St. John Chrysostom: Her life and work

Contents Preface Chapter One. Birth, family upbringing, education and social life of St. John Chapter two. Baptism of St. John, his life in the desert, preparation for the shepherd; serving in the ranks of deacon and presbyter Chapter Three. Service of St. John with the rank of Archbishop of Constantinople and Patriarch of the East Chapter Four. Fight St. John Chrysostom with his enemies, his exile, death and glorification Chapter Five. About the works of St. John Chrysostom Saint John Chrysostom lived in the 4th century. This age - the golden age of Christian literature - has its best representative in it. However, justice demands that the most famous church speakers in Christianity of all nineteen centuries should yield to the Preacher Chrysostom the palm of oratorical primacy. Every Christian, even a little educated, knows Chrysostom, the preacher of the Eastern Church. This is the father and teacher of the church among the great - the greatest. The light of his teachings pours through his creations to this day on everyone who wants to draw from the great and deep ocean of wisdom. Both by the number of sermons and by their inner merits, Chrysostom makes an irresistible impression on the reader. One of the ancient Russian scribes put it: “Chrysostom’s mouth is Pavlov’s mouth; Paul's lips are Christ's lips; for (therefore) Chrysostom’s lips are Christ’s lips.” However, all the enthusiastic reviews about Chrysostom are just the babble of a child, amazed by the grandeur of some monument and unable to describe it... Chrysostom is more worthy of study than anyone else. And there were people whose entire lives were barely enough to study his creations... But at St. Chrysostom's word did not diverge from life. It was a living and active word. Life of St. John shows us the wondrous heights of Christian perfection that a Christian can achieve. Life of St. Joanna is highly instructive. The virtues of life and words elevated the Syrian ascetic to the heights of the pulpit of the “new” Rome, and the malice and envy of the rabid enemies of St. John prepared for him a deep cup of severe suffering, after drinking it to the end, he died in exile, with praise to God for the joys and sorrows of life: Glory to God for everything! Chapter one. Birth, family upbringing, education and social life of St. John The best of the “Christians” that Syrian Antioch gave to the world was St. John, Archbishop of Constantinople and Patriarch of the East, nicknamed Chrysostom by his contemporaries and posterity for his inimitable eloquence. You need to get acquainted with the city in which St. was born. John, in order to accurately determine the environment and situation in which Chrysostom spent his childhood and the first half of his pastoral activity. Antioch was located in Syria on both banks of the deep and fast Orontes River. “Flourishing masses of fragrant oleanders and delicately fragrant jasmines” formed a pleasant decoration of the city, which lay at the foot of Mount Silpia. The plain surrounding the city was rich in vineyards, laurel and myrtle groves, of which “Daphne” was especially famous for its flower beds, fountains and church of Apollo. The climate of Antioch was very pleasant; it was the favorite summer residence of those who were tired of the noise of the capital of the empire. There was enough of everything in Antioch: through the Lebanese passages all the riches of the East were delivered to it, of which there were always many consumers here. In general, Antioch was one of the best cities of the “worldwide” empire, both in terms of natural beauty and the wealth of its two hundred thousand population. Emperor Constantius called Antioch "Queen of the East." During the time of St. Chrysostom's Antioch was "the capital of Syria and the entire East." St. John called her the “head and mother” of the cities of Roman Asia. It was inhabited by Greeks, Romans, Syrians, Jews, Arabs, etc. The character of each tribe was reflected in the spiritual life of the city. The Antiochians were simple, graceful, energetic, sincere, warm-hearted, frivolous and rebellious. According to Livanius, Antioch was to Asia in terms of means of education what Athens was to Europe. 1 Christianity, even under St. Apostle Paul, which was grafted into Antioch, subsequently formed here into the famous Apostolic Church, one of the oldest churches in the East. In the time of Chrysostom, one hundred thousand Antiochians (half the city's population) professed the holy faith. The Christian memories and monuments of the city are very significant. Chrysostom said that “Antioch, the first of the cities, was adorned, like a wondrous crown, with the name Christians.” Antioch had the honor of having as its bishops: St. Ignatius, marvelous with his life, even more with his dying messages, and most of all with his martyrdom in the Roman amphitheater, and St. Vavilu, also a martyr. Their relics were kept in Antioch churches dedicated to their memory. There were two famous churches in Antioch: the “ancient” one, built by Constantine V., and the “new”, very majestic one, founded by him and consecrated by a whole cathedral of bishops. St. gave a judgment about the ecclesiastical significance of the city. Basil the Great: “Antioch is the head, which, in case of health, communicates it to the entire body of the church.” But the city was distinguished by its loose morals: many Antiochians bore only the name “Christians.” Daphnian “morality” brought smiles to faces well acquainted with Antioch. There was a time when Daphnian amusements on the feast of the marble statue of Apollo made the city “a constant festival of vice,” as historians put it. It seems that on that very Shingon Street of Antioch, which (the street) in ancient days had as its temporary resident St. “Teacher of languages” Paul, one very decent and prosperous house belonged to the military leader of the Syrian troops Secundus. His wife's name was Anfusa. She was a very virtuous woman. Both of them were "zealous" Christians of the Antiochian Church. They did not have to enjoy family happiness for long: Secundus died, leaving a twenty-year-old widow in her care with two little ones, one of whom was destined to become the glory and pride of Christianity. The little one's name was John. He was born in 347. A young, caring mother beyond her years spent special efforts to ensure that her son received the best education. She cherished and loved him like the apple of her eye. In his son St. Anfusa saw and hoped to have consolation among the many worries and sorrows that befell her as a widow. The child was for her a treasure given from God, before Whom she prayed that the Almighty Lord would preserve him from numerous visible and invisible enemies. For his sake, St. Anfusa decided to remain a widow, although she had a very honorable position in society and great wealth, for the sake of which there were many who sought her hand, but, as a true Christian, St. Anfusa did not attach any importance to anything that people envied. Initial lessons of faith and morals of St. John received it under the supervision of his mother, who had sacred books on her desk. Probably St. Anfusa assigned some priest to give elementary religious lessons to the dear boy in her home. St. Anthusa was in no hurry to give her son to pagan teachers, who, instead of educating the minds of the children entrusted to them, sometimes corrupted their morality. The teachers of pagan schools were so proud of their education, valued it so highly that, as St. Augustine says, they were ready to forgive a student for violating the rules of morality rather than for errors against the rules of literature and eloquence 2 . The holy mother herself tried to teach the boy everything holy and good, and only then decided to entrust his education to strangers when she saw that the young man would be able to resist their temptations. St. John was about 16 years old at the time of his education. It began and ended in Antioch. The famous Livanius had the lot to be the teacher of two Christian luminaries - St. Basil the Great and John, later called Chrysostom. Livanius was truly a remarkable man of his time. He had the most famous school of eloquence in Antioch, where he was born. However, Livanius knew more than just Antioch: he was in Constantinople, where he had no luck, in Nicomedia, in Athens and again in Antioch, where he died. Libanius always had many disciples and never outlived his glory; his works spread very quickly and interest in them only increased in pagan society. His fate is closely connected with Julian, the unfortunate emperor of East and West, who wanted to turn history back by returning to paganism all that glory and that honorable position that quickly passed to Christianity. Livanius was Julian's closest associate, although he did not approve of violence in the matter of faith and conscience and was distinguished by his caution in judging Christianity, with an admixture of slight irony and mistrust. St. John entered the school of Libania as a student after the death of Julian, when the famous rhetorician abandoned his political role and devoted himself to the more rewarding work of educating the youth. Livanius, with his characteristic insight, quickly found in his new student those extraordinary gifts of mind and heart, with which the latter really stood out from the rest. Livanius, as a lover of his art, happily took up the literary development of the young man. And the latter, with his characteristic diligence and talent, began to study. And the student knew the value of his teacher, which is why he did not want to waste time. He had no leisure for entertainment, which, remembering the behests of his beloved mother, he avoided. Success of St. John at the Livaniya school were fast and amazing, and the teacher could not help but rejoice looking at his best student, in whose happy and significant future he had no doubt, predicting and predicting for him fame and wealth, for example, in practicing law. Wanting to distinguish his beloved student from others who were less talented, Livanius, one day, in a friendly meeting of fellow craftsmen, read to him a speech written in praise of the emperors by St. John, which aroused delight in the listeners, who were real experts and connoisseurs of eloquence. Livanius himself gave a review of this talented speech, which probably referred to the emperors Valentinian and Valens, which served as an expression of the opinion of the assembly: “Happy is the writer who knows how to glorify emperors in this way! Happy are the emperors who reign at a time when the world has such an amazing writer.” We do not know this speech, which was the first literary work of St. John, and whether it reached the ears of the celebrated emperors - we do not know. It is only known that in this speech, according to Livaniy’s review of it from the formal side, St. John “combined the power of oratory evidence with the art of judicial speech.” It should be noted that at the Livaniya School of St. John studied Greco-Roman literature in detail and thoroughly. This is where he completed his literary education with Livaniya. St. John owed a lot to him as a teacher. Attracted to Lebanon by his tolerance and honesty, his gentle attitude towards every person, in addition to his convictions and external position, St. John “learned from Livanius, on the principles of free will and conscience, to erect a planned building, in a word, as an echo of the soul, influencing the will of man 3. From the school of eloquence of St. John began to go to the school of philosophy, where Androphagius taught, whose name history has preserved only because he was Chrysostom’s teacher. Androphagus was not such a remarkable thinker that he could greatly influence the beliefs of his students. But for such a deep mind as the already literary-educated Chrysostom possessed, this did not pose any significant inconvenience. St. John began to independently study philosophy, and the role of the teacher probably boiled down to the fact that he pointed out only the best works and sources for getting acquainted with the history of human thought. School education St. John graduated when he was a little over 20 years old. When describing the lives of remarkable figures in the history of mankind, they tend to dwell on the details of the childhood and youth of the people described. Let's do this too. Chrysostom's mother lived on Shingonskaya Street, from where the young man went to see his teachers at school. Chrysostom came from a wealthy and noble family, but in the circumstances of her life everything was simple. Clothes of St. Joanna, although quite decent, was not, however, luxurious and refined. He walked to school, in contrast to his rich comrades, who rode in chariots or led a large number of slaves. Even after completing his education, he was alien to the desire for luxury and splendor, as he later said about himself. In dealing with his comrades, St. John was simple, humble, modest and did not like to show off his rich knowledge. He had comrades and friends at school, but he was especially careful in choosing them. History knows how people close to him from school: