the foot of the Alps. In the first engagement Arbogastes gained the day; and, in a second, the army of Theodosius was upon the point of being broken and dispersed, when, by a fervent prayer, he conjured God to defend the cause of his own divine honor.⁴⁷ Soon after, there arose from the Alps an impetuous wind, which put the squadrons of the enemy into strange disorder, drove back their darts and arrows, and beat clouds of dust upon their faces, which deprived many of the use of their sight, and almost of their respiration,⁴⁸ which gave Theodosius a complete victory. Theodoret⁴⁹ tells us, that the prince, before this second battle, shut himself up one night in a church to pray, and falling asleep, saw in a vision two men in white, on white horses, who promised him that they would assist him. The one was St. Philip the apostle, the other St. John the Evangelist. Evagrius and his companions taking leave of St. John in Thebais, that holy man giving them his blessing said: “Go in peace, my dear children, and know that they hear this day in Alexandria that Theodosius has defeated the tyrant Eugenius. But this prince will not long enjoy the advantage of his victory, and God will ere long withdraw him out of this world.”⁵⁰ Eugenius, who was seated on a hill near the field of battle, was taken and brought to Theodosius, who reproached him with his crimes and credulity in the promises of heathenish diviners, and commanded him to be beheaded on the 6th of September in 394. Arbogastes, after wandering two days in the mountains became his own executioner, thrusting two swords one after another through his body.* Theodosius pardoned all the rest of their party; and never was any prince more moderate in his victory. He knew how to pardon, scarce how to punish; and he seemed to forget that he had enemies as soon as he had overcome. Being informed that the children of Eugenius and Flavian (general of his Roman forces) had taken sanctuary in the churches of Aquileia, he sent a tribune with an order to save their lives. He took care to have them educated in the Christian religion, left possessions for them, and used them as if they had been of his own family. As this victory was rather God’s than his own, his first care was that a solemn thanksgiving should be rendered to him throughout his whole empire. He wrote particularly to St. Ambrose on that subject. This holy archbishop had returned to Milan as soon as Eugenius was departed thence: and upon receiving his letter, with the news of his victory, he offered the holy sacrifice in thanksgiving, and sent one of his deacons to him with letters, in which, after having expressed his joy for the prosperity of his arms, he represented to him, that he ought to give God the whole glory thereof, that piety had contributed more to it than valor, and that his victory was incomplete unless he pardoned those who were involved in the misfortune rather than in the crimes of the tyrant, to which mercy he strongly exhorted him.⁵¹ This he besought in particular in favor of those who had taken refuge in the churches, which the saint doubted not of obtaining from a prince in whose behalf God had wrought prodigies, as he had formerly done in favor of Moses, Josue, Samuel, and David.⁵² A little while after, St. Ambrose went to Aquileia to wait upon the emperor. Their interview was full of joy and tenderness. The archbishop prostrated himself before this prince whom piety and the visible protection of God had rendered more venerable than his victories and crowns, and prayed that God would bestow on him all the blessings of heaven, as he had loaded him with all the prosperity of the earth. The emperor, on his side, cast himself at the feet of the archbishop, imputing to his prayers the favors which he had received from God, and entreating him to pray for his salvation, as he had done for his success. Then they entertained themselves about the means of restoring religion.

Theodosius soon followed St. Ambrose to Milan, who was gone the day before; but the prince refrained some time from the holy communion, because he had been stained with blood, though shed in a just and necessary war.* In the mean time he studied by compunction to purify his soul, and was assaulted by a mortal dropsy, which the fatigues of his expedition and the severity of winter had brought on him. He sent for his children to Milan and would receive them in the church on the day on which he received the communion the first time after his wars. He gave his two sons excellent instructions how to govern well, then turning to St. Ambrose he said, “These are the truths which you have taught me, and which I myself have experienced. It is your part to make them descend in my family, and to instruct, according to your custom, these young emperors whom I leave to you.” The archbishop answered, that he hoped God would give to the children a teachable heart and easy temper, which he had given the father. He granted and confirmed by law, a general amnesty and pardon to all rebels who were returned to their duty, by which they were re-established in their estates and dignities. He discharged the people of the augmentations of tribute, desiring that his subjects might enjoy the advantage of a victory to which they had contributed by their prayers and labors. Nothing could be more pathetic than his last exhortations to those senators who still remained idolaters, that they would embrace the faith of Christ, in which he declared it to have been his greatest desire to make all his subjects faithful servants of Jesus Christ.⁵³ He gave much of his time to his devotions, and to pious conversation with St. Ambrose, in whose arms he expired on the 17th of January in the year 395, of his age the fiftieth. St. Ambrose preached his funeral sermon on the fortieth day after his death, and his body was conveyed to Constantinople, and everywhere received with honors which rather resembled triumphs than funeral solemnities.

