Reliquie e memorie di santità nella basilica milanese di Sant’Ambrogio

In 386, St Ambrose is the protagonist of the famous inventio of Protasius and Gervasius, moved and buried in the Ambrosiana basilica: he himself promoted their cult by sending relics to Italy and France. Over the centuries, the basilica of St Ambrose, honoured by the holy bodies of the bishop and the martyrs, became the propulsive centre of the memory of St Ambrose: the elevatio promoted in the 9th century by Archbishop Angilbert II found its concrete realization in the Golden Altar. Other memories of St Ambrose enriched the spiritual treasure of his basilica: ancient cloths, the cult of which – already active in the early Middle Ages (and perhaps promoted in the 7th century by Bishop Mansuetus) – was revived by Archbishop Aribert of Intimiano (11th century); ancient books and other relics (recorded in medieval inventories and valued in the pastoral visits of St Carlo and Federico Borromeo, where the medieval labels were transcribed). The study of these sources helps to understand the strategic importance assumed by the basilica as a repository of the Ambrosian memory since late Antiquity.