On the Mystery of the Ethiopian Woman

St. Ambrose of Milan ca. 338-397

Miriam the prophetess herself, who with her brothers had crossed the straits of the sea on foot, because, being still ignorant of the mystery of the Ethiopian woman, she had murmured against her brother Moses, broke out with leprous spots, Num. 12:10 so that she would scarcely have been freed from so great a plague, unless Moses had prayed for her. Although this murmuring refers to the type of the Synagogue, which is ignorant of the mystery of that Ethiopian woman, that is the Church gathered out of the nations, and murmurs with daily reproaches, and envies that people through whose faith itself also shall be delivered from the leprosy of its unbelief, according to what we read that: blindness in part has happened unto Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved. Rom. 11:25 (Letter 63:57)