Ambrose, St
Ambrose, St (c.339–97), Doctor of the Church and bishop of Milan. A champion of orthodoxy, he also encouraged developments in church music. He was partly responsible for the conversion of St Augustine of Hippo, and forced the emperor Theodosius to do public penance for a massacre carried out on his orders at Thessalonica; for this Ambrose is sometimes shown with a scourge.
In the Confessions of St Augustine, he is noted as reading silently to himself rather than aloud: ‘When he was reading, he drew his eyes along over the leaves, and his heart searched into the sense, but his voice and tongue were silent.’
According to legend, when he was a child a swarm of bees settled on his mouth, symbolizing his future eloquence. His emblems are a beehive and a scourge, and his feast day is 7 December.
In the Confessions of St Augustine, he is noted as reading silently to himself rather than aloud: ‘When he was reading, he drew his eyes along over the leaves, and his heart searched into the sense, but his voice and tongue were silent.’
According to legend, when he was a child a swarm of bees settled on his mouth, symbolizing his future eloquence. His emblems are a beehive and a scourge, and his feast day is 7 December.
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Ambrose, St
