Philosophy in Hilary of Poitiers and Ambrose of Milan

Author(s):  
Isabella Image
Vox Patrum ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 437-451
Author(s):  
Arkadiusz Nocoń

Following the example of the Lord, who frequently sang hymns with his dis­ciples, and encouraged to sing by St Paul, the early Christians praised God in music and song. The first Latin hymns were composed by Hilary of Poitiers. Their metrical complexity and content discouraged their liturgical use by the Church. Thus, St. Ambrose of Milan is considered the first „official” Latin hymnodist. He composed several hymns, still used in the Liturgy of the Hours, which were mu­sicated by himself. These hymns come from the particular circumstances of the Arian controversy and derive, in the main, from the necessity of encouraging „or­thodox” Christians in their defence of the Basilica Porziana in Milan. They were designed to guide their prayer at different times of the day. The Author’s text-critical analysis of two of these hymns – Aeterne rerum conditor, sung at dawn (in gallicinium) and Deus, creator omnium, sung at dusk as the lamps were lit (ad horam incensi) – well testifies to the literary and pastoral genius of the Bishop of Milan as he transforms the complex theological reflection of his time into poetry and music, while not only retaining the integrity of the depth of that reflection but also enhancing its aesthetic profile by drawing on a repertoire of images based on the parallelism of cosmic reality and human reality. St Ambrose’s corpus of hymns, together with his prose works, was admired both by his contemporaries and by successive generations. They promoted the flowering of a merciful Chris­tocentricity which, according to the experts, is the most original and attractive feature of his poetry. As is clearly seen in the hymns received into the Divine Of­fice, Ambrose’s singular ability effectively to stimulate the soul to prayer through a powerful and insuperable lyrical inspiration, is capable literally of transforming the daily hours into songs of praise, and explains Petrarch’s habit of rising during the night to sing hymns to the Lord.


Augustinus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-203
Author(s):  
Vittorino Grossi ◽  

The article presents the figure of the consecrated virgin, as it appears in the writings of Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo. It also offers a contextual synthesis of the conditions of women in Late Antiquity, both in civil society, presenting the women as uxor, the situation of the Vestal Virgins, as well as the women’s stituation within the Christian communities. Later a summary of the main Latin patristic writings on virginity is made, to analyze and compare in more detail, Saint Ambrose’s De Virginibus and Saint Augustine’s De sancta Virginitate.


Augustinianum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-23
Author(s):  
Samuel Fernández ◽  

The present article seeks to reconstruct the Christological meaning of the verbs “creating” and “begetting” in the Synodical letter of Ancyra (358). In order to assess the teaching of this document, the first part of the article provides an overview of the Christological use of “creating” and “begetting” from the beginning of the Arian crisis up to the eve of the synod of Ancyra. The second part studies the verbs “creating” and “begetting” in the Letter of Ancyra. The synodical document makes an original and significant theological effort, purifying and complementing both the notion of “creation” (Prv 8:22) and “generation” (Prv 8:25), in order to grasp the perfect notion of the eternal birth of the Son. This understanding is confirmed by Hilary of Poitiers.


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