St. Hilary & St. Ambrose Raise the Dead.
In an earlier article we mentioned the
Bishop, St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315-368). He is among the “Doctors of the
Church,” and was an early and great defender of the revelation of humanity’s
one God in three Persons. At one point the Emperor exiled him from Gaul
(today’s France) to the East, to Phrygia (in today’s Turkey). While there
raised a dead man to life and worked other miracles. When allowed to return to
Poitiers, Gaul, the people welcomed him back with joy. There he brought back to
life an infant who had died unbaptized. St. Hilary was the inspiration and
spiritual guide for St. Martin of Tours, whose story we related here recently.
Miracles of all sorts, including raising
of the dead – amazing and wonderful – had a frequent occurrence not only in
Apostolic times, but even in succeeding generations of Christians. These were
early great saints who fought for the truth of the Gospel against many
heresies. They inspired all the succeeding saints by their true doctrine, their
holy lives, and their faith in the power and mercy of God.
Another of these great and inspiring
Fourth Century saints was St. Ambrose of Milan, Italy (c. 340-397). St. Ambrose
had held high office in the Roman Empire, and when later elected Bishop by
popular acclamation (as a layman! and quickly ordained), he dealt firmly with
the political rulers. Once he even denied Emperor Theodosius entrance to the
cathedral of Milan until the Emperor had performed public penance for having
ordered the slaughter of a number of people. (Our hero today is Archbishop
Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, who denied communion to former
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after serious but unsuccessful efforts of dialogue.)
It was the kind of healing found in the
Bible – like St. Paul’s healings through his handkerchiefs and aprons (Acts19:12), or even St. Peter’s shadow falling on people (Acts 5:15). When
Catholics use a relic or a blessed object, or even a cloth touched to a relic,
it is with faith in God’s goodness and mercy, and asking for the intercession
and exercise of spiritual gifts of the saints who have gone before us and now
intercede before God. It is not magic. It is faith being exercised in God’s
power and loving care. The material objects aid our faith in God and increase
it, and also connect us to the person we are asking to intercede for us, and
asking that their particular charisms, spiritual gifts, be exercised through
the Holy Spirit on our behalf.
Once St. Ambrose stayed at the home of a
Christian in Florence named Decentius. He had a son named Pansopius who was
troubled by an unclean spirit. St. Ambrose prayed and laid hands on the lad and
he was delivered from the spirit.
Unfortunately, a few days later, suddenly
the son was seized by some very sudden illness and he died. Now Ambrose was away
from the house when it occurred. Thankfully, Pansopius' mother was also very devout,
and she took her child and placed him on Bishop Ambrose’s couch. When Ambrose
returned and heard what had happened, like many before him, he stretched out on
top of the corpse and prayed until life came back into the boy.
Jesus remains with us until the end of the world – we are never alone. His power is ever present and able to aid.
Dibby Allan Green