The Letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of MilanAmbrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan
Religion
The Letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan
Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan
Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan, -397 -- Correspondence
7. Do we not know that the saints fight even when they keep holiday?
Was not Elisha at rest? Yes, at rest in body, but in spirit he was
active, and by his prayers he fought when the noise of horses and the
noise of a great host were heard in the camp of the Syrians, so that
they thought that the forces of other princes were marching against
them, to succour the people of Israel. So they were seized with great
panic and fled, and four lepers, who had gone out to seek for death,
spoiled their camp. And did not the Lord work like, or, I might almost
say, greater wisdom in Macedonia, by the prayers of Acholius? For it
was not by an idle panic nor a vague suspicion, but by a raging plague
and burning pestilence that the Goths were troubled and alarmed. In
short they then fled that they might escape; afterwards they returned
and sued for peace to save their lives.
Sidenote: 2 Kings ii. 4.
8. Wherefore in the great deeds of this eminent man we have seen
former ages revived, and have witnessed those works of the prophet
which we read of. Like Elisha he was all his life in the midst of
arms and battles, and by his good works made wars to cease. And when
tranquillity was restored to his countrymen, he breathed out his holy
soul, a misfortune heavier than war itself. Like Elijah he was carried
up to heaven, not in a chariot of fire, nor by horses of fire, (unless
haply it was but that we saw them not) nor in any whirlwind in the sky,
but by the will and in the calm of our God, and with the jubilation of
the holy Angels who rejoiced that such a man had come among them.
Sidenote: S. Matt. xxv. 21.
9. Surely we cannot doubt this, when all other particulars agree so
well. For at the very moment when he was being taken up, he let fall so
to speak the vestment which he wore, and invested with it holy Anysius
his disciple, and clothed him with the robes of his own priesthood.
His merits and graces I do not now hear for the first time, nor have I
first learnt them from your letters, but I recognised them in what you
wrote. For as if foreknowing that he would be his successor, Acholius
designated him as such by tokens, though in open speech he concealed
it; saying that he had been aided by his care, labour, and ministry,
thus seeming to declare him his coadjutor, one who would not come as a
novice to the chief office of the priesthood, but as a tried performer
of its duties. Well does that saying in the Gospel befit him, _Well
done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a
few things, I will make thee ruler over many things_.
Sidenote: 1 Kings x. 24.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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