Ambrose, son of Ambrose the prefect of Rome, when he had been laid in his cradle in the courtyard of the praetorium and was sleeping, a swarm of bees suddenly came and so filled his face and mouth that they went in and out as if into their own hive. Afterward, flying away, they were borne up to such a height in the air that they could not at all be seen by human eyes. When this had taken place, his frightened father said: 'If this little infant lives, he will be something great.' Afterward, when he had grown up and saw his mother and his sister, a consecrated virgin, kissing the hands of the priests, he himself in play offered his right hand to his sister, asserting that she ought to do the same to him. But she rejected it, as coming from a youth who did not know what he was saying.
Educated in letters at Rome, when he pleaded the cases of the praetorium splendidly, he was sent by the emperor Valentinian to govern the province of Liguria and Aemilia. And when he had come to Milan, and the bishop there was at that time lacking, the people gathered to provide themselves with a bishop. But when no small sedition arose between the Arians and the Catholics over the choosing of a bishop, Ambrose went there for the sake of quelling the sedition; and at once the voice of an infant rang out saying, 'Ambrose bishop!' To this voice all with one accord assented, acclaiming Ambrose as bishop. When he learned of this, in order to drive them away from himself by terrors, he went out of the church, mounted the tribunal, and contrary to his custom ordered tortures to be applied to persons.
And while he was doing this, the people none the less acclaimed: 'Your sin be upon us!' Then he, troubled, returned home and wished to profess philosophy. But that he might not do so, he was recalled. He had public harlots brought in to him publicly, that by the sight of these he might turn the people away from his election. But when even thus he made no progress, and saw the people always acclaiming 'Your sin be upon us!', he conceived a plan of flight in the middle of the night. And while he thought he was making his way to Pavia, in the morning he was found at the gate of the city of Milan which is called the Roman Gate. Being found, while he was guarded by the people, a report was sent to the most clement emperor Valentinian, who received with the greatest joy that the judges sent out by him were being sought for the priesthood.
For the prefect Probus rejoiced that his own word had been fulfilled in him. For when he gave instructions to him as he was setting out, he had said: 'Go, act not as a judge, but as a bishop.' While the report was still pending, he hid himself again; but having been found while he was still a catechumen, he was baptized, and on the eighth day was exalted to the episcopal throne. But when, four years later, he had gone to Rome, and his sister, the consecrated virgin, kissed his right hand, he said to her with a smile: 'Behold, as I told you, you kiss the hand of a priest.' [...] On one occasion, as they say, when blessed Ambrose was journeying to Rome and had lodged at a certain country house in Tuscany with a certain exceedingly wealthy man, he inquired anxiously of that man about his condition. He answered him:
'My condition, my lord, is always happy and glorious. For behold, I abound in boundless riches, I have a great many servants and attendants, and I have always had everything according to my wishes; nor has anything adverse ever befallen me, nor has anything happened to grieve me.' Hearing this, Ambrose was utterly astounded and said to those who were with him in his company: 'Rise, and let us flee from here as quickly as possible, for the Lord is not in this place.'
'Hasten, my sons, hasten, and make no delay in fleeing, lest the divine vengeance overtake us here and involve us alike in their sins.' So when they were fleeing and had gone a little way forward, suddenly the earth opened and so swallowed up that man together with all who belonged to him that no trace of them remained from that place. Seeing this, Ambrose said: 'Behold, brothers, how mercifully God spares when He grants adversity here, and how severely He is angered when He always lavishes prosperity.' And in that same place a certain very deep pit is said to have remained, which to this day endures as a testimony of this deed. [...]