Saint Ambrose is one of the four Doctors of the Church (with Saints Augustine, Jerome and Gregory the Great). The son of a Roman prefect, he was a lawyer, and governor of the province which included Milan; he was chosen by popular acclaim to become bishop of Milan in 374.
His teaching was practical and he introduced the use of hymns as a means of popular worship. Saint Augustine was baptised by him.
Ambrose regarded the emperor as not above the church. When Theodosius I conducted horrific reprisals for the death of an official, Ambrose made him do public penance.
He is usually shown as a bishop, sometimes with a scourge, or with a beehive because a swarm of bees symbolising his future eloquence settled on him when he was a child.