Theodore, Maxim and especially Vasily. All of them later became heads of famous churches. Chrysostom's friends greatly valued his friendship, because he knew how to be a sincere, firm, constant and unchanging friend. Chrysostom described his friendship with Vasily in detail in his work “on the priesthood.” “I had many,” writes the saint, “sincere and faithful friends, who knew and strictly observed the laws of friendship. But out of many, one surpassed all the others in his love for me, and how much differed from them in his disposition towards me, how much these last in comparison with people who did not have any special affection for me. He was always my inseparable companion, we studied the same sciences, listened to the same teachers, practiced eloquence and other sciences with the same willingness and zeal, we had the same desires and stemmed from the same source. And not only at the time when we went to the teachers, but also after leaving school, when it was necessary to consult how best to choose the path of life, and in this case we found ourselves agreeing in our thoughts. In addition, other reasons have kept our union inseparable and firm. For we could not exalt one another over the superior glory of the fatherland; It also did not happen that I abounded in wealth, and he lived in extreme poverty; but the measure of our property was as equal as our feelings.” If St. John in the days of his youth walked a solid moral path, if he was always cautious about the temptations of “Daphnian morality” and was not carried away by them, it was because the grace of God was already looking for him and preparing in him a chosen vessel and because the loving eye of his mother was always watching him, and her sacred covenants of goodness and love always sounded loudly in his pure, unashamed conscience. And she spent all her strength and resources on his upbringing, which was recognized and greatly appreciated by her son, who loved her dearly. He was well aware of the difficult life of his mother as a widow, the worries and expenses she spent on his upbringing. “My son! “I won’t be long,” reports St. John's story to his mother - she enjoyed the cohabitation of your virtuous father. It was God's will. His death, which soon followed the illnesses of your birth, brought you orphanhood, and me premature widowhood with all its sorrows, which can only be well known to widows. For no words can describe the storm and the excitement to which a young woman is exposed, having recently left her parental home, not yet experienced in the affairs of life, and suddenly, struck by the grief of widowhood and forced to take on worries that exceed her age and her very nature. She must correct the negligence of servants, notice their cunning, destroy the evil intentions of relatives, courageously endure oppression and merciless extortion of tax collectors. If, after the death of the spouse, there are children left - let it be a daughter - there will be many and she will bring care to the mother, at least caring for her will not be associated with costs and fear. But for her son she is exposed to a thousand fears every day and great worries. I'm not even talking about the costs that are required of a mother if she wants to give her son a good upbringing. However, no disadvantages of my position forced me to enter into a second marriage and bring another husband into your father’s home. In the midst of confusion and anxiety, I remained firm... I was supported by higher help. Not a little in my sorrows I was consoled by the fact that every minute I looked at your face and saw in it the living and faithful image of your father. While still a baby and barely able to babble, when children are especially pleasant to their parents, you already brought me a lot of joy... For my part, I did everything to remove from you the slightest concern about the needs of life... None of your friends can give you greater peace of mind. There is no one who cares about your well-being as much as I do.” What a lofty view the St. expressed in these words. Anfusa on the position of a Christian widow and on her attitude towards her family, beautifully implemented in practice by the wonderful mother of Chrysostom. No wonder Livanius, in response to his questions about the mother of St. John, who received accurate and enthusiastic stories about her from him, exclaimed: “What wonderful women Christians have” 4. These speeches lift the veil over the family life of St. Anfus. We know from here that she considered raising her son her main calling. And so, the worthy mother of the great son taught him self-denial, self-sacrifice, submission to the highest Providence, ardent love for people. These lessons were successfully instilled in St. John. He never neglected his mother’s advice, which tended to ensure that he accepted Christ, Whose she was a follower, into his young heart. St. John diligently listened to his mother's advice. Even during his education, he had the idea, after completing his studies, to devote himself to Christ; Under the influence of his friend Vasily, he was already deciding to accept even monasticism. But a 20-year-old youth, like St. John turned out to be less decisive in choosing his life path than St. Vasily. St. later recalled with regret. John about his intention when he wanted to become a monk at the age of 20. “When my friend, truly blessed, decided to devote himself to monastic life and true philosophy, then the balance of our life was lost. His lot, due to its ease, was exalted, and I, still “carried away by worldly desires,” humiliated my fate, brought it down, burdening it with “youthful dreams”... It turned out to be impossible to live together with those who “had different desires.” St. Basil became a monk, and St. John chose the path of secular life, which, perhaps, was depicted in his imagination at that time. rainbow colors. Here for the mother of St. John, the time has come for the most diverse, painful and great worries, fears, anxieties, worries, secret prayers for his beloved son... But the Providence of God led him along the path destined for him. God wanted this young man, having seen life from its most unsightly side, to recognize with his own experience the vanity of life in the world. St. John chose the legal profession instead of monasticism. And in a short time he became so familiar with this complex matter that with his successful defense of the innocent he quickly gained fame, friends, and many honors. St. John led a secular lifestyle, began to visit theaters and places of entertainment, began to forget the sweetness of the Holy Scriptures, which had been familiar to him since childhood, his mother’s precepts seemed boring... Fortunately, this hobby did not last too long. A light cloud of worldly delights came over the consciousness of the saint. John in order to quickly leave and never, never return... However, this experience was not in vain: St. John learned all the bitterness of worldly worries, which, no matter how complex and calculating they are, never reward a person with spiritual complacency. Observation of life showed him that truth, law, conscience, and honor are too often trampled upon in the world. Theaters and spectacles, which were the passion of the inhabitants of the Syrian capital, soon aroused disgust in St. John. He came to the realization of the unsuitability of the moral principles of pagan life by experience, as the Holy Scripture, his mother, his conscience and science, which he had studied carefully, had previously told him the same thing. St. John quickly changed once and for all his goals and aspirations, and with them the order of his life. He, to the great joy of his mother and Christians, who had heard a lot about him, decided to devote himself to Christianity, which he studied thoroughly both in essence and in history. In addition to the brilliant education (negative reason) that his teachers gave him, in addition to the strict moral education (positive reason) that his mother gave him, the sympathies of St. John's approach to Christianity developed under the impressions of his childhood and homeland. Youth of St. John falls precisely at that glorious and unique time when the center of world life was moving from paganism to Christianity. St. John in his homeland could observe the death throes of paganism, after the blow dealt to him by St. Constantine the Great, and the full flowering of the mighty Divine powers of Christianity. From the recent past of St. John was told stories about the times of martyrdom, about the glorious confessors who were old men in his time, about the terrible instruments of torment, about the victory of Christianity, about the great world-religious unrest that came after the victory, about the ecumenical council in Nicaea, about its long-suffering great figure St. Athanasius, about the struggle of Orthodoxy with Arianism, the blows of which were heard very strongly in his hometown, about the glorious activity of St. Basil the Great, about the failure that befell Julian in fulfilling his intention to rebuild the completely destroyed Jerusalem, when a miraculous fire that fell from the sky burned all the buildings that had been started, so that the Jews in horror refused to restore their capital, destroyed in retribution for the Deicide... All the famous fathers of the 4th century, the most glorious in the history of Christianity, were brought up on these impressions. And Chrysostom fully experienced the sweetness of inspiration that embraced him during these stories. And great characters are always formed in the midst of storms and sorrows. St. John in Antioch saw with his own eyes the persecution of Christianity from the pagans, which gave it glorious martyrs and confessors. This happened during the two-year reign of Julian, who made a last desperate attempt to restore and renew paganism in the Greco-Roman world and suppress Christianity. To achieve these goals, Julian used various measures that did not lead to the desired consequences, although they did a lot of harm to St. churches. I had to use the old tried and tested remedy - persecution. But Christ put the pagan emperor to shame. This happened in front of the boy St. John when he was about 15 years old. Julian arrived in Antioch in 362 and began to push back Christianity. On its outskirts there was an ancient church of Apollo. A “Daphnian” grove surrounded him. No one prayed in the idol’s church anymore; the church was empty. The relics of St. buried not far from him. Vavily, ep. Antioch, in the church named after him, constantly attracted a crowd of Christian pilgrims, who by faith received healing from St. relics. Thinking that the presence of St. relics diminished the glory and crowd of worshipers of the idol church. Julian ordered the Christian church to be closed, and St. the relics of Vavila should be transferred to another, more distant place. The wicked command was fulfilled. Christians solemnly transferred St. relics while singing the psalm: “Let those who bow down to idols, those who boast about their idols, be put to shame.” This offended Julian and he ordered the arrest of many Christians, throwing them into prison and giving them over to torment, with which the 15-year-old singer Theodore and some deaconesses prepared heavenly crowns for themselves. God avenged the tormented: unexpectedly for everyone, the church of Apollo was struck by lightning and burned down. Julian, becoming very angry, ordered the main Christian church in Antioch to be closed and plundered. While carrying out the order, Presbyter Theodoret suffered martyrdom. Boy St. John saw these horrors, saw the sadness of the Christians and his mother, who explained to him, of course, the whole meaning of these shocking events. Deep sympathies for glorious Christianity arose in the boy’s soul. With what joy both mother and son heard that the wicked persecutor had been struck by an arrow in the battle with the Persians: in this they saw the fulfillment of the prediction given by the presbyter Theodoret before his death and by one Christian teacher, in response to the question of Libanius: what is the carpenter’s son doing? - who answered “that the carpenter’s son is the Lord, Christ and God, who is now building funeral roads” (it turned out) for Julian. The light of paganism faded completely and the consequences of persecution quickly disappeared. The wonderful power of Christianity for St. Joanna was obvious. Having changed his life, St. John began to prepare for baptism. His announcer in the truths of St. The Bishop of Antioch, Meletius himself, was of the Christian faith. He was a wonderful archpastor, who enjoyed amazing love among his flock. “At his very name they were delighted,” calling their children by the name of Meletius and placing his images on rings, seals, bowls and the walls of their homes. St. Meletius, with a prophetic spirit foreseeing the future glory of St. John, took special care of his soul, returning it to the knowledge of the mysteries of Christ and strengthening it for future deeds of shepherding. Highly educated and highly moral St. John took his spiritual enlightenment so seriously that he considered it necessary to use the lessons and instructions of