St. Ambrose Legends Retire - St. Ambrose University

“St. Ambrose University will be the source of
Ambrose scholarship in the liberal arts… And it will be
an investment in our commitment to being a leading
Midwestern university, to defining what it truly means
to be Ambrosian.” —Rev. Bud Grant ’80
Duomo facade, Milan, Italy
His da Vinci moment
At first, Fr. Grant wanted to name the center “The
Ambrose Academy” in homage not only to the man,
but also to the founding of the university in 1882.
But a quick Google search to see if that name had
been claimed yielded an unexpected result: a Classe
Ambrosiana at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan.
The classe was led by don Francesco Braschi.
“Naturally, I tracked him down. I had to,” Fr. Grant
quipped. “Braschi was a pleasant guy about my
height, with a long beard that falls halfway down his
body. He’s quirky. And brilliant. We talked about
projects we could collaborate on, and our unified mission
of bringing the world to a greater understanding
of who Ambrose was. And how relevant he can be to
our life today.”
As their first meeting came to a close, Braschi put
on a pair of surgical gloves, removed a key that was
dangling on a string from his waist, and walked to
one of the stale-looking, locked cases that dotted
the entire perimeter of the room. He pulled out a
cardboard portfolio of drawings from Leonardo da
Vinci—drawings that had never been seen in public.
Braschi asked Fr. Grant if he could help preserve
them.
“Of course I said ‘Yes,’” Fr. Grant said with a
laugh, knowing full well that he neither had the
power to make such a decision, nor the resources
to meet the challenge. Faculty members in the
St. Ambrose art department later told him,
half-jokingly, that he was out of his mind.
“This is something I’m told frequently,”
Fr. Grant said.
Yet, his dream was anything but crazy. It
turned into something that could actually
happen with the signing of a Memorandum
of Understanding between SAU and the
Biblioteca Ambrosiana in May 2010, the
only such agreement ever made by the
Milan institution with another organization.
The partnership with “the greatest place on the
planet for fourth century research” not only gave
international credibility to SAU’s future center, but
it also meant the university could send students and
professors to Italy for scholarship and the biblioteca
can send their people to Davenport.
“Our library has agreed to help them with the
digitization of their archives, and myself and others
will continue to write for the ‘Studia Ambrosiana,’”
Fr. Grant said.
Although the SAU center for the study of
Saint Ambrose of Milan will not officially be dedicated
until it is fully funded, much already has been
accomplished toward achieving Fr. Grant’s dream:
> Marsha Colish, PhD, from Yale University gave the
keynote address at a symposium on Saint Ambrose
last fall, where she was joined by five faculty
members addressing how Ambrose influenced their
academic discipline.
> A theology course on Saint Ambrose of Milan
has been offered for the third year in a row, with
the best undergraduate work being posted to the
center’s new website.
> Three articles have been published in the Studia
Ambrosiana by St. Ambrose faculty.
> Fr. Grant recently completed a “fifth and nearly final”
English translation of Msgr. Pasini’s book, which
includes information about St. Ambrose University in
the forward. It will be published this year.
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