Ambrose Autpertus

Saint Ambrose Autpertus (Autpert) was a Frankish Benedictine monk, abbot of San Vincenzo al Volturno in southern Italy, and a church writer. He reposed in 778 according to the calendars, in 784 according to more recent scholarship.

He was born in Gaul, probably in Provence, at the beginning of the eighth century. He went to Italy, according to the Orthodox calendar as an envoy, visited the monastery of Saint Vincent near Benevento and stayed there as a monk, where he received his intellectual and spiritual formation. He was ordained priest before 761 and became abbot on 4 October 777. After Charlemagne defeated the Lombards in 774, he was forced to leave the monastery to the Lombard Poto and flee to Spoleto. Summoned to Rome by Charlemagne to resolve the conflict, he died on the way, perhaps murdered, in 784. We know his life chiefly from the fragmentary Chronicon Vulturnense, written by a monk named John, and from brief autobiographical references in his own writings.

He left many works on the Bible and other subjects: commentaries on the Apocalypse, on the Psalms and on the Song of Songs; a Life of the founders of the monastery of San Vincenzo, Paldo, Tato and Taso; and a Combat of the Vices and the Virtues, which stresses the monastic themes of fear of God, obedience and fidelity. His most famous work is the long Exposition on the Apocalypse, which draws on the Fathers, among them Jerome, Augustine and Gregory the Great. Jean Mabillon called him "most holy", and the Bollandists gave him the title of saint; his cult has been approved. In 2009 Pope Benedict XVI gave a homily about him. He is commemorated on 19 July as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.