Ambrosian Rite (also sometimes called the
Milanese Rite) named after
Saint Ambrose,
bishop of
Milan in the fourth century, is a
Catholic liturgical Western Rite different from the
Roman Rite.
It is practiced among some five million Catholics in the greater part of the Archdiocese of Milan, Italy (excluding, notably, the areas of Monza, of Treviglio, of Trezzo sull'Adda and a few other parishes), in some parishes of the Diocese of Como, Bergamo, Novara, Lodi and in about fifty parishes of the Diocese of Lugano, in the Canton Ticino, Switzerland.
Although at various points in its history the distinctive Ambrosian Rite has risked suppression, it survived, and was reformed, after the Second Vatican Council partly because the then Pope, Paul VI was sympathetic, having been the Archbishop of Milan. In the 20th century it also gained prominence and prestige from the attentions of two other scholarly Archbishops of Milan Achille Ratti, later Pope Pius XI, and the Blessed Ildefonso Schuster, both of whom had been involved in studies and publications on the rite before their appointment.
Ambrosian Rite is distinguished from the Roman Rite by particular features in some parts of the liturgy.
