Saint Ambrose of Siena

One year after his birth, his nurse would usually carry him to the neighboring church of Saint Mary Magdalene, which belonged to the Friars Preachers, to hear the holy mass. There was in this church a chapel full of relics, before which she would go to pray for the child's health. Soon she noticed, as did the religious and the neighbors, that when she moved to another part of the church, the child would always cry, and that he would say nothing as long as she remained in the chapel. One day, as the nurse was leaving the church, the child began to cry extraordinarily and to turn his face toward the chapel with great effort. The religious and those present, astonished, compelled the nurse to return to the chapel. As soon as she was there, the child pulled his hands and arms from his swaddling clothes, which until then had been stuck to his sides, and, raising them toward heaven, invoked the name of Jesus three times in a very distinct voice. At this miracle, those who knew how deformed the child was came running. The religious had the swaddling clothes removed, and the child began to extend his legs, which until then had been stuck to his thighs: his face, which had been so dark, began to become completely serene and to shine with beauty, to the great admiration of all those present. The news of such a great miracle caused extreme joy, not only to the child's mother but to all the inhabitants of Siena: all offered prayers and alms to bless God for it. The father was absent at that time.

Until the age of seven, he occupied himself only with carving small crosses, setting up oratories, singing psalms and hymns in honor of God, and holding devout processions with other small children; in a word, with imitating everything he saw done in the churches.

As soon as the little child saw a book, he wanted to have it to leaf through, as if he understood something in it, to such an extent that his mother could not say her hours of the Blessed Virgin in his presence; for, if the book was not given to him, he would begin to cry, even all night long; as soon as he had it in his hands, he was content. His father had two small volumes made with pictures, one of secular figures, the other of religious figures, to see if it was the figures or the letters that pleased the child. He first presented him with the volume containing the secular images: the child refused to look at them. On the contrary, he took great pleasure in looking at the volume of religious images, but even more in the letters than in the images. He learned to read promptly. His greatest joy from then on was to read and hear the psalms, which his mother was accustomed to reciting in her office of the Blessed Virgin. From the age of seven, he recited it himself every day.

He was only seven years old when he prescribed for himself a very perfect form of life: for, from that time on, he began to recite the Little Office of Our Lady every day, to fast on the vigils of several saints, and to rise at midnight to study their lives. Being older, he showed a marvelous inclination to assist poor pilgrims, and he even obtained permission from his father to lodge five of them, every Saturday, in an apartment he had had furnished expressly for that purpose. He would go to wait for them at the city gate, and bring them to the house, where, after showing them much kindness, he would wash and kiss their feet with admirable humility and tenderness. The next day, he would take them to hear Mass, have them visit the devotional sites of the city, and finally, when they were ready to leave, he would give them a generous alms. Every Friday he went to the prisons to console those whom their crimes or their debts kept confined there. On Sundays, after Vespers, he would go to the hospital to serve the sick. He continued these pious exercises until the age of seventeen; he then entered the Order of Friars Preachers.

He did not execute this ge Ordre des Frères Prêcheurs Mendicant religious order founded by Saint Dominic. nerous design until after having sustained harsh battles against the enemy of our salvation: once, when he had not wished to be present at a wedding to which he had been invited, this infernal monster appeared to him in the form of a religious, and, under the pretext of engaging him in some spiritual discourse, extolled the state of marriage to the heavens, in order to make him desire to commit himself to it. Another time, he showed himself in the middle of a wood, in the figure of a young girl of ravishing beauty, who implored his assistance; but the holy young man, discovering the trap hidden under these artifices, armed himself both times with the sign of the cross, and immediately these specters and phantoms disappeared. Nevertheless, this prince of the proud did not consider himself defeated because of that; but he made other efforts and spared nothing to divert Ambrose from the holy enterprise of embracing the religious state. However, the grace of God, which triumphed in his heart, gave him enough courage to overcome all these stratagems, and he finally won the victory through the religious profession he made in the year 1238.