In the year 395 St. Ambrose discovered the bodies of the holy martyrs Nazarius and Celsus, in a garden near Milan, and translated them into the basilic of the apostles, near the Roman gate. Their blood was gathered up with plaster and linen; and this was distributed to others as a precious relic.⁵⁴ A person possessed with a devil was delivered by St. Ambrose at these relics, before which the devil tormented him till the saint bade him hold his peace. One who had counterfeited grants for the office of a tribune, the saint delivered to Satan; and even before the bishop had done speaking, the unclean spirit seized on him, and began to tear him: “At which,” saith the secretary Paulinus, “we were all much terrified” He adds, “We saw in those days many dispossessed at his command, and by the laying on of his hands.” He also mentions sick persons who were cured by his prayers. The reputation of St. Ambrose reached the most distant countries, and drew to Milan two Persians of the greatest authority and wisdom in that nation, who came thither furnished with many questions to make trial of his wisdom. They discoursed with him by the help of an interpreter for a whole day, and departed full of admiration. A little before our saint’s death, Fritigil, queen of the Marcomanni, having heard of the fame of his sanctity from a certain Christian that came from Italy, was moved by it to believe in Jesus Christ, and sent ambassadors to him with presents for the church of Milan, entreating St. Ambrose to instruct her by writing in what she was to believe. He sent her an excellent letter in form of a catechism, which is now lost. The queen having received it, persuaded the king to submit himself and his people to the Romans, and went herself to Milan: but to her great affliction, did not find St. Ambrose alive.

Our holy bishop made the administration of the sacrament of penance a chief part of his pastoral care. Paulinus writes thus of him: “Whenever any person confessed their sins to him, in order to receive penance, he shed such an abundance of tears as to make the penitent also to weep. The sins which were confessed to him he never disclosed to any one, only interceded with God.”⁵⁵ In his writings he explains in great detail all the parts and duties of penance. Speaking of the obligation of confessing sins, he says: “If thou wilt be justified, confess thy crime. For an humble confession loosens the bonds of sins.”⁵⁶ And again, “Why are you ashamed to do this in the church, where it ought only to be an object of shame not to confess our faults, seeing we are all sinners; where he is most commendable who is most humble, and he is the most just who is the lowest in his own eyes.”⁵⁷ Against the Novatian heresy St. Ambrose wrote his two books of Penance. In the first, he shows that absolution is to be given to penitents for all sins, however grievous. But, towards the end, observes that their penitence must be condign and sincere. “If any one,” says he, “be guilty of secret* sins, and does penance for them very heartily, in obedience to the commands of Jesus Christ, how shall he receive the reward, unless he be restored to the communion of the church? I would have the guilty hope for the pardon of his sins; yet he should beg it with tears, sighs, and the lamentations of all the people. I would have him pray for absolution; and when it is twice or thrice delayed, let him believe that this delay proceeds from the want of importunity in his prayers. Let him redouble his weeping, let him render himself more worthy of pity; and then let him return, let him throw himself at the feet of the faithful, let him embrace them, kiss them, bathe them with his tears; and let him not forsake them, that so our Lord may say to him, Many sins are forgiven him because he loved much. I have known some persons who, in their penance, have disfigured their face with much weeping, who have hollowed their cheeks with continual tears, who have prostrated themselves on the ground to be trod under foot, who, by their continual fasting, have rendered their countenances so pale and disfigured, that they carried in a living body the very image of death.” In the second book, after answering some objections of the Novatians, he shows that penance is false and fruitless without a total change of heart and manners, in which its very essence consists. “There are others,” says he, “who may be immediately restored to communion. These do not so much desire to be loosed, as to bind the priest; for they do not unburden their own conscience, but burden that of the priest, who is commanded not to give holy things to dogs; that is, not easily to admit impure souls’ to communion. I have found more persons who have preserved the innocence of their baptism, than who have done penance as they should do after they have lost it. They must renounce the world, and allow less time for sleep than nature requires; they must break their sleep with groaning and sighing, and employ part of that time in prayers; they must live in such a manner as to be dead to the use of this life: let such men deny themselves, and change themselves wholly,” &c. St. Ambrose exhorts the faithful to very frequent communion, because the holy eucharist is our spiritual bread and daily nourishment, not a poison. In his book, On the Mysteries, composed in 387, he instructs the new baptized, expounding the ceremonies of baptism and confirmation, and the sacrament of the holy eucharist, which he does in the clearest terms.