"[T]he day of our burial is called our birthday (natalis), because, being set free from the prison of our crimes, we are born to the liberty of the Saviour" (Serm. 57, de Depos. St. Eusebii)
Unfortunately I am unable to find much more of this, it appears that none of Ambrose's sermons are on the net in English. This quote comes from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopaedia.
It appears that in early Christianity they followed the early Jewish belief, which is mentioned in such as Wikipedia but I cannot find on the net anywhere (which is becoming a pattern), that birthdays were not celebrated and instead that they celebrated the death of a person as their true day of birth. This belief is in keeping with Ecclesiastes 7:1 "A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one's birth." (WEB) as well as several other places where the faithful of God expressed hatred for the day they were born.
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