Primary source · Latin
Exposition of Psalm 118
Ambrose of Milan · c. AD 396
What this text is
Ambrose's twenty-two sermons on the great psalm of the Law — in the twentieth of which falls the earliest narrative notice of Sebastian: a Milanese who went to Rome when the contest was slack at home.
Public-domain translations
Working translation (from the Latin)
Take the example of the martyr Sebastian, whose birthday we keep today. He was a Milanese by origin; perceiving that here the contest was slack or absent, he departed to Rome, where fierce persecutions were raging for the faith — and there he suffered, there he won his crown. (Serm. 20.44)
Manuscript witnesses
Milanese and Carolingian tradition of Ambrose
9th c. onwardThe Expositio in the standard Ambrose corpus manuscripts.
Patrologia Latina, vol. 15 (Migne)
1845Standard pre-critical text.
Provenance
Milan; preached sermons gathered into a running commentary
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Expositio Psalmi CXVIII (CSEL 62)M. Petschenig, 1913The critical edition.
- Homilies of Saint Ambrose on Psalm 118Íde Ní Riain, 1998Complete English translation.