* That this book On the Mysteries, is the undoubted work of our holy doctor is manifest not only from the unanimous consent of authors, but also from the first part of this book itself. After having explained the ancient types of the eucharist, as the sacrifice of Melchisedech, the manna, and the water flowing out of the rock, he adds: “You will say perhaps I see something else: how can I be sure that I receive the body of Christ? Prove that it is not what hath been formed by nature, but what the benediction hath consecrated, and that the benediction is more powerful than nature, because it changes even nature itself.” He urges the example of the rod of Moses changed into a serpent, and several other miracles; and, lastly, the incarnation, which mystery he compares to that of the eucharist. “A virgin,” says he, “brought forth. This is contrary to the order of nature. The body which we consecrate came forth of a virgin: Why do you seek for the order of nature in the body of Jesus Christ, since Jesus Christ was born of a virgin against the order of nature. Jesus Christ had real flesh which was fastened to the cross, and laid in the sepulchre. So the eucharist is the true sacrament of this flesh. Christ himself assures us of it. This is, says he, my body. Before the benediction of these heavenly words it is of another nature, after the consecration it is the body. If man’s benediction has been capable of changing the nature of things, what shall we say of the divine consecration, wherein the very words of our Saviour himself operate? The word of Jesus Christ, which could make that out of nothing which was not, can it not change that which is into what it was not?” &c. The saint recommends to the new believers to keep the mysteries secret. St. Austin, who was baptized by St. Ambrose in 387, must have been present at these discourses which St. Ambrose then made to the Neophytes. St. Ambrose was particularly careful in the choice of his clergy. This appears from several instances which the saint himself relates. One of his friends he would never be prevailed upon to admit among the clergy, on account of some levity in his carriage. Another, who was one of the clergy, he forbade ever to walk before him, on a like account; for he was persuaded that such faults proceed from an irregularity of the mind.⁵⁸ He forbids the clergy to intermeddle with business or traffic, wishing them to be contented with their small patrimony, or, if they have none, with their salaries.⁵⁹ In order to regulate the manners of the clergy that they might be the light of the world, he composed, in 386, three books On the Offices of the Ministers; in which, however, he often descends to general precepts of morality adapted to Christians of all denominations.*

One of St. Ambrose’s last actions was the ordination of St. Honoratus bishop of Vercelli. A few days before he fell sick, he foretold his death but said he should live till Easter. Before he took his bed, he continued his usual studies, and expounded the forty-third psalm. While he dictated this exposition, Paulinus, who was his amanuensis, looking up, saw a flame in the form of a small shield covering his head, and by degrees creeping into his mouth; upon which his face became white as snow, though soon after it returned to its usual complexion. “I was so affrighted thereat,” says Paulinus, “that I remained without motion, and could not write what he dictated till the vision was over. He was then repeating a passage of scripture which I well remember; and on that day he left off both writing and reading, so that he could not finish the psalm.” We have this exposition of St. Ambrose upon the forty-third psalm, which ends at the twenty-fifth verse, and nothing is said upon the two last. He must have been already sick, for Paulinus assures us, that when he was well, he never spared the pains of writing his books with his own hand. After having ordained a bishop of Pavia, he was taken so ill that he kept his bed a long time. Upon this news, count Stilico, the guardian and prime minister of Honorius, who governed the western empire, was much troubled, and said publicly, “The day that this great man dies, destruction hangs over Italy.” And, therefore, sending for as many of the nobility and magistrates of the city as he knew had the greatest interest and sway with the bishop, he persuaded them to go to him, and by all means prevail with him to beg of God a longer life. They went, and standing about his bed with tears, entreated him to intercede with heaven for his own life, for the sake of others; to