Ambrose the Deacon

Ambrose, at first a Marcionite but afterward set right by Origen, was a deacon of the church and won glory as a confessor of the Lord. Origen’s book On Martyrdom was addressed to him, together with Protoctetus the presbyter. Helped by his diligence, his money and his perseverance, Origen dictated a great number of volumes. Ambrose himself, as befits a man of noble nature, had no small literary talent, as his letters to Origen show. He died, moreover, before Origen, and many blame him because, being a man of wealth, he did not remember his old and needy friend in his will when he died. [a]