St. for three whole years. Meletius, God-wise Bishop of Antioch. The teacher, out of a sense of surprise at the talents of the student, and the latter, out of reverence and love for the teacher, became very close to each other during these years. In 367, the spiritual acquaintance of the saints began. Meletia with St. John, when he exchanged the toga of a lawyer and a pagan for poor black clothes. Chapter two. Baptism of St. John, his life in the desert, preparation for the shepherd; serving as a deacon and presbyter Baptism of St. John took place in 369. St. John had long understood the importance of this sacrament, which for him was a complete internal renewal. According to Palladius, the most eloquent biographer of Chrysostom, his friend and student, St. After accepting the grace of baptism, John never swore, did not speak untruths, did not slander, did not wish maliciously, and did not allow himself to ridicule or even joke about his neighbors, but was very modest and silent. Chrysostom, with the special zeal inherent in him before, began to carefully study the Holy Scriptures and, together with his friend monk Basil, began to attend the Christian Antiochian school, located in the monastery, whose celebrities were the most famous interpreters of St. Scriptures - Presbyters Diodorus and Flavian. St. John began a long time ago, but now he vigorously continued his ascetic deeds while in his mother’s house, although St. Vasily, who visited him daily, convinced him to leave the noisy city and move to the desert for ascetic purposes. And although in 370 St. John was made a “reader” of the priest. Scripture (what a modest position for a Christian with such brilliant talents as St. John possessed!) in the main Antiochian church, he nevertheless finally decided to follow the advice of his friend. The convictions and tears of the mother, who had to remain completely alone after the removal of her son, however, once again turned out to be stronger than the fiery and eloquent descriptions of the delights of the ascetic life of which St. John was deeply sympathetic in his soul. His mother told him: “Be patient until my death. Maybe my life will not last long... When you bury my body and unite my ashes with the ashes of your father, then take long journeys... But while I breathe, do not be separated from me... If I do everything on my part to remove from you the slightest concern about the needs of life, then let at least this bind you to me "... Chrysostom listened to his mother, who had not yet lived long. She was destined to contemplate from the heights of heaven the struggle, triumph and suffering that were destined for her beloved son. And St. John, after her death, received complete freedom of action, which he used to, having finished his reckoning with the world, retire to a monastery. This happened in 373–374, when St. John was no more than 26.5 years old. But at this time another event happened, which at first was an obstacle, and then a reason to quickly hide in a monastery. Emperor Valens, an Arian by confession, began in 370 to persecute Orthodox bishops, of whom he sent many (even St. Meletius of Antioch) into prison, as a result of which many episcopal sees were left without bishops. The names of Basil and John were already so well known and beloved by the Orthodox Antiochians that the council of bishops decided to appoint these “young men”, out of respect for their Orthodoxy, learning and moral strength, as bishops, despite the fact that St. John, for example, was then barely 27 years old. But “wisdom cannot be counted by the number of years” - especially that which consists in submission to the all-enlightening St. Spirit of grace and knowledge. The friends were embarrassed when they learned the decision of the council, and began to consult what to do in this truly difficult case. St. John, having learned about Basil’s hesitant consent to accept the bishopric, did not want to deprive the Church of Rafana, to which they wanted to place him, of such a worthy man as St. Vasily, and decided to promote his dedication. St. himself John decided in his heart to flee, to flee into the desert from the dangerous episcopal honor, which he considered a completely unbearable burden for himself. St. John asked his friend to postpone the decision that circumstances would dictate, and the friends parted, and St. Vasily was convinced that St. John will be unanimous with him in his decision. At the appointed time, St. Vasily was summoned from the desert to a meeting of the council and the decision concerning him was announced to him. When St. Vasily began to refuse; it was inadvertently hinted to him that St. John agreed to accept the bishopric - and he expressed his humility to accept the consecration. But what was his surprise, sadness and tears when he learned that St. John retired to the sweet desert for ascetic deeds, which St. Vasily has now lost, having become the Bishop of Rafana! The intentions of the council, which had such a high opinion of the merits of 27-year-old John, excited his entire inner world. He was sincerely surprised how outstanding shepherds could find hidden talents in him when, according to his own judgment, he had only shortcomings. St. John himself was glad to serve in the pastoral office of the Church of Christ, but he was horrified by his moral weakness, which did not allow his conscience to give his consent to election to the priesthood. He realized that he had to work a lot on himself in order to free himself from infirmities, as much as a Christian could. Why St. John retired to a place where the main and only task was the eradication of passions, the education of the soul according to the law of Christ - to a monastery, to the mountains of Syria. For St. John's monastic life was a school for the education of the pastoral spirit, which boils down to personal moral improvement and the restoration of love for people before giving one's life for their salvation. St. John knew well that only one who, to the best of his ability, has achieved moral victory over his weaknesses, for without this it is impossible to be an example of piety, can be a shepherd, and he loved weak people, despite their weaknesses, since it is impossible to save people without loving them. St. John fell in love with the monastic life of the cenobitic Syrian monasteries, which he led for four years under the relentless and vigilant leadership of one rude and stern hermit (Gesichia), whose advice he followed unquestioningly. He always described with reverence monastic life, its environment, the convenience of salvation, the shortcomings of everyday conveniences, and so on. The life of the monks into whose midst Chrysostom entered was very harsh. They inhabited the Syrian mountains, deserts and valleys. “These lamps of the world, as soon as the sun begins to rise, or even before dawn, rise from their beds healthy, vigorous and fresh. For they are not disturbed by either the press, or the care, or the work, or the multitude of affairs; but they live like Angels in heaven. Rising from the bed, cheerful and cheerful, all, together with a bright face and conscience, form one face, and, as if with one mouth, they sing hymns to the God of all, glorifying and thanking Him... With kneeling, they call on the Lord for help in such matters that would not soon come to mind for others.” After prayer, the monks studied the Holy Scriptures, and the illiterate did needlework. From their conversation it is easy to guess that they are citizens of heaven. “Their lips cannot utter a single bad word... but each one is worthy of heaven.” “The lower ones are not insulted there with contempt; for there no one humiliates others. And even if someone humiliated them, they learn all the more to endure contempt, abuse, humiliation in words and deeds.” “You won’t hear anyone insulting another there, you won’t see anyone insulted there.” “The hermits not only have the same food and the same clothing, but also one soul due to mutual love, due to the absence of pride in all... They have neither poverty, nor wealth, nor glory, nor dishonor”... “Their meal is without any excess, pure, full of piety... They eat only bread and water - bread from righteous labors and water from a pure source, vegetables are their delicacy”... “Their meal is - the angels' meal." “They made their clothes from goat or camel hair, and some were content with only skin, and that was old.” “For many, simply grass serves as a bed, the sky serves as a cover, the moon instead of a lamp.” “Their sleep is decent... Great fear of God does not allow them to fall into deep sleep and plunge their soul into the flesh.” “No one calls for servants there, for everyone can satisfy his own needs. They make the fire themselves, chop the wood themselves, cook the food themselves, and serve those who come. There are neither those who receive orders nor those who give orders, but all servants, each one washes the feet of wanderers and one before the other tries to provide them with services, they do not distinguish who came to them, slave or free, but they do it for everyone equally.” “They love to treat the poor and the crippled, and at their table there are many such guests, and that is why they are worthy of heaven. One heals the wounds of the sick, another leads the blind, another carries the legless.” “And all this happens to monks out of a good mood of the soul.” “Suicide and love for one’s neighbors are the distinctive principles of the life of the brethren.” “And if it were possible to open the doors of their hearts and see their soul and all the inner beauty, then it would be impossible to bear the radiance of the beauty of their soul, the lightness of their inner clothes and the brilliance of their conscience.” “They are lamps shining throughout all the earth; walls that enclose and support cities” 5. St. John shared with the brethren all the difficulties of monastic life, learning humility, overcoming ardor and anger, fighting the flesh, serving others out of love for them. He tried to fight against many different temptations and the victory came to him after a difficult struggle, which he himself talked about. Damascene said in a speech of praise to St. John that “as a rose grows among thorns, so in the deeds of virtue this fragrant and pleasing plant to God grew,” namely, the highly instructive and powerful character of St. John. Not to mention the temptations of the flesh and the devil, the very severity of the situation sometimes terrified him. “The sight of dense forests shaken by stormy gusts of wind, on top of which birds of prey built their nests, imperturbable solitude, inaccessible rocks over deep abysses, the ferocious roar of fast streams rushing swiftly along the rocky surface of mountain gorges, could not help but make a sad impression on the heart of a person accustomed to seeing clean, transparent springs with cypress groves of Daphne, luxurious the gardens of Antioch with its magnificent buildings, and its charming surroundings" 6. However, all the conditions under the combined influence of which the pastoral spirit of St. John, helped him cultivate such firmness in himself that he said: “Let everything come against me - reproach, abuse, ridicule, slander, sword, fire, hunger, illness, death and everything cruel that happens in this life - I will go my own way.” This is the result of four years of asceticism. And Providence has already indicated St. John the direction of his path. The Arian Emperor Valens, who in 372 expelled the beloved Christian Antioch and St. John Bishop Meletius was imprisoned, now in 376 he issued a decree expelling monks from monasteries to transfer them to military service. The monks were the stronghold of Orthodoxy, which was persecuted by the emperor. St. John, a monk and adherent of monasticism, at the inclination of his courageous heart and the request of others, came out with an essay in defense of the persecuted, which weakened the effect of the strange decree. Finally, St. John (like Moses, Elijah and the Savior himself before the beginning of their social activities) retired to a secluded cave for new difficult ascetic deeds. “God alone knows the great deeds they accomplished in it, all the labors they undertook, all the sorrows they experienced,” 7 and fiery prayer, constantly ascending like pure incense from the depths of his contrite heart to God. For two years Saint John labored in solitude, in which he ate only bread and rested little, leaning on the wall of a cave, gloomy, damp and cold. All this had a heavy impact on the weak and sick body of the ascetic, but despite the weakness of the body, the spirit was distinguished by firmness and fullness of strength. And from Antioch, with its one hundred thousand Christian population, the call of Bishop Meletius, who had returned from exile, had already reached John, inviting the new Elijah, the new John, the new Moses - St. John to serve the Church of God, overwhelmed by the unrest and passions of the people, and the weak people. St. John, already a man, strong in spirit, great in mind, tender in heart, once again looked at himself, delved deep into his soul, said to himself under the influence of the grace of Christ: “I am