whom he answered, “I have not so behaved myself among you that I should be ashamed to live longer; nor am I afraid to die, because we have a good master.” He lay in a gallery, at the end whereof were four deacons, discoursing together who might succeed him. They spoke so low that they could hardly hear each other. Yet when they named Simplician, the bishop, though at a distance, cried out three times, “He is old, but good.” At which they were so surprised that they hastened out of the place. As St. Ambrose was praying in the same place, he beheld Jesus Christ coming towards him with a smiling countenance. This he told Bassianus, bishop of Lodi, who was praying with him, and from him Paulinus learned it. The saint died a few days after. The day on which he expired, he lay with his hands extended in form of a cross for several hours, moving his lips in constant prayer, though it could not be understood what he said. St. Honoratus, bishop of Vercelli, was there, and being gone into an upper chamber to take a little rest, heard a voice crying three times to him: “Arise, and make haste; for he is going to depart.” He went down, and gave him the body of our Lord, which the saint had no sooner swallowed, but he gave up the ghost.⁶⁰ St. Ambrose died about midnight before Holy Saturday, the 4th of April, in 397. He was about fifty-seven years old, and had been bishop twenty-two years and four months.⁶¹ The common suffrage of all antiquity has ranked him among the four great doctors of the Latin church.* His feast is kept on the 7th of December, the day on which he was ordained bishop; and he is honored on the same not only in the western calendars, but also in those of the oriental church. The body of St. Ambrose reposes in a vault under the high altar, in the Ambrosian basilic at Milan. It was first interred near the relics of SS. Gervasius and Protasius. God was pleased to honor him, by manifesting that through his intercession he protected the state against the idolaters. Radagaisus, a king of the Goths, a pagan, threatened the destruction of Christianity, and the ruin of the Roman empire, which he invaded with an army, it is said, of two hundred thousand, others say, four hundred thousand men, about the year 405. He had vowed to sacrifice all the Romans to his gods; and he seems to have been the last instrument which the devil raised, to attempt to re-establish idolatry in the empire. The pagans among the Romans seemed disposed to rebel, and openly imputed these calamities to the establishment of Christianity. But the Romans, commanded by Stilico, obtained a complete victory, without any loss of men, and Radagaisus was taken prisoner, with his two sons, and put to death. Tillemont gives the following relation:⁶² “Radagaisus besieged Florence. This city was reduced to the utmost straits, when St. Ambrose, who had once retired thither, (and who had now been dead nine years,) appeared to a person of the house where he had lodged, and promised him that the city should be delivered from the enemy on the next day. The man told it to the inhabitants, who took courage, and resumed the hopes which they had quite lost; and on the next day came Stilico with his army. Paulinus, who relates this, learned it from a lady who lived at Florence.” And this proves what St. Paulinus, the bishop of Nola, says: “That God granted the preservation of the Romans to the prayers of St. Peter, St. Paul, and the other martyrs and confessors, who were honored by the church throughout the empire.” Though the forces of the emperor Honorius were too weak to oppose this torrent, a their approach Radagaisus was struck with a sudden pame, and fled, and his scattered troops were taken, and sold like droves of cattle.

St. Ambrose joined together, in the conduct of his life, a wonderful generosity and inflexibility where the divine law was concerned, with all possible prudence and moderation; yet in all his actions tempered the boldnes and authority of a bishop with an air of sweetness and charity. By this he gained all hearts; and his inflexible severity in points of duty appeared amiable and mild, while every one saw that it proceeded wholly from the most tender charity. St. Austin tells us, that in his first interview, when he was a stranger to St. Ambrose, and enslaved to the world and his passions, he was won by him, because he saw in him a good eye, and a kind countenance, the index of his benevolent heart. “I saw a man affectionate and kind to me,” says he. When a friend shows, by his words and behavior that he has sincerely and only our interest at heart, this opens all the avenues of our mind, and strengthens and enforces his admonitions, so that they never fail to make deep impressions. They who speak affectionately and from their hearts, speak powerfully to the hearts of others. This is the property of true charity, the most essential qualification of a minister of Christ, who is dead to the world and himself, and seeks no interest but that of Christ and his neighbor in the salvation of souls.