Today: Feast day of St. Ambrose, an interesting guy!

Here's his bio and below it is a story from The Pillar –

Saint Ambrose, also known as Aurelius Ambrosius, is one of the four original doctors of the Church. He was the Bishop of Milan and became one of the most important theological figure of the 4th century.

And here's the story

Ambrose did not want to be a bishop. He hid at first, at the home of a friend, but the friend was soon convinced that Ambrose should follow the people’s call. Of course, Ambrose had to be baptized first, but shortly after he was chosen for his job, he was baptized, ordained a priest, and consecrated bishop.

His biography is striking, but perhaps most powerful is his holy death in 397. Here’s how Benedict XVI recounted it in 2007:

Ambrose “died in Milan in the night between 3 and 4 April 397. It was dawn on Holy Saturday. The day before, at about five o'clock in the afternoon, he had settled down to pray, lying on his bed with his arms wide open in the form of a cross. Thus, he took part in the solemn Easter Triduum, in the death and Resurrection of the Lord. ‘We saw his lips moving,’ said Paulinus, the faithful deacon who wrote his Life at St Augustine's suggestion, ‘but we could not hear his voice.’

The situation suddenly became dramatic.

Honoratus, Bishop of Vercelli, who was assisting Ambrose and was sleeping on the upper floor, was awakened by a voice saying again and again, ‘Get up quickly! Ambrose is dying…’

‘Honoratus hurried downstairs,’ Paulinus continues, ‘and offered the Saint the Body of the Lord. As soon as he had received and swallowed it, Ambrose gave up his spirit, taking the good Viaticum with him. His soul, thus refreshed by the virtue of that food, now enjoys the company of Angels.’

On that Holy Friday 397, the wide open arms of the dying Ambrose expressed his mystical participation in the death and Resurrection of the Lord. This was his last catechesis: in the silence of the words, he continued to speak with the witness of his life.”