Saint of the Month: St. John Chrysostom

St. John Chrysostom was an archbishop, brilliant preacher, and one of the most revered Fathers of the early Church. John was born c. 350 in Antioch in Roman Syria, currently Antakya, Turkey. His father was a military officer but died when John was an infant. His mother saw that he got the best possible education, sending him to the renowned rhetorician Libanius. He studied literature and Greek and became a lawyer. He was baptized at eighteen and thereafter committed himself to live in accord with the Gospel, and he then studied theology. He lived two years as a hermit outside of the city, during which his extreme disciplines permanently damaged his health. He memorized the New Testament and was ordained a priest in 386. He served in Antioch for the next twelve years with extraordinary effectiveness. His knowledge of Scripture, training in rhetoric, and deep prayer life gave his preaching great power, drew large crowds, and obtained many pagan conversions. People would be so engrossed in his teaching that pickpockets would loiter in the crowd, having easy victims. He was considered the best orator in the vast Roman Empire.
In 397. 

A CHALLENGING NEW APPOINTMENT
John was unknowingly appointed archbishop of Constantinople. Because the Governor of Antioch knew that there would be an uproar if his appointment was known, John was tricked into being taken to the Imperial city. At Constantinople, many powerful people opposed his appointment. He was dramatically different from his predecessor and began reforms at once. He especially reformed the clergy, some of whom had been living with women, pursuing wealth and status, and who lived lives of leisure. He sold the rich furnishings of the bishop’s residence, ate very little and preached against luxury, rich banquets, debauchery, and lewd theater performances. He provided food and clothing to the poor and established a hospital from his selling off unneeded luxuries. 

EXILE
John had many enemies, the most powerful one being the Empress Eudoxia, who was much more ambitious than her weak-willed husband, Emperor Arcadius. She plotted with John’s enemies, including some powerful bishops, which culminated in a synod in 403. This gathering, filled with lies and corruption, expelled John from his see. His faithful people were in turmoil at this outrage, and the Emperor called him back, after Eudoxia attributed an earthquake that occurred on the day of John’s arrest to God’s judgment of her. Her repentance was short-lived, as she again colluded with John’s many enemies to destroy him. On Easter of 404, as John was baptizing the three thousand people who were entering the Church at Hagia Sofia Cathedral, violence broke out and the faithful were forced outside. Within weeks, John was again sent into exile, and Hagia Sofia was burned to the ground. 
John was taken to Caucusus in Cappadocia, (present-day Georgia) in 404. Located on the Black Sea coast, John described it as the world’s most desolate place. He suffered greatly there from cold, deprivations, and sickness, and wrote more than one hundred letters. He had to flee for his life several times due to marauding tribes. Not even Pope Innocent I was able to gain John’s restoration to his see, as the papal delegation was unable to enter Constantinople. John’s pitiless enemies resolved to punish him further, obtaining a writ of banishment to Pityus farther north. Already in ill health, John was forced to walk over treacherous terrain for long hours in the sun and died at Comana, Cappadocia September 14, 407 at about age sixty. In 438 his remains were taken back to Constantinople, and the two children of Arcadius and Eudoxia begged God’s mercy for their parent’s cruelty. John’s remains were transferred by crusaders to St. Peter’s in Rome in 1204.

WISDOM THAT ENDURES
Two centuries after St. John’s death, he received the byname Chrysostom, meaning golden-mouthed. His preaching reached the hearts of rich and poor, old and young, Christian and pagan. His life’s purpose was to save souls for Christ and inspire people to live an authentic Christian life. His teachings were not lofty, but practical. We have more of his writings than of any other Father of the Church, much of it Scriptural commentary in the form of hundreds of homilies, as well as treatises and letters. He is often referred to as the Doctor of the Eucharist, for he spoke eloquently and clearly about this essential truth. He was cheerful and had a fine sense of humor, even when writing letters from exile. He is part of a quartet of the four great Eastern Doctors of the Church, with Sts. Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and Athanasius. He is cited eighteen times in the current Catechism of the Catholic Church. Some of John Chrysostom’s relics were returned to the Orthodox Church in 2004 and are kept in Istanbul. St. John's feast day in the western Church is September 13 and he is a Doctor of the Church.