Ambrose the Camaldulian

Infobox Saint
name= Saint Ambrose the Camaldulian
birth_date=1386
death_date=October 20, 1439
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venerated_in= Roman Catholic Church


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birth_place= Portico di Romagna
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Ambrose the Camaldulian, born Ambrogio Traversari (1386 - October 201439) was an Italian theologian.

Biography

He was born near Forlì, at the village of Portico di Romagna.

At the age of fourteen he entered the Camaldulian Order in the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, and rapidly became a leading theologian and Hellenist. In Greek literature his master was Emmanuel Chrysoloras. He became general of the order in 1431, and was a leading advocate of the primacy of the Roman Pontiff.This attitude he showed clearly when he attended the Council of Basel as legate of Pope Eugene IV, and defended the primacy of the Roman pontiff and adjured the council not to "rend asunder Christ's seamless robe".

He was next sent by the Pope to the Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor 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 Basel to Ferrara on 18 September, 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, 6 July, 1439, he was called on to draw up. He died soon after.

Works

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), P.G., LXXXVIII.

He also translated four books against the errors of the Greeks, by Manuel Kalekas, Patriarch of Constantinople, a Dominican monk (Ingolstadt, 1608), P.G., CLII, col. 13-661, 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. Dom Mabillon's "Letters and Orations of S. Ambrose of Camaldoli" was published at Florence, 1759. St. Ambrose is honoured by the Church on 20 November.

So strong was his hostility to some of the delegates that he described Basel as a western Babylon. He likewise supported the pope at Ferrara and Florence, and worked hard in the attempt to reconcile the Eastern and Western Churches.Fact|date=February 2007

Though this cause was unsuccessful, Ambrose is interesting as typical of the new humanism which was growing up within the church. Thus while among his own colleagues he seemed merely a hypocritical and arrogant priest, in his relations with his brother humanists, such as Cosimo de Medici, he appeared as the student of classical antiquities and especially of Greek theological authors.Fact|date=February 2007

elected works

*"Hodoeporicon", diary of a journey visiting the monasteries of Italy
*"Epistolarium", correspondence
*translations of
**Palladius' "Life of Chrysostom;"
**"Nineteen Sermons of Ephraem Syrus"
** St Basil "On Virginity."
**Diogenes Laertius, "Vitae philosophorum" [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/chklst/chkbyw.htm]
**Pseudo-Dionysius (1436)

A number of his manuscripts remain in the library of St Mark at Venice.

ee also

*Council of Florence
*Baptism of Christ (Piero della Francesca)

References

*cite book|first=Charles L.|last=Stinger|year=1977)|title=Humanism and the Church Fathers: Ambrogio Traversari (1386-1439) and Christian Antiquity in the Italian Renaissance
*cite journal|first=Georgia|last=Clarke|title=Ambrogio Traversari: Artistic Adviser in Early Fifteenth-Century Florence?|journal=Renaissance Studies|volume=11|pages=161|date=September 1997|doi=10.1111/j.1477-4658.1997.tb00018.x

External links

* [http://www.tertullian.org/articles/traversari_index.htm Letters] - a few letters in the original Latin and a portrait of him from a manuscript he copied.
* [http://www.altraromagna.net/eng/territorio/ter05.htm Contains short biography]