ready” - and appeared in Antioch... In part, he needed this to restore his physical strength and health, weakened by his exploits. But “St. returned not only for a cure from serious illnesses, not for a peaceful life. John into the world, and mainly for the difficult and difficult service of human suffering and rebirth as the shepherd of the Church... His return to Antioch is similar to the same returns of the great hermits, capitalists and ascetics to the world they left behind, when difficult times came for the Church of Christ. It is similar to the appearance in public service of the great bearers of the pastoral spirit - the prophets of the Old Testament, when they, having long refused and avoided proclaiming the need for repentance to the sinful world, were finally overcome by their inner calling. And these great and fiery people went into a sinful, bitter, stiff-necked world to proclaim repentance to people... So the pastoral calling that matured in Chrysostom manifested itself in him like a great and all-consuming flame, like a burning coal in the mouth of a prophet, and subdued his opposing will” 8. St. John, who spent six years in fasting, prayer, exploits and self-deepening, appeared in Antioch “with the verb to burn the hearts of people.” Great was the joy of the long-suffering Meletius when he saw his disciple as a man, full of spiritual and ascetic experiences and ready for pastoral work. A short rest upon his return (380) from the desert restored the strength of the saint to such an extent. John that at the beginning of 381 he was ready to accept the humble diaconal ministry, which he carried out for 5 years under Meletius’ successor, Bishop Flavian. What a slow ascent through the ranks of the church hierarchy for a man who was elected bishop eight years ago! But it is not the place that makes a person beautiful, but the place that elevates his significance. And in the position of deacon, Chrysostom managed to be very useful for the Church of Christ. By the position of deacon, St. John was obliged to manage church charity. St. John had to deal primarily with the poor, the sick, the old, who had no shelter, food or clothing. To the gentle and compassionate St. John, who had previously witnessed many different untruths and insults inflicted on people, now had to see poverty and squalor with all their consequences, which often shook the soul. St. John became the support of the poor, the feeder of the hungry and thirsty, and he did this with such love that everyone was amazed at the wonderful qualities of his heart. “The first silver that St. John gave to the poor - this is his own "... and from that time on, "he was the first poor man of the Antiochian Church." 9 Yes, St. John, indeed, knew how to love to the point of complete oblivion of his material needs! The Antiochians recognized the beauty of his heart, from his ascetic writings - the beautiful fruits of desert solitudes - they judged the depth of his mind, but Christians did not yet know the charm and amazing power of his fiery word. Teaching duties were not associated with the rank of deacon in the Antiochian Church. Teaching and preaching was considered the main duty of presbyteral ministry, to which, after 5 years of diaconate, Chrysostom was called. For this service “St. John went through a double upbringing: - the upbringing of the desert, which strengthens and elevates the spirit, and the upbringing of social life, which shows a person a person and gives him knowledge of passions, interests, disasters, vices - sad knowledge, but necessary for one who wants to have some influence on his own kind” - for a shepherd 10. St. John, an experienced ascetic, scientist and writer, became a presbyter only after 15 years of service in the clergy, in the 39th year of his life, ordained in 386 before the beginning of Lent, with a huge crowd of people in the main Antioch church, which from now on began to be very often resounded with the most eloquent sermons of St. John Chrysostom. The responsibility of preaching in Antioch, which loved eloquence and orators, was entrusted to the most educated presbyter-preachers, among whom Chrysostom the orator quickly took first place. Glory to St. John's career as a preacher grew rapidly. People of different parties, ages, genders, conditions, nationalities and beliefs gathered in the main church of Antioch to listen to Chrysostom. There were pagans, Jews, heretics (Arians, Anomeans and Marcionites) and Orthodox. And the preacher gave abundant food to all listeners, explaining dogmas, exposing vices, refuting false teachings, calling for peace and love. His sermons were applauded. But the humble Chrysostom did not like this. “I don’t need any applause, no excitement, no exclamations. I want one thing, that, listening with silence and understanding, you do what is said. This is for me the same as applause, this is praise for me.” St. John decreed that he should not be applauded, and those who loved his sermons, although with difficulty, began to refrain from the pagan custom of applause. St. John honored them with gratitude for this obedience. He was called Chrysostom for his eloquence and history has confirmed him as one St. John this is an extremely honorable title. The very story of Chrysostom’s life is actually a story about the wondrous actions of his eloquence, about the growing glory of St. John as a speaker. Eagerly listening to the inspired, highly meaningful, clear and simple word of St. John, the people never tired of listening to the conversations of their worthy preacher, so that sometimes, according to the desire of the people, Bishop Flivian yielded the word to St. John, not envying, but rejoicing at his successes in pastoral work. And Saint John went to meet this people’s love for his fiery word, ready to preach always and everywhere, as long as there were attentive and zealous listeners. About the subjects of the sermon of St. John never cared: the life at hand and his own spiritual experience always helped the saint. John, making his sermon vital, convincing and edifying. He mastered improvisation in the best and fullest sense of the word. During the 12 years of his priesthood, Saint John always preached once a week, mostly twice, very often every day, and sometimes twice a day. And if St. John, as a result of intense preaching work, had to fall ill and lie in bed or leave the city, at least for a short time. The Antiochian flock languished in anticipation, in which the days seemed to them for weeks, and did not calm down until the Chrysostomed orator appeared at the pulpit. St. John gave instructions, which were followed by the flock, on how to listen to his sermons with benefit. “I ask one favor from you, before I begin the words of the Gospel, I ask you not to refuse your request. I ask for nothing important or difficult, and if I receive it, the benefit will not only be for me, but also for you, or better yet, far greater for you. What am I asking of you? So that each of you has in your hands that part of the Gospel that needs to be heard in a sermon, reads it often in the house, often tests and examines the words, and notices what is clear, what seems obscure, what appears to be contradictory or not contradictory, and, having tested it in this way, comes to listen to the sermon.” “Smart advice! Excellent request! – let us repeat after St. Philaret 11. St. John tried very hard to weaken the so-called Meletian schism in the Antiochian Church with his words. The latter arose quite unexpectedly during the Arian unrest and the predominant dominance of the Arians in the Eastern Church. In 330, they deposed the Orthodox bishop of Antioch, Eustathius, and installed the heretic Paulinus in his place, but the Orthodox considered the deposed archpastor to be their archpastor and did not submit to the newly elected one. After Paulinus, who died in 361, the Arians appointed Meletius bishop for the Antiochian Church, considering him to be their fellow believer. But the heretics were mistaken, for the modest Meletius turned out to be strictly Orthodox. Nevertheless, the Orthodox did not all recognize him as their bishop, for he was installed by the Arians. The Orthodox submitted to Presbyter Paulinus as a bishop. Although the Arians persecuted Bishop Meletius, who was appointed by them, but Orthodox, and although not all Orthodox recognized him, the matter was still easily correctable, and Athanasius of Alexandria, the pacifier of the East, sent two bishops to convince the Orthodox party of Paulinus to submit to Bishop Meletius, as he was also Orthodox. But Lucifer, ep. Caral, even before the arrival of these bishops, appointed Presbyter Paulinus bishop of Antioch. Thus, it turned out to be two Orthodox bishops who respected each other very much, but did not have time, could not convince their flock, both parties, to live in peace and love. This was the task set by the eloquent Presbyter John, who belonged to the party of Meletius’s successor, Bishop Flavian, under whom the schism ended with the death of Bishop. Peacock in 392. But until then, Chrysostom’s pastoral word in this case did not have the usual brilliant success. Chrysostom resorted to another purely pastoral measure. And this matter was one of the first after his appointment as a presbyter. Bishop Meletios of Antioch died in 381 in Constantinople during the Second Ecumenical Council. Then his body was transported to Antioch and Christians greeted his relics with love and reverence. St. John was then a deacon. Now, as a preacher, on the day of remembrance of the saint, he decided to honor him with a special word of praise, for which he organized a solemn celebration of his memory. The speech praised his Orthodoxy and suffering from the Arians, his warm-hearted qualities, which earned the love and reverent memory of the majority of Orthodox Antiochians - all this in order to encourage the minority (Eustathian-Paulinists) to end the schism. An annual solemn celebration of the memory of Bishop. Meletia with the fiery speeches of Chrysostom reached their goal; after the death of bishop Paulinus's adherents recognized Flavian, who succeeded Meletius, as their bishop. Chrysostom had the joy of enjoying the fruits of his pastoral influence. But even earlier it had grown to colossal proportions. This was facilitated by the extraordinary circumstances experienced by Antioch. We are talking about the revolt that was carried out in 387 by the inhabitants of Antioch as a result of what seemed to them a heavy tax prescribed by Emperor Theodosius to satisfy the military needs of the dilapidated empire. In it, self-interested officials always carried out tax collections too strictly. Despite the fact that the tax was extremely heavy, the officials were not more merciful in collecting it. During a riot carried out by some dark personalities, aliens, blasphemers, the greatest insult was inflicted on the sacred person of the emperor by the destruction of the Antioch statue of him and his beloved deceased wife Flacilla. At first the authorities showed timidity, which gave the opportunity for a rebellion to develop and the rebels to become stronger, but then, having gathered their strength, the authorities managed to suppress the uprising with troops. The crime was followed by punishment: executions, torture, interrogations, etc. The Antiochians were horrified, realizing the greatness of the evil and the punishment that would follow it. Everyone reproached them, but there was no intercessor. This is where St. John Chrysostom turned out to be a true comforter to the troubled Antiochians, as Bishop Flavian was their intercessor. Chrysostom, like Job, remained silent throughout the week of disasters, without leaving his home. Finally, on Raw Sunday (before the start of Lent), he began his comforting and accusatory words to the Antiochians, calling them to repentance and a change of life. These conversations (21 in number, but actually 17 of them relate to the Antioch revolt) earned him the fame of the first orator in the world. Emperor Theodosius, having learned about what had happened, became terribly indignant at his previously beloved, kindly and, so to speak, spoiled by favors city and decided to punish it by depriving it of all the advantages previously granted. To investigate the essence of the rebellion, to punish the rebels, who were now trembling and submissive, the emperor sent two dignitaries Ellevih and Caesarius, endowed with the unlimited right to punish, torture, execute and pardon. The rumor of impending disaster plunged the Antiochians into terrible despair, who, contrary to the advice of Chrysostom, the true father of the unfortunate city, began to scatter, leaving their homes, property and saving their lives. Flavian, Bishop of Antioch, despite the winter season, inconvenient for travel, his old age, the illness of his only beloved sister, decided to go (840 miles) to Constantinople, appear before the emperor, who did not remember himself in anger, and ask for forgiveness of the rebellious city. Meanwhile, imperial officials arrived and began a bloody reprisal against the rebels. Interrogations, torture, dungeons, executions, the groans of mothers who had lost their husbands and children, the