The Letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

by Bishop of Milan Saint Ambrose

14. The people loudly requested that the deposition of the martyrs should be deferred until the Lord’s Day; but at length I prevailed that it should take place on the following day. On that day I delivered a second sermon to the people to the following effect.

15. Yesterday I discoursed upon the verse, Ps. xix. 2. Day unto day uttereth speech, speaking according to my capacity: to-day Holy Scripture seems to me to have prophecied, not only before, but now. For seeing that this your devout celebration has continued night and day, the oracles of prophetic song have declared that these, even yesterday and to-day, are the days of which it is most opportunely said day unto day uttereth speech, and these the nights to which the saying is appropriate that night unto night uttereth knowledge. For what else have ye done during these two days but utter the word of God with deep emotion, and prove yourselves to have the knowledge of faith?

16. This your celebration some, as is their wont, are envious of. And since their envious minds cannot endure it, they also hate its cause, and proceed to such a pitch of folly as to deny the merits of the martyrs, whose power the very devils confess. But this is not strange; for such is the faithlessness of unbelievers that the confession of the devil himself is often less intolerable. For the devil said, S. Matt. viii. 29. Jesus, Thou Son of the living God, art Thou come to torment us before the time? And yet when the Jews heard this they even then denied the Son of God. And now ye have heard the devils crying out, and owning to the martyrs that they cannot bear their tortures, and saying ‘Why are ye come to torment us so grievously?’ And the Arians say, ‘These are not martyrs, nor can they torment the devil nor dispossess any one:’ while yet their own words are evidence of the torments of the evil spirits, and the benefits of the martyrs are shewn by the recovery of the healed, and the manifest proof of those that were dispossessed.

17. They deny that the blind man received his sight, but he denies not his own cure. He says, ‘I who was blind now see.’ He says, ‘My blindness has left me;’ he evidences it by the fact. They deny the benefit, though they cannot deny the fact. The man is well known: when in health he was employed in public trade, his name is Severus, a butcher by business. When his affliction befell him he laid down his employment. He calls as his witnesses those men by whose charities he was supported; he summons as witnesses of his present visitation the very men who bore testimony to his blindness. He declares that when he touched the border of the garment with which the martyrs’ bodies were clothed, his sight was restored to him.

18. Is not this like what we read in the Gospel? For the power which we admire proceeds from one and the same Author; nor does it signify whether it is a work or a gift, seeing that He confers gifts in His works and works by His gifts. For what He has enabled some themselves to perform, this in the work of others His Name effects. Thus we read in the Gospel that the Jews, when they saw that the blind man had received his sight, required the testimony of his parents. They asked, ‘How has your sonreceived his sight?’ That blind man said, S. John ix. 25. Whereas I was blind now I see, and so too our blind man says, ‘I was blind, and now I see.’ Enquire of others, if ye believe me not; question strangers, if you suspect his parents of being in collusion with me. The obstinacy of these men is more detestable than that of the Jews, for the latter inquired of the man’s parents to solve their doubts; they secretly inquire but openly deny, no longer refusing credit to the miracle but to its Author.

19 and 20. But I would fain ask, what it is they will not believe; is it that any one can be relieved by the martyrs? But this is not to believe in Christ, for He hath said, S. John xiv. 12. And greater things than these shall ye do. Or only by those martyrs, whose merits have long been efficacious, and whose bodies have long been discovered? Here I ask whether it is of myself or of the holy martyrs that they are jealous? If of me, have I wrought any miracles by my own means, in my own name? Why then do they envy me that which is not mine? But if of the martyrs (for if not of me it must be of them they are envious) they show that their Creed is different from that of the martyrs. For they would not envy their works unless they deemed the faith which was in them to be that which they themselves have not. This is that Faith sealed by the tradition of our ancestors, which the devils themselves cannot deny, though the Arians do.

21. We have heard to-day those on whom hands were laid, profess that no man can be saved who does not believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: that he was dead and buried who denied the Holy Ghost, who believed not the Almighty power of the Trinity. This the devil confesses, but the Arians will not own it. The devil says, Let him who denies the divinity of the Holy Spirit be tormented as he himself was tormented by the Martyrs.

22. What I accept from the devil is not his testimony, but his confession. He spoke unwillingly, compelled and tortured. That which wickedness suppressed, force extorted. The devil yields to blows, but as yet the Arians have not learned to yield.How much have they suffered, and like Pharaoh, they are hardened by their calamities!The devil said, as we find it written, S. Mark i. 24. I know Thee Who Thou art, the Son of the Living God. The Jews said, S. John ix. 29. We know not who He is. Yesterday, and the preceding night and day the devils said, ‘We know that ye are martyrs,’ while the Arians said, ‘We know not, we will not understand nor believe.’ The devils say to the martyrs, ‘Ye are come to destroy us,’ the Arians say, ‘These torments of the devil are not true torments but pretended and counterfeit.’ I have heard of many counterfeits, but no man could ever feign himself a devil. Again, what is the meaning of the agony we see in them, when the hand is laid on them? What room is here for fraud and what suspicion of imposture?

23. But I will not call the words of devils as a testimony to the martyrs: let the sacred sufferings of the martyrs be established by their own supernatural acts; judges indeed they have, namely, those that have been cleansed, witnesses, namely those that have been dispossessed. Better than that of devils is their voice who came diseased and are now healed, better is that voice which the martyrs blood sends forth, for blood has a loud voice which reaches from earth to heaven. Ye have read those words of God, Gen. iv. 10. Thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me! This blood cries by its purple stains, it cries by its signal efficacy, it cries by its triumphant suffering.

We have granted your request and have put off till to-day the burial of the relics which should have taken place yesterday.