Saint John Chrysostom

Saint John Chrysostom was a preacher in Antioch and later bishop of Constantinople, one of the great Fathers of the Eastern Church and a Doctor of the Church. He owed the surname Chrysostom, “golden-mouthed,” to his eloquence. He died on September 14, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and the Church keeps his memorial one day earlier, on September 13.

He was born in Antioch in Syria, today Antakya in Turkey, around the middle of the fourth century; the exact year is not known. He lost his father early; his mother, Anthusa, raised him in a deep faith. He was taught rhetoric by the pagan Libanius, the most famous orator of the age. Baptized in 368, he became a lector and then spent several years as a hermit in the nearby mountains, meditating on Sacred Scripture.

After returning to the city he was ordained a deacon in 381 and a priest in 386, and became a famous preacher. In 387 the people, protesting against taxes, toppled the emperor’s statues, and the city trembled at the prospect of punishment. John then delivered his series of homilies “On the Statues,” calling for repentance and conversion. From the years 386 and 387 also come his homilies Adversus Iudaeos (“Against the Jews”), addressed to Christians who took part in Jewish feasts. In them he used harsh and hostile language about the Jews, and in later centuries they were used to fuel anti-Judaism.

In 397, against his will, he was called to be bishop of Constantinople, the capital of the empire, and he was consecrated in 398. He reformed the clergy, lived simply and founded charitable works for the poor. He fostered the beauty of the liturgy; the Eucharistic anaphora that bears his name is still the most widespread in the East. He boldly denounced the luxury of the court and of the powerful, which earned him many enemies.

In 403 a synod convened by Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria deposed him, and John was sent into exile. He was soon recalled, but after a new conflict with Empress Eudoxia he again had to leave the capital and was banished to Armenia. Pope Innocent I was convinced of his innocence but could not help him. On a further journey under military guard, worn out by hardships, he died on September 14, 407, at Comana in Pontus. According to his biographer Palladius, his last words were: “Glory be to God for all things.”

He is among the most prolific writers of Christian antiquity: more than seven hundred of his homilies, more than a dozen treatises and over two hundred letters have come down to us. He taught that whoever honors the Body of Christ in the Eucharist cannot neglect him in a hungry and naked brother. Benedict XVI called him one of the great Fathers of the Church’s social doctrine.

He has been venerated as a saint since antiquity. In 438 Bishop Proclus solemnly brought his body to Constantinople. On November 27, 2004, John Paul II gave Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I part of the relics kept in Saint Peter’s Basilica.