groans of children who had lost their parents and relatives, general horror filled Antioch, the glorious city and queen of the entire East... In the hearts of the Antiochians, mad, reckless and rebellious (according to the poet Ausonius), the hope that the Christian bishop Flavian would be able to ask forgiveness for the dying city from the Christian emperor. This hope was now supported by St. in his beautiful speeches. John. It was pure oil, poured by an inspired shepherd-physician onto the heart wounds of the Antiochians trembling in horror. St. Flavian hurried to Constantinople: “like a young man, an old man flew, inspired by jealousy.” What did his soul, which had seen many storms in its lifetime, experience during this journey? What did the great saint feel when he appeared before the powerful ruler of the east and west to plead for that city in which the statue of his beloved empress Flacilla was disgraced? When sending officials, Theodosius thought that he would then have to experience only the earthly feelings of self-esteem satisfied with terrible revenge - a very sweet feeling for the owner of power. But no: he once again had to raise in his soul the whole storm of anger and grief associated with the Antioch events - only to then, under the influence of the Christian representative of mercy, experience all the heavenly sweetness of feelings associated with the forgiveness of enemies who did not know what they were doing. The majestic representative of justice came face to face with the humble image of Christ's mercy - and the latter won. Saint Flavian knew that the 200,000 people of Antioch were watching with trembling souls for the happy outcome of his case: both pagans and Christians, and this filled his soul with unearthly courage. Appearing in the face of Theodosius, the saint stood at the door of the hall, with his head bowed, silently and only weeping, begging for mercy for his fellow citizens. He was, at that moment, guilt incarnate. Theodosius’s speech sounded like a reproach to the guilty, an insult to them, who had previously been treated with favors, because in their fury they had insulted even the dead. Theodosius was calm when he finished his speech, thinking little about forgiving the offenders. The Bishop of Antioch began his speech, imbued with bitter sadness, prepared, according to probable assumptions, by Chrysostom. St. Flavian pointed out that the crime of the city cannot be adequately punished, that the criminals are in great horror of their deed. The bishop asked to forgive the city: “Have they toppled your statues? But you can build more brilliant ones. If you forgive the guilt of those who offended you and do not subject them to any punishment, they will erect for you not a copper, not a golden, or a stone pillar in the square, but one that is dearest to all substances, adorned with philanthropy and mercy. So each of them will place you in their hearts, and you will have as many statues as there are and will be people in the universe! They say about Blessed Constantine that when some threw stones at his image, and when many urged him to punish the offenders, imagining that they had wounded his entire face with stones, he, touching his face with his hand and smiling somewhat, said: “I don’t feel any wound on my face, my whole head is intact, my whole face is intact.” This saying is still spoken by everyone to this day. A long time did not erase this generosity of the king from memory. Isn't it more glorious than many trophies? Forgiving the rebels, spoken by a Christian emperor, would have shown the pagans that “the Christian God is truly great,” St. Flavian. He further pointed out that, having respected the petition of the Christian bishop, the emperor would have made it clear to everyone that he “in the entire power under his control respects the priests of God more than anyone else, even though they are not noble.” The last word of the saint was his firmly expressed intention to rather retire into exile - away from the unfortunate city, than to see his petition not respected and his hometown not forgiven, and the main subject of the speech was the saintly conviction of the emperor to follow the voice of mercy rather than the voice of justice, to be an imitator of the Lord, who forgave his enemies at the moment of the greatest torment on the cross. “I beg you to imitate your Lord, who, being insulted by us daily, does not cease to bestow his blessings on everyone. Do not disgrace me in hope, do not reject my intercession.” The intercessor fell silent. He awaited the decision of the fate of Antioch. Oh, if she could guess this moment: how anxiously the hearts of the Antiochians would beat, how they would weep, bowing their guilty heads, begging for mercy. Oh, if they could at this moment hear the voice of the all-world ruler, how greedily they would begin to catch every echo of his speech, every movement of his eyes, every twitch of the muscles on his “courageous” face! After all, now the question was about the life and death of Antioch, the queen of the east, who were in the power of Emperor Theodosius. He seemed to hesitate for a minute, but it seemed to Flavian an eternity: you can experience a lot in a minute. There have been cases when people suddenly turned gray. Theodosius shed tears and said his royal word in a fit of Christian generosity, engulfed as if in flames by a feeling of forgiveness. He forgave Antioch, forgave her the insult to his greatness and the memory of his beloved deceased wife, because “if the Lord of the universe, Who came to earth for us, took on the form of a slave for us and was crucified by those favored by Him, prayed for the crucifiers to the Heavenly Father: “Father, forgive them: they do not see what they are doing,” then how can I not forgive those who mocked me, like them, a man! At the royal dinner, the saint was beside himself with spiritual inspiration, singing verses about the despair and repentance of the Antiochians. Easter was approaching and Bishop. Flavian, as a sign of gratitude to the emperor, wanted to hold it in Constantinople, but the emperor asked the bishop. Flavian to arrive in Antioch for Easter, so that on this great day she could rejoice, “seeing her helmsman,” who brought her the consent of the offended emperor to erase from memory all the sad past in Antioch. The imperial decree brought by a deliberate messenger was drawn up in this sense and Antioch, according to it, received back for a time all the advantages of the capital city of the entire east that had been taken from it; even the poor were delighted by the usual annual distribution of bread, although, as rebels, they could not count on it. What is the great orator, the comforter of the people in their sorrows, the accomplice of their unusual joys? He rejoiced, rejoicing at the triumph of the Christian God, the greatness of the influence of his bishop, the shame of the pagan philosophers who did nothing to ease the fate of the city, and the defeat of paganism. “But the monks, like angels, having descended from their desert heights, frightened the greatness of the sword and scepter with the glory of Christian holiness,” said the preacher, recalling from the past how monks stood in dense rows on the route of imperial officials and begged the judges to be more lenient towards the guilty, who were tortured and executed without pity. But the lesson was not in vain. The Antiochians deeply remembered the Great Lent of 387 with all its horrors. They learned through bitter experience to respect the power of the Christian bishop. They owed their last great joys to his courage and courage. And the Antiochians were deeply grateful to St. Flavian, which was expressed in the solemn meeting of his saint-savior. He barely managed to return to the beginning of Easter. “Never before has the Easter dawn lit up so brightly over Antioch. It seemed to many of the people that they, along with Christ, had risen from the dead,” 12 says Farrar. In his famous conversation, delivered on Easter Day 387, St. John described the entire story of St.'s journey. Flavian, concluding his sermon with an admonition to the numerous people, thousands crowding into the main church, to decorate their lives with roses of virtue, and their souls with lamps of wisdom and piety, just as the Antiochians, in outbursts of joy, decorated their houses with flowers and illuminations. Antioch owed the happy outcome of the disaster and the relief of heartfelt grief to a large extent to Chrysostom, who was, so to speak, the soul of intercession for the troubled people. The latter now knew too well the fascinating power of Chrysostom’s oratorical talent to be attentive to the advice and warnings, reproaches and denunciations that came from his “golden” lips. No one before, as Chrysostom does now, has ever controlled the minds and hearts of the Antiochians. “Now his significance as a national church teacher of Antioch has reached its highest revelation. From that time on, his preaching word, which went through an extraordinary exercise in nineteen consecutive conversations about the event in 387, retaining the properties of love, meekness, simplicity of liveliness, acquired the features of some authority, the dominance of a teacher over his students, a father over his children” 13. All of Antioch knew St. John. He acquired great moral authority over his flock, of whom the number was very large. But the great moral upheavals associated with the Antioch disaster, which St. John's experiences in his soul, more than anyone else, were not in vain for the ascetic shepherd: illness put him to bed for several weeks after Easter. In August 387, Chrysostom continued his pastoral and preaching ministry non-stop. Antioch was the place of Chrysostom's oratorical triumph, the place where his fame grew as a great Christian orator, its brilliance darkening even the glory of the rhetorician Libanius, just as Constantinople, the new capital of the world, subsequently became the cause of the suffering of St. John, moral and physical, the end of which was distant Pitiunt, on the way to which the great sufferer-martyr “without shedding blood” died. But clouds are on the horizon of St. John appeared much later and in the present brilliant position of the great preacher nothing foreshadowed such a sad end. And if anyone had suggested it, he would, of course, have been met with ridicule. Only, perhaps, St. John, well informed about the life of St. men of God, would have predicted this fate for himself if he had had the courage to count himself among them. But he had the most modest opinion of himself. Others, like Livanius, rightly had a contrary opinion about him. Livaniya before his death († 395), the disciples asked: who does he want to appoint as his successor? John,” their teacher replied, with deep regret that “the Christians took him away from him” and there was no one to replace him. This is an impartial review of the power of Chrysostom’s oratorical talent. The glory of Chrysostom as a shepherd-orator penetrated far beyond the borders of Antioch, spreading throughout Syria, Egypt and reached Constantinople. Since 395, another emperor had already reigned in it - Arkady, a son completely different from his great father Theodosius. He was a weak, lethargic, satiated eighteen-year-old youth with life and power. All his actions were led by the temporary worker Eutropius, the successor of the famous Rufinus. In the life of Chrysostom he played perhaps the most important role. To him, Eutropius, it was St. John is obliged to become the Archbishop of Constantinople and Patriarch of the East. And in the life of Eutropius, this, perhaps, was the most noble deed when he, a low, despicable, deceitful and cunning old man, for the first and only time in his vicious life followed the voice of his conscience, for the good of the church he used his power and influence on the emperor, advising him to elect an eloquent Antiochian ascetic presbyter in place of the deceased Nectarius, successor of Gregory the Theologian. Eutropius once had the opportunity to listen to the eloquent speech of St. John in Antioch. “In his fiery eloquence, Eutropius recognized a cry emanating from the depths of the human heart. Never before had he heard such unearthly tones and such strong, fiery sincerity. His words, like lightning, illuminated the inner essence of everyone, revealing that dark abyss of anger, bitterness and deceit, under which, like a dying spark under a thick layer of ash, the true nature of man, as God created him, languished.” 