As soon as he had taken his vows, his superiors deemed it appropriate to send him to Paris to pursue his studies, which he continued up to theology; after which he went to Cologne, in Germany, and studied under the most holy doctor Albert, surnamed the Great, at whose school Saint Th omas was als saint Thomas Saint cited as an example of resistance to temptation. o present. Our Saint, being under such a good master, made such progress in the sciences that the professors themselves would come to find him in his cell to consult him on their doubts, and they would return very enlightened and satisfied; but these frequent visits were hardly agreeable to him, and he was vexed to see that the place intended for his retreat was thus changed into a place of conference and discussion. That is why he begged his superiors to allow him to withdraw from this embarrassment, so as to be able to speak more conveniently to God, to think of his own salvation, and to converse only in heaven: this grace was granted to him; but it was not for long: for those zealous for the glory of God, who regretted that the public was deprived of a man of such eminent piety and such profound erudition, obliged the superiors to engage him to teach and to preach: for which he seemed to be divinely destined. He therefore taught theology in Paris for three years; but with such a high reputation that people would leave the other colleges of the University to go and hear him. He preached first in Germany, then in France, and finally in Italy; and everywhere Our Lord confirmed the truths he preached by the power of miracles, some of which are reported in the process of his beatification. It was seen several times, during his sermons, the Holy Spirit descend upon him in the form of a dove and rest upon his head: which gave such authority to his words that the most hardened sinners were touched with compunction, and that the most obstinate placed their interests in his hands and reconciled with their enemies.

He was also employed in public affairs of the greatest importance. Through his zeal and eloquence, he united the divided minds of the elector princes who were on the verge of igniting, through their private quarrels, a very cruel civil war. He stopped the new heretics of Bohemia, who were about to cause strange disorder. Gregory X commissioned him to preach the crusade: which he did with such success that, in a short time, a very numerous army was seen on foot for the recovery of the Holy Land. He reconciled the Sienese with the Church, who had incurred excommunication and interdict for having favored Manfred, bastard of Emperor Frederick II, an enemy of the Church.

Some authors write that, when he entered the Consistory to ask for this grace from the Pope, his face appeared all radiant, and that at the sight of this wonder, the Holy Father felt so strongly moved to forgive the people of Siena that he exclaimed: "Father Ambrose, i t is not necessa peuple de Sienne Italian city defining the area of activity of the blessed. ry for you to explain your mission to me; I grant you everything you wish to ask of me." This great service led the Sienese to take him as their patron and to observe his feast day, which they celebrate with extraordinary magnificence. He reconciled the people of Florence and those of Pisa, who were on the point of coming to open war. He restored peace, broken for a long time, between the republics of Venice and Genoa. Finally, he was employed in several other very important affairs, which he discharged with all possible glory.

In this ministry, to the most ardent charity, Ambrose joined the deepest humility. A powerful man, irritated by his efforts and his successes for general pacification, said to him one day with a threat: "You are an impostor, a seducer of the Christian people, a man full of ambition and vain glory, worthy of the ultimate punishment, which I reserve for you if you do not desist from your enterprise." The holy man replied humbly: "God is called the King of Peace; that is why every faithful person must desire peace with their neighbor. God only gives it to those who grant it wholeheartedly to others. What I do, I do not do by myself, but by the will of Him who has power over me. Now, therefore, if it is because of me that you are troubled, I ask your forgiveness for it; I pray to God that He may forgive words uttered inappropriately, and that He may not impute it to you as sin. If I deserve every kind of punishment, I will bear them wholeheartedly for the remission of my faults." At these words full of humility and calm, the magnate, so cruel and fierce, who had no fear of God, felt touched to the depths of his soul; he threw himself at the feet of the Saint and said to him: "Forgive me, servant of God, and pray for me, that He may grant me a true peace; as for me, I am ready to make it with you." The Saint raised him up, embraced him tenderly, prayed for him, and found him thereafter an excellent Christian.

The blessed Ambrose said in his preachings that vengeance was a sin of idolatry, given that vengeance belongs to God alone, and that, consequently, he who takes revenge usurps the place of God. One day, despite all his exhortations, a man from Siena persisted in not forgiving. Then the Saint said to him: "I will pray for you. — I have no need of prayers, the vindictive man replied harshly." The Saint did not fail to offer the following prayer for him: "Lord Jesus Christ, by the very great providence and solicitude that You have unceasingly for the human race, I pray You to interpose Your power in this planned vengeance, and to reserve it for Yourself, so that all may know that the punishment of offenders belongs only to You alone, and so that sensuality may not hinder the knowledge of Your justice." Ambrose publicly taught this prayer to the people, exhorting them to say it for those they found obstinate in not forgiving injuries. At the very hour that the holy man was making this prayer for him, the vindictive man was conspiring with his friends and relatives not to make peace or listen to Ambrose. But the prayer of the just man was more powerful. Suddenly this man, so hard, felt himself penetrated with composure; all the reasons of the holy man came back to his memory; he spent two days without eating or sleeping. Finally, he came with his friends to find the blessed Ambrose, to beg him to make peace between them and to forgive him his fault.

