ST AMBROSE OF CAMALDOLI - 20 NOVEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 20th of November 

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST AMBROSE OF CAMALDOLI, RELIGIOUS 

Saint Ambrose of Camaldoli was an Italian theologian and writer, born at Portico, near Florence, September 16, 1386; he died October 21, 1439. His name was Ambrose Traversari. 

HE ENTERED THE ORDER OF THE CAMALDOLI

He entered the Order of the Camaldoli when fourteen and became its General in 1431. He was a great theologian and writer, and knew Greek as well as he did Latin. 

These gifts and his familiarity with the affairs of the Church led Eugenius IV to send him to the Council of Basle, where Ambrose strongly defended the primacy of the Roman pontiff and adjured the council not to rend asunder Christ’s seamless robe. 

THE COUNCIL OF BASLE

He was next sent by the Pope to the Emperor Sigismond to ask his aid for the pontiff in his efforts to end this council, which for five years had been trenching on the papal prerogatives. 

The Pope transferred the council from Basle to Ferrara, September 18, 1437. In this council, and later, in that of Florence, Ambrose by his efforts, and charity toward some poor Greek bishops, greatly helped to bring about a union of the two Churches, the decree for which, July 6, 1439, he was called on to draw up. He died soon after. 

WORKS LEFT TO POSTERITY

His works are a treatise on the Holy Eucharist, one on the Procession of the Holy Ghost, many lives of saints, a history of his generalship of the Camaldolites. He also translated from Greek into Latin a life of Chrysostom (Venice, 1533); the Spiritual Wisdom of John Moschus; the Ladder of Paradise of St John Climacus (Venice, 1531). 

THE BOOKS TRANSLATED BY HIM

He also translated four books against the errors of the Greeks, by Manuel Kalekas, Patriarch of Constantinople, a Dominican monk (Ingolstadt, 1608), a work known only through Ambrose’s translation. He also translated many homilies of St John Chrysostom; the treatise of the pseudo-Denis the Areopagite on the celestial hierarchy; St Basil’s treatise on virginity; thirty nine discourses of St Ephrem the Syrian, and many other works of the Fathers and writers of the Greek Church. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)