14 A wonderful impression from the stern speech of St. John was indelibly etched in the memory of the corrupted Eutropius and he remembered the Antioch preacher now that the death of Archbishop Nektarios had freed the throne of Constantinople. This was at the end of 397. There were a lot of candidates for this position, “which in the hands of a worthy and faithful person could be considered one of the greatest positions in the world,” according to Ferrara 15. But all the candidates for the bishopric of Constantinople were already unworthy because they wanted to achieve it through bribery, begging, flattery, and groveling before those in power. There were such seekers who organized gatherings or assemblies and, kneeling before the crowd, begged them to vote for them: they so wanted the archbishopric and the brilliant position at court associated with it, but they did not think about the importance of the rank, about the associated responsibility for the souls of their numerous flocks. “Oh, pathetic people! Priests in name, but unworthy of the priesthood!” - exclaims Palladium 16. Of course, there were very few such unworthy bearers of the dignity. All voters and influential persons at court understood that it was impossible to give such a high chair to some rogue who was more skilled than others. It was necessary to find a person with whom no one could compare: this was required by the very dignity of the See of Constantinople. During this troubled time, Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, lived at court. He put forward his candidate for the see of Constantinople, the priest Isidore, a man of good life, quite intelligent, who had served as trustee of strangers and the poor (in Alexandria), but still not so famous that he could replace the vacant see of the capital. But Theophilus’ recommendations were not trusted. Moreover, Isidore himself fled to Alexandria when he learned that they wanted to put him on the electoral list. Eutropius, with his resourcefulness, brought everyone out of the difficulty. He presented to the council of bishops, which was in Constantinople, as a candidate for the archbishopric such a person, whose brilliant merits fame thundered throughout the east after the Antioch rebellion. It was St. John. The emperor approved the choice of the clergy and people, to the great chagrin of the vengeful Theophilus. But St. John, while shepherding in Antioch, of course, did not know that his name in Constantinople was on everyone’s lips, that everyone was waiting for his arrival and consecration as Archbishop of Constantinople and Patriarch of the entire East. He was constantly engaged in preaching, fulfilling other duties of his title: visiting the sick and poor, helping them with money and influence, admonishing and comforting, maintaining relations with the hermits from whom his shepherding had separated him. Was the preaching ministry of St. John in Antioch? Yes, it had a powerful, compelling, and profound impact on the lives of the Antiochians in so many ways. Previously satiated and spoiled by various kinds of rhetoricians, they lost respect for the pastoral word, being more interested in its external qualities than in its internal merits. St. John taught them to respect and value pastoral exhortations and try to use them in their lives after leaving the church. Piety began to flourish in Antioch. Churches were visited very intensively; services were conducted solemnly; the people stood through the service until the end; family life has become higher; parents began to send their children to the hermits for religious education. Vows began to be heard less frequently. Charity has increased. Theaters lost their charm for the Antiochians. All these phenomena were very noticeable in the moral life of the city, constituting the fruits of Chrysostom’s 12-year pastoral zeal. The shepherd and the flock loved and understood each other; They had in common both the sorrows and joys of spiritual life. They did not think of parting with each other. If the Antiochians had been told that they wanted to take away their beloved preacher, their joy, pride and joy, they would have guarded him day and night until the imaginary danger had passed, and would never have voluntarily let him go. If St. John learned that he was facing a much more brilliant fate, he would never have exchanged his native Antioch with its magnificent church, with the relics of the martyrs, for unknown happiness in another country, he would never have parted with “the city of the apostles,” where he was so loved and obeyed his pastoral word - especially since all this cost him enormous pastoral labors and illnesses. And what is more difficult to obtain is usually valued more highly. However, God's Providence decreed otherwise. This was a surprise for both Chrysostom and the Antiochians. How did this happen? In Constantinople they did not know how to take St. John from Antioch, for they were rightly confident that the people would not voluntarily let in their beloved shepherd. They were also afraid that Chrysostom, having learned about the election, would hide again, as had happened once before when he was elected bishop, for his humility did not leave him at the height of his oratorical glory. But the resourceful Eutropius was found. He indicated to the eastern ruler Asterius a means of secretly delivering the newly elected one to Constantinople, advising only to act carefully. Asterius, having chosen the time and people, one day invited St. John to pray, as he wrote, to St. martyrs and talk about an important matter. Surprised by the unusualness of the invitation, Chrysostom did not hesitate to appear at the appointed place. Asterius and Chrysostom got into the carriage, which took them to the first station, and there the honorary prisoner was already awaited by messengers from the emperor, who, after changing horses, went with him to Constantinople. Chrysostom was no longer destined to see either his native Antioch, or Shingon Street, or the great church, and the Antioch flock - their favorite speaker. Chapter three. Service of St. John with the rank of Archbishop of Constantinople and Patriarch of the East endure persecution, not persecute, be oppressed, and not oppressed.” During the pleasant journey to Constantinople, St. John was tormented by the unknown: why was he needed in the noisy capital? The solution soon followed. In Constantinople he was solemnly greeted by the people and authorities. Emperor Arcadius, to whom he introduced St. John Eutropius appointed February 26 (398) as the day of dedication. The oldest bishops were called for the consecration of Chrysostom, which is why it was distinguished by special solemnity. After the dedication of St. Chrysostom delivered the first conversation, which has not reached us, which made a strong impression on the people. It should be noted that Nektarios, the successor of the great Theologian and the predecessor of Chrysostom in the pulpit, was not distinguished for his gift of speech. Before accepting the see, Nektary was a layman, he was not even baptized, which often happened then, he had no calling to the bishopric, his choice was accidental and unexpected. Nectary was an honest man, but too spineless a nobleman. He introduced the habits of a nobleman into the life of a bishop and taught the nobles to attend bishop's feasts, which he himself was a big fan of. Having little understanding of the essence of church governance and being very inactive, Nektarios was unable to stop the rapidly increasing licentiousness of morals in the clergy and laity, which created a difficult task for his successor. The successor was the complete opposite of his predecessor. “In front of the depraved and luxurious court, which was engaged in church affairs between pleasures, Eutropius placed the most unyielding of the monks; in the face of the clergy, vain to the extreme, a hermit who revered the desert alone; in the face of a society proud of its wealth and luxury - a man to whom wealth inspired horror, and who was distinguished by simplicity of life to the last extreme" 17. St. John was not afraid of the difficulties imposed on him by his rank and the circumstances of the task, but, recognizing it, he called only for the help of God's grace, strengthening everything that was weak and replenishing the ailing. St. John at first declared himself to be very active, as he had been all his life, despite the unusual novelty of persons, events, surroundings, rank and his duties. At this time St. John was 52 years old. It was the mighty flowering of his brilliant spiritual gifts. Glory to St. Joanna has now reached her climax. Soon all of Constantinople was talking about the new archpastor. Crowds of people hurried to the church to listen to the famous vita. There were many connoisseurs of his oratorical talents here, but there were much fewer performers of pastoral exhortations than in Antioch. From there, on the wings of hundred-year-old rumors, all the details of the life and ministry of St. John, but all the rumors were only a faint echo of what the residents of the capital of the “second Rome” themselves had to see. St. John began to be called Chrysostom, applauded for his sermons, and his reputation as an orator was established very quickly: the most strict connoisseurs of his oratory were left in amazement and bowed down before him. St. John, with his characteristic energy, which was in no way weakened by old age, the infirmities of the body and the numerous new responsibilities, quickly set about correcting the sentiments of the church, of which Nektarios’s time and inactivity had accumulated a huge amount. “A vast field has now opened up for the activities of St. John and the almost endless deeds that he accomplished in the few years of his pastoral service" 18. As an ascetic, St. John began with the bishop's palace, in which everything - from servants to furniture - seemed to him extremely luxurious. St. John never cared about the brilliant surroundings of his episcopal life and its conveniences: he was satisfied with very little. The bishop's palace was luxurious and extensive; Chrysostom occupied only three or four rooms in it. The palace had luxurious furniture; Chrysostom sold it all, and distributed the money to the poor: he decorated his living rooms with the simplest furniture. “The silk on him was no longer visible, nor the brocade of gold, nor the purple on his retinue: the simplest fabrics on it and the kind of monastic attire on the archbishop himself - this was the unexpected news that struck Constantinople” 19. To maintain his dignity, Nectarius kept a large staff of servants; Chrysostom was content with the service of two or three devoted persons, and removed the rest. The ascetic archpastor reduced his table expenses to the extreme; the feasts to which the Constantinople nobility were accustomed were immediately destroyed by Chrysostom; he always dined alone, content with very modest food. Chrysostom himself did not attend the luxurious feasts of the Constantinople court, for he did not want to waste valuable time intended for pastoral work. Strict with himself, Saint Chrysostom was just as strict with the shepherds and the flock. Both those and others saw in him a zealous, fair and persistent denouncer of their vices. Figures like Chrysostom quickly make enemies, irreconcilable and evil. The simplicity of Chrysostom’s life has already aroused great surprise in the mass of people who thought that wealth and luxury are a necessary addition to the life of those with power and honor, without which one cannot be considered a nobleman. And the common people soon saw that Chrysostom spent little money on himself because his love for the poor, hungry and cold had almost no limits. They soon became convinced that Chrysostom spent all his money on helping the poor. And the funds of the See of Constantinople were very large. And St. John, even in Antioch, nicknamed “the defender of the poor,” knew how to spend these riches in an apostolic manner. Strangers, the infirm, the sick and the poor were St.'s favorite guests. John, moving away from the luxurious feasts of the nobility. And St. himself John loved to visit the poor and unfortunate, giving them indescribable joy to see their selfless shepherd. The common people treated their shepherd with love, crowds flocking to his sweet verbal conversations. However, at first St. John did not find sympathy in the hearts of the rich and nobles for their concerns about the poor. The rich did little to help him with their gold. And the speeches of St. John against wealth and the rich who abused it, pouring a fiery stream into their hardened souls, was for them a bitter poison, and not pleasant food. However, who could resist the fiery eloquence of St. John, when he attacked the luxury and licentiousness of the rich, their oblivion to the needs of the poor and sick, when he spoke of the “queen of virtues,” alms, as the greatest duty of Christians, opening to them the doors of the coveted paradise and its holy joys? Under the influence of Chrysostom's speeches, the rich also showed great concern for the poor and sick. Thanks to Chrysostom, the previously established charitable institutions quickly came into order, and in addition, many new almshouses and hospitals appeared around the Church of the Lord, representing the best “fruits of Christian love for mankind.” Supervision of St. Hospitals John assigned the most selfless shepherds. Turning all his money to help the poor, Chrysostom could not satisfy all the needs of this large class, which is why he once sold several even sacred vessels for the same great purpose. In order to more conveniently help the poor, he made orders to gather them in one place at a certain time: what a touching picture was revealed when the merciful archpastor appeared in this crowd of forty thousand, scattering