The Pope sent him the bulls for a bishopric, with the intention of raising him to an even higher dignity; but Ambrose, who loved holy poverty more than all the grandeurs of the world, thanked him very humbly and would never accept it. After the death of Gregory, he retired to a convent to live there in solitude. It was then that the regular virtues shone marvelously in him: he often swept the church, the cloister, and the dormitories; he fled the conversation of women, even of his own kin; every Friday he fasted on bread and water. During the forty-nine years that he was a religious, he never ate meat but once, out of pure obedience; he slept only four hours; after Matins he remained two hours in the choir in prayer, and studied the rest of the night until Prime; he wore day and night a rough hair shirt and a large lead plate on his loins; he practiced several other mortifications that his fervor suggested to him. However, neither his great age nor his rigorous austerities prevented him from preaching, and he always did so with great fire; but at the beginning of Lent in the year 1286, he became so animated in a sermon against usurers that he ruptured a vein in his chest, which caused him to lose much blood through his mouth. The next day, the blood having stopped, he wanted to continue the same sermon; but the vein reopened, and he vomited such an abundance of blood that he saw clearly that his end was approaching.

The religious had exhorted him to give himself some respite from such a violent exercise; but the zeal for the salvation of souls, which he cherished more than his own life, had not allowed him to discontinue until he saw himself entirely forced to do so by the violence of the illness. Indeed, as it increased from day to day, he was obliged to take to his bed to be treated, or rather to await there the will of God, which he recognized by this accident as wanting to soon withdraw him from the world.

To prepare for this final passage, he made a general confession of his whole life, in which his confessor did not notice a single item that could have caused him to lose the grace of God, particularly regarding chastity, which he had always kept very perfect and inviolable. His confession finished, he begged the Fathers of the monastery to leave him in peace, and asked that his room be opened only to the doctor, the superior, and the infirmarian brother, in order to better prepare himself, through this solitude, to die in Jesus Christ; but when he was near this final moment, he was very glad to see all the religious around his bed, to be assisted by their suffrages. Being thus provided with the Sacraments of the Church, and aided by the prayers of his confreres, he raised his eyes to heaven, and peacefully breathed his last, which was the beginning of his eternal happiness, on March 20, in the year of Our Lord 1286, and in the sixty-sixth year of his age.

The summary of his life, printed in Italian regarding his beatification, recounts up to one hundred and eighty miracles that he performed, all authentic and verified, among which one notes the resurrection of sixteen dead. The Sovereign Pontiffs were often petitioned to proceed with the decree of his canoniza tion. Pope Eugene Le pape Eugène IV Pope who sent Nicholas Albergati to the Council of Basel. IV permitted the Sienese to celebrate his feast every year in the church of Saint Dominic, publicly, as that of a canonized saint, on the Friday before Passion Sunday. Since then, Popes Gregory XIII, Sixtus V, Gregory XIV, and Paul V have granted a plenary indulgence to those who visit his sepulcher on the day of his feast. Pope Gregory XV permitted the entire Order of Saint Dominic to celebrate his office as that of a confessor who was not a pontiff.

In the images and sculptures that have been made of Saint Ambrose, the city of Siena is often placed in his hand, to recall the service he rendered to his homeland.

He also carries the lily for having preserved his virginity until death.

We owe to the prayers of the Blessed the conclusion of a great number of marriages that did not seem likely to be arranged. Thus, the custom has been preserved in Siena of lighting a candle before his tomb for the success of betrothals.

The Rev. Fr. Jean-Baptiste Fentilet, a religious of the same Order in the province of Saint-Louis, composed his life at great length in the third volume of his Dominican Year, on March 26, the day his feast is celebrated in Siena.