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Today is the Feast of St. Ambrose of Milan in the Orthodox Church. Since seminary, I've been fascinated by his life and writing. A short thread:
Ambrose is one of the key figures of the fourth century who both represents and figured in the transformation of Church and empire, orthodoxy and heresy, as well as the institutionalization of ascetic ideals.
Among other historic roles, he played a part in the conversion of St. Augustine and he famously denied to eucharist to the emperor Theodosius because the latter had ordered the slaughter of thousands of citizens in Thessalonika.
Prior to becoming a bishop, he had served as a provincial governor. Given the state of things in Northern Italy in the mid fourth century, this makes his reflections about questions of violence, tolerance, punishment and war all the more interesting.
Perhaps more than any other theologian of the fourth century, Ambrose unambiguously condemns capital punishment.
A few years ago, following a conference at Bose (45 minutes from Milan), Alexis Torrence and I made a pilgrimage together to the cathedral in Milan that not only has his relics but also the baptistry where he baptized Augustine.
The ancient church has been rebuilt (varying levels of medieval and early modern building), but it was a really memorable visit.
