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Life of St Ambrose
Paulinus the Deacon, tr. Kaniecka, 1928
1. The Author’s Preface
You urge, reverend father Augustine, that just as those blessed men, the Bishop Athanasius and the priest Jerome described with their pens the lives of Saints Paul and Anthony who lived in the desert, just as also Severus, a servant of God, composed in an elegant language the life of the reverend Martin, Bishop of the Church of Tours, so too, I describe with my pen the life of the blessed Ambrose, Bishop of the Church of Milan. But just as I realize that I am inferior to such men in worth, who are the bulwarks of the churches and fountains of eloquence, so also do I realize that I am unequal to them in power of expression. However, since I think it to be without reason to refuse what you bid, whatever I have learned from those most trustworthy men who served him before me and especially from his own sister, the revered Marcellina, or whatever I myself have seen, when I was in his service, or what I have learned from those, who related that they had seen him after his death in different provinces, or what was written to him when it was still unknown that he had died, all this, assisted by your prayers and by the worth of so great a man, I shall describe—although in unadorned language—briefly and summarily, so that even if the language offend the mind of the reader, yet its brevity may encourage him to read it; and I shall not obscure the truth with florid words, lest while the writer seek the pomp of elegant diction, the reader, whom it does not befit to look for the trappings and pomp of expression more than the virtue of deeds and the grace of the Holy Spirit, miss the knowledge of so great virtues; for we may know that travelers regard as more pleasing the water that trickles in a feeble rill, when perchance they are thirsty, than the streams of a gushing fountain, whose plenty they cannot find at the time of their thirst. And barley bread is wont to be sweet even to those who are accustomed to belch up the abundance of their daily banquet with its countless courses of dishes. And wild plants are accustomed to please even those who admire charming gardens.
On this account, I beseech you all, in whose hands this book will fall, to believe that what we say is true. And let no one think that I have put down anything which lacks truth, through the bias of love; since indeed it is better to say nothing at all than to set forth something false, when we know that we shall render an account of all our words. And I should not doubt, although all things are not known by all, that yet various things are known by various people; and that those facts are known to some, which even I myself was not able to hear or see. Therefore, I shall take up the beginning of the narrative from the day of his birth, so that the divine grace which belonged to the man from his cradle, may be well known.