(A.D. 1287.)
[At Sienna on the Saturday before Passion Sunday; but by the Dominican
Order on March 22nd; the Roman Martyrology on March 20th, the day
of his death. He was beatified by Gregory XV. His Acts were written
by friars Gisberti, Recuperato di Petromala, Aldobrandini Paparoni,
and Olvado, by order of Honorius IV., the then reigning pope, from
documents transmitted to them within a month of the decease of S.
Ambrose. These originals also exist, and have been printed along with
the Acts by the Bollandists.]
S. Ambrose was of the family of the Sansedoni, on his father's side,
and of the Stribelini on that of his mother, both illustrious in
Sienna. He was deformed at his birth, his legs and feet being twisted,
but as his nurse was hearing mass one holy-day, in the church of the
Dominicans, and was praying before some holy relics, afterwards exposed
to the veneration of the faithful, the child suddenly pronounced the
name of Jesus thrice, and lost at the same moment every trace of
deformity.
As he grew up, his play was connected with holy things. Till he was
seven, he amused himself with carving little crosses, making little
oratories, imitating with other children the processions and psalmody
of the Church. When he grew older, he obtained his father's consent
to his lodging pilgrims. He furnished for the purpose a room in the
house, and went to the gate of the city every Saturday to bring home
with him the first five pilgrims whom he encountered. He then washed
their feet, and ministered in every way to their comforts. On the
morrow he went with them to mass, and guided them about the town to all
the places of devotion. Every Sunday evening after vespers he visited
the hospital, and every Friday the prison. He continued these holy
exercises till he was seventeen, when he entered the Dominican order.
He made his full profession next year, in 1238, and was then sent to
Paris and to Cologne to prosecute his studies. At Cologne he became the
pupil of Albertus Magnus, along with the great S. Thomas Aquinas. When
his education was complete, he taught theology in Paris for two years,
and then preached in France, Germany, and Italy. The people of Sienna
having taken part with Mansfeld, the bastard of Frederick II., who was
in hostility with the pope, were placed under an interdict. Ambrose
undertook to reconcile them with the Holy See, and was so successful,
that the Siennese have chosen him, on account of this eminent service
rendered them, as the patron of their city.
During the forty-nine years of his monastic life, he maintained the
utmost self-discipline. He never slept more than four hours every
night. After matins he remained for two hours in prayer in the choir,
and spent the rest of the night in study till prime. He preached with
singular fire and action. In the Lent of 1286, he broke a blood-vessel
as he was preaching, and was obliged to leave the pulpit. The
hæmorrhage ceasing next day, he insisted on resuming his sermon, but
the vessel burst again, and he lost so much blood that he felt his hour
was at hand. He made his general confession, and having received the
last sacraments, breathed forth his pure soul in the sixty-sixth year
of his age, on March 20th, 1286.
March 21.
SS. SERAPION, _Monk_, AND COMPANIONS, _MM., at Alexandria_.
SS. MARTYRS OF ALEXANDRIA, _in the reign of Constantine_, A.D. 367.
S. SERAPION, _B. of Thmuis, 4th cent._
S. LUPICINUS, _Ab. of Condate, circ._ A.D. 430.
S. ENDA, _Ab. in Aran-more, circ._ A.D. 540.
S. BENEDICT, _Ab. of Monte Cassino_, A.D. 543.
S. ELIAS, _B. of Sion in the Valais_.