joy and help to everyone who was worthy of it; blessings and signs of love were Chrysostom's reward for his love of poverty and misery. His popularity grew quickly. Along with concerns about the poor, there were denunciations of vices, the clergy, virgins, and monasteries. And here at St. John's enemies were found; they were those who were especially touched by the fiery speeches of the preacher. He was the new John in this Babylon of depravity. There really was something to be indignant about! The clergy loved the balls and feasts of the rich more than the labors of shepherding. The altar servers had little church income to support themselves: due to the greed inherent in many of them, they very diligently took care of drawing up wills in their favor, loved to build luxurious premises for themselves, acquired land, etc. Chrysostom armed himself against these disorders in the moral life of the shepherds, thereby making many enemies among them. Shepherds of St. John urged them to live in accordance with their calling, and to provide their flock with everything necessary for the comfortable existence of the clergy. With all the strength of his conviction, St. rebelled. John is against living together between monk shepherds and virgins. Some pastors of that time considered monasticism the most convenient means for fulfilling the goals of pastoral service. But at the same time, pressing everyday concerns forced these virgins to take pious women and virgins into their homes, with whom they lived under the same roof, ate from the same table and called each other brothers and sisters. Sometimes concubines turned out to be very partial to secular pleasures, which forced the clergy who patronized them to be distracted from pastoral concerns. This custom caused understandable and sometimes fair ridicule from non-believers (pagans and Jews), and from Chrysostom, like other worthy shepherds of that time, bitter reproaches and cruel denunciations, for this custom resulted in many unfair criticisms of clergy. “Be afraid,” St. said to such shepherds. John, - relax your strength, lose energy through your treatment of women. And this will inevitably happen to you if you visit them often. Know that they will make you weak, foolish, careless, angry, impudent, irritable, base, despicable, stingy, cruel, empty, effeminate, as they themselves are.” These words indicate the dangers for monastic shepherds from treating women. The institution of virgins was subjected to moral corruption, which Chrysostom tried to eradicate with all measures of pastoral influence. Some virgins, who dedicated themselves to serving the Lord, and widows, reverent and abstinent, allowed men to manage everyday needs in their homes. “If these persons cannot be classified either as virgins or as married wives, then one thing remains: to classify them as lost women,” wrote St. John. In Constantinople there were several monasteries in which the severity of monastic life quickly disappeared under the corrupt influence of the capital. The nuns who inhabited them “thought more about baths, incense and attire than about fasting and prayer.” The measures taken by Chrysostom to purify monastic morality reached the point that these “moral schools” became worthy of their name. The best of the virgins and pious widows were chosen for the church title of “deaconesses.” Their duties were the same for women as deacons were for men. Deaconesses visited prisons, helped the sick, etc. The rich among them donated their wealth to the church they served. Vanity and addiction to illicit pleasures darkened their title, which served as the subject of the pastoral care of the tireless saint. John. However, in the ranks of deaconesses there were sometimes true ascetics, such as Olympias, whose fate is closely connected with the fate of St. John Chrysostom, who was the leader in her spiritual life, full of beneficence and alms. Olympias, “the adornment of the widows of the Eastern Church,” was a pupil of Theodosia, the sister of St. Bishop Amphilochius. The life story of this remarkable woman is instructive. She married a young man who was the chief manager of the royal estates of Theodosius the Great and, at the same time, the prefect of Constantinople. But Olympias’s husband died two years later. She, having given dinner to dedicate her widowhood to the Lord, began to serve the poor and sick. Theodosius soon found her another groom, even more famous than the first. This was a very close relative of the emperor, Elpidius. The refusal of Olympias, which stemmed from her firmness to her once-made vow, served as the beginning of the persecution that fell upon her from the angry emperor. Coming from a famous and wealthy family, Olympias owned enormous wealth, which she disposed of for the benefit of the church and the poor. Theodosius the Great deprived Olympias of control of her property and estates, forbade her to see clergy, to leave Constantinople, etc. No persecution could shake the firmness of Olympias. The offended deaconess wrote to the emperor: “I thank you, most august monarch, that with wisdom and benevolence worthy not only of a sovereign, but also of a bishop, you deigned to take upon yourself the management of my estate and thereby ease the burden of earthly worries for me. Deign to crown your work by distributing this wealth to the poor and to the churches, as I intended to do. Your authorized representatives will carry out this with great knowledge of the matter, and moreover, you will save me from the stings of criminal vanity, which very often accompany charity” 20 . This courageous response of Olympias, which prompted the emperor to return to her the rights to dispose of his wealth, fully justifies the remarkable review of her by Deacon Palladius: “Olympias had a truly magnanimous heart, and whoever recognized her and saw the combination of such beauty and charm with a courageous and firm courage of spirit, which despised the trifles of the world, all fear and danger, he hesitated to call her a woman.” By the way, Chrysostom advised this Olympias not to trust too much the bishops and priests who undertook to be benefactors from her property and on her behalf, but proposed to give him alone the right to dispose of her estates to help the poor, which Olympias did with pleasure, for St. She trusted John more than her father. Her abundant alms, compared to St. John, flowed like a wide river, which, flowing to the end of the earth, surpassed the ocean itself in the abundance of its waters: all the churches experienced its charity. Olympias, as a deaconess, had very worthy friends in office, of whom Pentadia is the most remarkable because, as the wife of the consul Timasius, who suffered from Eutropius, exiled for lèse-majesté, she almost suffered the same fate as her innocently slandered husband. She found refuge in the church, which saved her from a shameful fate. Eutropius ordered to take the persecuted woman from the church by force, thereby violating the right of asylum granted to the Christian church. Here Chrysostom stood up for Pentadia, as the guardian of the rights and interests of the church, and managed to defend the right of refuge before the emperor. Pentadia was grateful to St. all her life. Chrysostom, who was the savior of her life. Subsequently, she became an adornment of the deaconesses class. The struggle between the archbishop of the capital of St. John and the all-powerful minister Eutropius on the issue of the right of asylum ended in the death of the latter. Eutropius was made consul (that is, the first dignitary of the empire after the sacred person of the emperor), which further added to the arrogance of this cunning and morally insignificant man. Fate, as if in mockery, awarded Eutropius this highest honor that a court dignitary of that time (and, moreover, a eunuch) could receive, only in order to bring him down from this dizzying height, so that his fall would be more terrible and amazing. St. John Chrysostom took part in this struggle, worthy of his personality. The holy archpastor was an opponent of Eutropius until he managed to defend church interests regarding the right of asylum, of which Eutropius was a violator. Having achieved the restoration of the law on the right of ecclesiastical asylum, St. John further appeared as the defender of Eutropius, to whom the Providence of God, for the pride and injustice he had committed, sent a whole series of disasters as worthy retribution. The proud consul forgot himself to the point that he dared to insult the Empress Eudoxia herself, who, with tears in her eyes, bringing her children to Emperor Arcadius, demanded that he punish Eutropius. Arkady ordered him to leave all positions and be kept in custody until the final decision. The unfortunate temporary worker understood that the death penalty would be his solution, but he had no intercessors. What was to be done? He, who had recently controlled “all the actions of the imperial power,” was forced to flee and hide under the protection of the church. Only now did he remember the right of asylum, which he himself had previously abolished. St. John sheltered the unfortunate fugitive from the fury of his enemies, who were very numerous, despite the fact that the irritated empress ordered Eutropius to be taken by military force from the church altar. “You will kill Eutropius no sooner than you have killed me,” said the zealous defender of the church rights and benefits of St. John, in such cases “always stood at the height of the greatness and unyielding generosity characteristic of his rank.” The emperor demanded him for explanations, which only resulted in the exile of Eutropius. But Providence was preparing a new and final blow for him. St. John, on the occasion of these amazing circumstances, preached a sermon “in which human vanity was depicted in fiery colors” and the fragility of earthly greatness. The island of Cyprus was designated as the place of exile for Eutropius. The head of the Roman troops, Gaina, a Goth by birth and an Arian by profession, on behalf of Arcadius, went on a campaign in 398 to pacify the rebel Trebigald, who had outraged part of Phrygia, which had now fallen away from the empire. Gaina, having treasonably united with Trebigald, demanded the head of Eutropius from Arcadius, reporting to the emperor that the terrible rebel could only be calmed by this means. Arkady agreed and Eutropius, perhaps not reaching his place of exile, was handed over to his enemies, whom he did not want to favor in the days of power, and was beheaded by them. Gaina, blinded by his luck and encouraged by the weakness of Arkady, began to consider himself the heir to all the posts of Eutropius, but, deceived in his plans, began to take revenge on Arkady with the robberies and devastation of Phrygia. Arkady was afraid of the consequences of the destruction and sent nobles to Gaina for negotiations, but the latter’s conditions were very difficult, especially since they gradually increased with success. Gaina finally demanded the emperor himself for negotiations, which took place in Chalcedon. Gaina swore to Arkady of his continued obedience and received control of the army from him. Soon the opportunity presented itself to St. John has to have serious explanations with Gaina. St. John very zealously, as can be seen from the case of Eutropius, protected the interests of St. Church of Christ. By the time of the reign of St. John's See of Constantinople, all the churches had already passed from the Arians to the Orthodox, and the Arians were forced to organize their liturgical meetings outside the city, where they had churches. Gaina, as an Arian, did not want to pray in the same church with the Orthodox, so to pray he had to go out of town to a church of the same faith. This seemed offensive to Gaina, which is why he demanded that one of the capital’s churches be transferred to the power of the Arians. No matter how much the emperor asked Gaina to abandon his demand, which was offensive to the Orthodox Church, the proud Goth remained adamant. The emperor transferred the matter to St. Chrysostom, who by the power of his pastoral conviction forced Gaina to yield. By the way, St. John said that if Gaina wants to pray, then every church in Constantinople is open to him, which indicated the need to join Orthodoxy. In addition, St. John pointed out to the sovereign that he was obliged to protect the interests of Orthodoxy above his state advantages and, as proof of his thought, showed the decree issued by Theodosius, which prohibited the Arians from having houses of worship in the capital. Gaina submitted, but not for long. Soon the vengeful barbarian had already opened a rebellion in Thrace, which frightened Constantinople to the point that all the military leaders refused to go on a campaign against Gaina. But then, when the military sword could not help the trouble, the spiritual sword saved the capital from barbaric devastation. And Chrysostom knew how to wield the spiritual sword. When everyone refused to go to the angry Gaine as a propitiatory ambassador, Chrysostom took upon himself this difficult, dangerous and responsible task; after all, he was a disciple of the Antiochian bishop Flavian