INTRODUCTION

HE TITLE OF THIS TREATISE varies in the manuscripts. Some have De mysteriis sive initiandis. The most ancient, however, have De divinis mysteriis, or simply De mysteriis.

Some scholars have tried to show that this treatise has been falsely ascribed to St. Ambrose. Their arguments, however, have little weight. Many parallels and points of contact between De mysteriis and well established works of St. Ambrose, as well as strong manuscript evidence, leave no doubt as to its Ambrosian authorship. The date of the treatise, however, is uncertain.1

The work consists of addresses given to the newly baptized during Easter week. They treat of the rites and meaning of the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and Holy Eucharist. At two points (35-41; 55-58), a mystical commentary on certain passages of the Canticle of Canticles is brought in.

1 Dudden 697-698; Faller 51-60.

THE MYSTERIES1

Chapter 1

E HAVE GIVEN a daily sermon on morals, when the deeds of the Patriarchs or the precepts of the Prov

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erbs were read, in order that, being informed and instructed by them, you might become accustomed to enter upon the ways of our forefathers and to pursue their road, and to obey the divine commands, whereby renewed by baptism you might hold to that manner of life which befits those who are washed.

(2) Now time warns us to speak of the mysteries and to set forth the very purpose of the sacraments. If we had thought that this should have been taught those not yet initiated before baptism, we would be considered to have betrayed rather than to have portrayed the mysteries; then there is the consideration that the light of the mysteries will infuse itself better in the unsuspecting than if some sermon had preceded them.

1 The word mysteria ('mysteries') has its usual general meaning in the writings of the Fathers, also the special Christian meaning as here, a synonym of sacramenta ('sacraments'). In the Greek Church today 'the mysteries' rather than 'the sacraments' is regularly used.

(3) So open your ears and enjoy the good odor of eternal life which has been breathed upon you by the grace of the sacraments. This we pointed out to you as we celebrated the mystery of the opening2 and said: ""Ephpheta," that is, "Be thou opened," "3 so that everyone about to come to grace might know what he was asked and might necessarily remember what he responded.

(4) Christ celebrated this mystery in the Gospel, as we have read, when He healed the deaf and dumb man. But He touched the mouth because He was curing both a dumb person and a man, in the one case, that his mouth might open with the sound of the infused voice, in the other, because this touch befitted a man and would not have befitted a

woman.

Chapter 2

1

(5) After this Holy of holies was opened to you, you entered the sanctuary of regeneration. Recall what you were asked; recall what you responded! You renounced the Devil and his works, the world with its luxury and pleasures. Your words are kept not in the tomb of the dead, but in the book of the living.

(6) There you saw the Levite," you saw the priest, you saw the highest priest.3 Do not consider the bodily forms, but the grace of their ministrations. You have spoken in the

2 A symbolical act, as explained in the next section.

3 Mark 7.34.

4 Cf. Mark 7.32.37.

1 A figurative name for the baptistery.

2 The deacon.