F.J.E. Raby ‘s Appreciation of St. Ambrose

Those who appreciate Christian Latin, still more those who pray the Latin office, never grow tired of St. Ambrose, both as a theologian and as a poet, in the readings of the office and his hymns.  F.J.E. Raby (A History of Christian Latin Poetry), who was hardly one to throw around his praise carelessly, explains why this is so:

The real history of hymns in the West begins with Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. In a well-known passage of the Confessions,  Augustine describes under what circumstances the singing of  hymns was introduced. 'It was about a year from the time  when Justina, mother of the boy-emperor Valentinian, entered upon her persecution of Thy holy man Ambrose, because he resisted the heresy into which she had been seduced by the Arians. The people of God were keeping ward in the Church ready to die with Thy servant, their bishop. Among them was my mother, living unto prayer, and bearing a chief part in that anxious watch. Even I myself, though as yet untouched by the fire of Thy Spirit, shared in the general alarm and distraction. Then it was that the custom arose of singing hymns and psalms, after the use of the Eastern provinces, to save the people from being utterly worn out by their long and sorrowful vigils. From that day to this it has been retained, and many, I might say all Thy flocks, throughout the rest of the world now follow our example:  The Basilica at Milan, beset by the Gothic soldiery of Valentinian, heard the first strains of Catholic hymnody, in which with simplicity and beauty, Ambrose set forth the doctrines of the orthodox faith. The hymns of Ambrose became popular in the truest sense, for they made way into the experience of the Christian Church and were treasured in most of the Western hymnaries until they found a. permanent place in the Roman office. How deeply the appeal of their music could reach is shown in the confession of Augustine, to whose memory they recurred in times of trouble and anxiety. 'What tears', he says, 'did I shed over the hymns and canticles, when the sweet sound of the music of Thy Church thrilled my soul! As the music flowed into my ears, and Thy truth trickled into my heart, the tide of devotion swelled high within me, and the tears ran down, and there was gladness in those tears.' Sorrowing in secret for his mother's death-' for the bitterness of my sorrow could not be washed away from my heart '-he remembered, as he lay upon his bed, the verses of Ambrose:

Deus creator omnium

polique rector, vestiens

diem decoro lumine,

noctem soporis gratia.

artus solutos ut quies

reddat laboris usui,

mentcsque fessas allevet,

luctusque solvat anxios."

The hymns of Ambrose were written definitely for congregational purposes and they soon found their way into the Milanese and other liturgies. . . . Composed with the practical aim of expounding the doctrines of the Catholic faith in a manner sufficiently simple to capture the imagination of the unlearned, these hymns possess at the same time the admirable qualities of dignity, directness, and evangelical fervor. The two examples which follow give a true idea of the poetical quality of the first Latin Christian  hymns which succeeded in establishing for themselves a permanent position in the worship of the Catholic Church.

Aeterne rerum conditor.

Aeterne rerum conditor.

noctem diemque qui regis

et temporum das tempora,

ut alleves fastidium;

praeco diei iam sonat,

noctis profundae pervigil,

nocturna lux viantibus,

a nocte noctern segregans.

hoc excitatus lucifer

solvit polum caliginc,

hoc omnis erronum chorus

vias nocendi deserit.

hoc nauta vires colligit

pontique mitescunt freta,

hoc ipse, petra ecclesiae,

canente culpam diluit.

surgamus ergo strenue,

gallus iacentes excitat

et somnolentos increpat,

gallus negantes arguit.

gallo canente spes red it,

aegris salus refunditur,

mucro latronis conditur,

lapsis fides revertitur.

Iesu, labantes respice

et nos videndo corrige ;

si respicis, lapsus cadunt,

fletuque culpa solvitur.

tu lux refulge sensibus

mentisque somnum discutc,

te nostra vox primum sonet

et ora solvamus tibi.

Splendor paternae gloriae

splendor paternae gloriae,

de luce lucem proferens,

lux lucis et fons luminis,

diem dies inluminans.

verusque sol, inlabere

micans nitore perpeti,

iubarque sancti spiritus

infunde nostris sensibus.

votis vocemus et Patrern,

Patrem perennis gloriae,

Patrem potentis gratiae:

culpam releget lubricam.

informet actus strenuos,

dentem retundat invidi,

casus secundet asperos,

donet gerendi gratiam.

mentem gubernet et regat

casto fideli corpore,

fides calore ferveat,

fraudis venena nesciat.

Christusque nobis sit cibus,

potusque noster sit fides,

laeti bibamus sobriam

ebrietatem spiritus.

laetus dies hie transeat,

pudor sit ut diluculum,

fides velut meridies,

crepusculum mens nesciat.

aurora cursus provehit,

aurora totus prod eat,

in Patrc totus Filius,

et totus in Verbo Pater.

The hymns of Ambrose reflect the mind of the great teacher of the Latin Church. Bred as a lawyer and man of affairs, with all the practical genius of the Roman and that leaning to the ethical outlook which characterized the Roman mind, Ambrose cared little for the speculations which exercised such a fascination over the Greek fathers. He naturally accepted the orthodox Trinitarian position and he spent his life in building up his flock in this faith, inculcating those practical virtues and that simple piety which were always for him the true and characteristic fruit of the Gospel. For Ambrose is always the teacher rather than the theologian. His homilies, full as they are of allegory and the most curious and strained interpretations which he borrowed from the Greek fathers, have always the single aim of moral and spiritual edification. None of the great Latin bishops, before or after, so thoroughly won the hearts of his people by his eloquence, his devoted service, and his own example.