Brewer's: Ambrose

(St.) represented in Christian art in the costume of a bishop. His attributes are (1) a bee-hive, in allusion to the legend that a swarm of bees settled on his mouth when lying in his cradle; (2) a Scourge, by which he expelled the Arians from Italy.

The penance he inflicted on the Emperor Theodosius has been represented by Rubens, a copy of which, by Vandyck, is in the National Gallery

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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