Maryja napełniona Duchem Świętym – ideałem cnót w „Wykładzie Ewangelii według św. Łukasza” św. Ambrożego

Abstract

St. Ambrose, the Father of the Church, lived in the forth century. Owing to his contribution to the development of the doctrine about the Mother of God and the fact that he spread Her cult, he was rightly called the “Father of Latin Mariology” and “Patron of the veneration to Mary.” The paper is another attempt at showing the contemporary reader the plethora of mariological writings penned by the Bishop of Milan. It depicts the outcomes of detailed analyses of the Lecture on the Gospel of St. Luke speaking about the relationship between the Holy Ghost and Mary, and showing the spiritual image of the Virgin from Nazareth. The main source was the original text of the above mentioned work, being part of the Italian edition of Ambrose’s works Opera Omnia di Sant’ Ambrogio, vol. 11-12, Milan 1978. St. Ambrose focuses on two events from the history of salvation: Annunciation and Visitation. Either of the mysteries shows a most complete relationship between the “Creator of the grace” and the Holy Virgin. The first one says about the action of the Holy Ghost in Mary and through Mary. The second part of the paper puts forward the image of Mary outlined by the Bishop of Milan as a pattern of virtues, an ideal which both virgins and mothers should look up to. Ambrose has not worked out a permanent hierarchy of virtues, rather he presents a wide range of them in relation to the Mother of God. Most attention is paid to the discussion on faith and its attributes. Then the following virtues are considered: modesty, humbleness, obedience and wisdom. In order to have a more complete view of the issues under discussion, some basic assumptions from pneumatology (within the the confines of the work under study) and aretology are given.