Ambrose is remembered as a role model for the Christian life and as a pace-setter in confronting the Roman government for the Church. He also was a hymn writer.
Born around 339 A.D. in Gaul, then Britain, France, and parts of Africa, he was governor of northern Italy by age 34. When the bishop of Milan died, Ambrose was chosen as his replacement.
Ambrose had been an average Christian. Once he took the office as bishop of Milan, he regarded every part of his life as belonging to Christ. For example, he distributed his money and material possessions to the poor, which was considered the ideal of that day’s Christian life. When a man bequeathed the church a large legacy but left his sister penniless, Ambrose gave the money to the sister.
He converted the cathedral’s valuable communion vessels into money to redeem some slaves. When criticized, he answered, “Has the Church no higher mission to fulfill than to guard the ornaments made by men’s hands, while the faithful are suffering in exile?” Ambrose regarded the Church’s mission as spiritual, not one tied to worldly things.
Ambrose’s spiritual views were tested when the Roman Emperor’s mother wanted Ambrose to debate Arianism and Christianity in the palace. Ambrose refused. Arianism taught that Jesus was not fully God but a creature of the Father. The problem, as Ambrose saw it, was that spiritual authority didn’t lie with the government but was to be kept within the church.
The emperor’s mother dispatched soldiers after Ambrose.
With his supporters, Ambrose entered the church and prayed. He believed his fight was a spiritual war that needed spiritual weapons. So while surrounded for days by soldiers, Ambrose and his people prayed, sang psalms, and listened to Ambrose preach. Ambrose developed different forms of singing such as alternately.
When Ambrose wouldn’t compromise, the Empress ordered him arrested, but the soldiers refused and were called back to Rome. Thus Ambrose had won his spiritual battle with spiritual weapons, especially with Christian hymns.
Ambrose also had a private ministry, a one-to-one with individuals. Augustine was one of his famous converts, baptized by Ambrose in Milan in 387.
Ambrose wrote many hymns such as “We Praise Thee, O God.”
We Praise Thee, O God