John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom, whose Greek epithet means golden-mouthed, was born at Antioch in the Roman province of Syria in the mid-fourth century, traditionally dated to about 347. His father Secundus, a high-ranking officer in the imperial army, died while John was still an infant. He was raised by his mother Anthusa, who remained a widow from about the age of twenty and gave him a firmly Christian upbringing. He received a first-rate classical education in rhetoric, studying under the famous pagan sophist Libanius, and was also prepared in law. After a period of secular study he was baptized, probably in his early twenties, and turned toward an ascetic life rather than a public career.

He served as a lector in the church of Antioch and then withdrew for several years into the mountainous country nearby, living first under a Syrian monk and later as a hermit in a cave. Extreme fasting and exposure permanently damaged his health, especially his stomach, and forced his return to the city. Bishop Meletius of Antioch ordained him deacon about 381; Bishop Flavian ordained him priest in 386. For more than a decade he was Antioch's principal preacher. His homilies, vivid and morally uncompromising, drew large crowds. He commented at length on Genesis, the Gospels of Matthew and John, and the Pauline epistles, and he addressed civic crises such as the Riot of the Statues in 387, when a series of sermons helped calm the city after imperial images had been smashed. Already in these years he attacked avarice, theatrical shows, and neglect of the poor, combining rhetorical brilliance with a severe ethical demand that would define his later ministry.

In 397 the see of Constantinople fell vacant. Through court and ecclesiastical intrigue, and with the support of the imperial minister Eutropius, John was taken from Antioch and consecrated archbishop in 398. In the capital he at once reduced the luxury of the episcopal household, founded hospitals, and pressed clergy to live more simply. He preached against ostentation at court, including that of the Empress Eudoxia, and made powerful enemies among monks, bishops, and courtiers. Theophilus of Alexandria and allied factions convened the Synod of the Oak in 403, which deposed him on largely political charges. He was briefly exiled, then recalled after popular unrest, but a second and final exile followed in 404. He was sent to Cucusus in the Taurus Mountains of Armenia, a remote and dangerous post, from which he continued to write letters of direction and encouragement to his supporters.

In 407 the court ordered him moved still farther, toward Pityus on the eastern Black Sea. The journey was conducted with deliberate harshness. He died on 14 September 407 at Comana in Pontus, near a shrine of the martyr Basiliscus. Tradition records his last words as an act of thanksgiving: glory to God for all things. He was buried at Comana. In 438, under Theodosius II and at the urging of Patriarch Proclus, his relics were solemnly translated to Constantinople and laid in the Church of the Holy Apostles. John left a vast body of homilies, treatises (including the six books On the Priesthood), and letters. The eucharistic liturgy that bears his name became the ordinary Sunday and festal liturgy of the Byzantine rite. Eastern churches keep his memory on 13 November and, with Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus, as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs on 30 January; the Roman calendar observes him on 13 September. He is venerated as a Doctor of the Church in the West and as one of the greatest Fathers of the East.