and, like him, was not afraid to lay down his life for his flock. However, St. John almost did not have to use his formidable weapon, the fiery word, with which he was only strong. The stern and evil Gaina, having learned that the saint, the glory of the world, was coming as an envoy from the emperor, went out to meet him and bowed to him and obeyed all his admonitions. Gaina bowed to the power of pastoral influence operating in St. John. Therefore, the one who was not afraid of the whole empire submitted to the weak warrior of Christ, strong in His strength, because he was stronger than the whole army. This was the great victory of Chrysostom in 398–9. However, Gaina soon suffered the fate he had long deserved: he was killed in a war with the barbarians. Gaina acted, of course, according to the machinations of the Arians, of whom he was the strength, pride and leader. But their machinations were not crowned with success: the wolves did not penetrate the church fence. This, however, was not their only attempt at this, but others also ended in failure, because at the head of the Orthodox flock stood the good shepherd - St. John Chrysostom. To spread their false teachings, the Arians came up with a new, rather powerful means: solemn extra-church processions through the streets of the capital with the singing of sacred songs of Aryan content. These processions turned out to be very useful for heretical purposes, for they even captivated many Orthodox Christians and lovers of church singing. Chrysostom, recognizing the captivating power of church singing, with ordinary wisdom turned this means in favor of Orthodoxy. Orthodox processions began to emerge from Orthodox churches at scheduled times, singing hymns of an Orthodox nature, with burning torches, attracting huge crowds of people animated by religious zeal. Even the empress took part in the Orthodox processions, taking upon herself all the candle expenses for this matter. This opposition of Orthodoxy to heretical plans, the soul of which was the archbishop of the capital, irritated the heretics. They started riots. One day, processions of Arians and Orthodox Christians met on the same street, mutual ridicule and curses were heard between the singing, stones were thrown at the heads of the Orthodox and Arians, and the eunuch Brizon, close to Evdokia, was seriously wounded in the head with a stone. The government banned processions. Chrysostom, so to speak, moved the celebrations from the streets to churches, which the Arians did not have in the city. The Orthodox, gathering in the evenings in churches, brightly lit, were animated by the singing of hymns, which served as the beginning of our all-night vigils, which in the age of Chrysostom were all-night vigils in the proper sense... “Night,” said the saint, “was not created to spend it all in sleep and peace... The Church of God rises at midnight. Rise up and contemplate the choir of stars, this deep silence, this boundless silence. Bow before the Providence of your Lord. During the night the soul is purer, lighter, it rises higher with less effort; the very darkness and this majestic silence dispose her to contemplation"… Chrysostom, indeed, loved and knew how to animate his flock, convincing them to great feats, for which he sometimes took advantage of outstanding circumstances in their lives. In 398, the greatest earthquake occurred in Constantinople; Similar disasters had happened to him before, but none of them brought as much grief and misfortune to the residents of the capital as this one. The people were in excitement; the authorities could not cope with the unrest; The royal family hastily left the capital. There was only one master left in her, one comforter, one boss - St. John. He was familiar with this role. And the archpastor fulfilled it just as brilliantly as in Antioch. His sermons attracted masses of people and calmed them down. Only one bitter memory remains of the disaster. Chrysostom very successfully managed to turn people's thoughts and feelings towards religion. 9 miles from Constantinople beyond the Bosphorus, a new magnificent church was built in honor of St. Apostle Thomas. St. John decided to transfer the relics of St. to the newly built church. martyrs, which was fulfilled in September. After the all-night vigil in the so-called Great Church of Constantinople, St. the relics at night, with a huge crowd of residents with lit torches, headed by the empress herself, were transferred to the designated church of St. Apostle Thomas. This procession was touching. Chrysostom eloquently described it in his sermon. “It is as if some new sea (of the people) overflowed from the city itself to this place (the Church of St. Thomas, in which this sermon was preached), a sea not tossed by waves, not threatening shipwreck, not having pitfalls, a sea with water sweeter than any honey and more drinkable than any other water.” “He who calls this sea a river of fire will not be mistaken. Indeed, throughout the night, the lamps in great abundance and continuously throughout the entire path, even spread right up to this church, represented the appearance of a river of fire.” The desert became a city, which, due to the lack of inhabitants, became empty. “Look: how many sheep and not a single wolf! So many grapes and no thorns!” - exclaimed the preacher. Chrysostom's inherent humility did not allow him to admit that it was he who was responsible for such a wonderful spiritual mood of Christians. Emperor Arcadius with his entire retinue appeared the next day to venerate the relics, thereby increasing the celebration, to the great joy of its organizer, St. John 21. This is the celebration of St. The faith and zeal of the Orthodox for it led to the despondency of the heretics who inhabited Constantinople than St. the zealot of Orthodoxy was very pleased, because he could further try to spread its light into the darkness of paganism. St. John was truly remarkable for his missionary work. The 400th year of the Christian era was approaching. The pagans, carried away by their oracles, began to spread the belief that this year was fatal for Christianity, which was destined to exist only for four centuries, only to then give way again to paganism. It raised its head. But the emperors of the East and West issued decree after decree tending to weaken paganism, whose absurd hopes they did not share, of course. Paganism was strong in Phenicia, where the fame of Maiyum festivals, characterized by debauchery, was very widespread. Banned several times and then renewed, these outrages were finally abolished with the undoubted efforts of Chrysostom, who was well acquainted with Phenicia. He sent a mission there to plant Christianity, which he always took care of afterwards. But Chrysostom was not very pleased with all this. This was a deep state mind of that time (IV century). Inspired by the idea of ​​God's Providence building the world, he understood better than others the essence of the popular movements taking place around him from east to west, understood the role of Christianity in the great migration of peoples, was confident in their future and did not want to remain an idle spectator of the contemporary world upheavals. As an apostle, St. John was eager to enlighten the pagan barbarians or Arians with the light of Orthodoxy, which he thought should become the main stone of their civilization. The Scythians, who occupied the plain along the Dnieper and Danube (part of present-day Russia), and the Aryan Goths experienced the beneficial influence of the saint assigned to them. John's mission. God blessed her work, and those barbarians, “who used to drink human blood,” learned to consider the love revealed in Christ to be the highest good of life and heart. The saint cared no little about the Goths, whom he allowed to perform divine services in their native language and sometimes he himself talked with them through translators in the church reserved for the Goths. Chrysostom was no less concerned about other church matters. He formed around himself a party of people loyal to him. With them he wanted to correct all church vices. His party was small, but among it there were worthy people, such as Archdeacon Serapion, a stern and unyielding monk. Chrysostom wanted the teaching class - the shepherds - to actually preach what they taught. For archpastoral conversations, Chrysostom gathered the clergy, whom he inspired to walk worthy of the received title. But the sermons of the ascetic bishop fell on unreceptive soil: the pampered capital shepherds absent-mindedly and indifferently listened to the reproaches, denunciations, instructions and advice of their supreme leader. This once irritated Archdeacon Serapion, a devotee of Chrysostom, who observed the effect of the speech on the listeners, so much so that he said, turning to Chrysostom: “You cannot, sir, correct them unless you drive them all with one rod.” This advice gave a different direction to the feelings of those listening. They met this advice with indignation and many of them became ardent enemies of Chrysostom. But “like a flame, the more it rises, grows and strengthens in its power, the more it receives hot substance for its nutrition: so the apostolic zeal always kindles and grows with the obstacles it encounters and the greatness of the sacrifices that it must make for the glory of God and the salvation of its neighbors. A person with apostolic zeal, the more he has done, the more he desires to do; and since he borrows his strength from God, he does it with zeal not only when he sees success in business, but even when faced with obstacles, he does not become discouraged and does not weaken in his zeal for the work. Just as a stream always flows, even if no one draws water from it, so a spiritual shepherd, warmed by fiery love for his neighbors, does not cease to care about the salvation of his flock, despite the barrenness of the soil he cultivates” 22. These words accurately express the basic rule of Chrysostom’s pastoral activity - persistence in pursuing once accepted pastoral goals without any concession to the circumstances of the time and persons. Weak in body St. John had a very strong spirit. This pastoral insistence of St. was expressed very sharply. John in the results of his trip to the churches of Asia Minor, in the management of which he made significant changes. The primate of the Church of Ephesus at the very beginning of the 5th century was a certain Antoninus, a bishop completely unworthy of the dignity he wore. He acquired it by bribery, “with pure money,” and in order to recoup the expenses incurred during the election, he sold church positions. It was not Antonin who led this order of purchase and sale of church dedications, but he was stingier and greedier than others, so that the greatly expanded evil, to which they were already beginning to get used to, required serious measures for treatment. At the Council of Constantinople in 400, Bishop Eusebius of Valentinople and St. John was horrified by the depth of moral decline into which the Ephesian clergy had sunk. The prosecutor was obliged to immediately present witnesses, but the accused soon died, and the case, which had calmed down for a while, quickly flared up. The unrest during the election of Antonin's successor grew to such an extent that the best people in Ephesus from the clergy and people gathered and sent a letter to St. John, who asked him, as archbishop of the capital, to come to Ephesus to restore complicated matters. “As we write to you, money is being generously distributed (to the people, to voters) and a pack of rabid wolves is rushing at our episcopal throne as if it were their prey.” The archbishop, despite the difficulty of the winter journey and ill health, did not hesitate to appear in Ephesus, in which electoral fever had reached its highest degree. At a council of 70 bishops, Chrysostom, mourning the disasters of the Ephesian Church, proposed electing Deacon Heraclides, who had come with him, as Bishop of Ephesus. This was an unexpected but irresistible blow to all the seekers who acted by bribery. Chrysostom's opinion was accepted by the majority of the council and the people, and Heraclides was dedicated. He was distinguished by his eloquence and was known as an interpreter of the Scriptures and an ascetic. God sent him Chrysostom's share. Heraclides died in exile. Having resolved the matter for which he had arrived, Chrysostom took up other transformations in the churches of Asia Minor. Eusebius, appearing again, presented such weighty accusations and such a mass of witnesses that six bishops were deposed and replaced by others, chosen not for money, but for merit. Soon other bishops from other regions of the East, including thirteen, were deposed for immorality, simony 23 and other vices. St. acted especially strictly. John with the Nicomedia Bishop Gerontius. This person was mysterious. Once Gerontius in Milan (in the West) was a doctor and magician, but he knew how to pretend to be pious so skillfully that St. Ambrose, Bishop of Mediola, made him a deacon. The newly initiated did not stop practicing medicine and magic. When St. found out about this. Ambrose, then expelled him from the clergy. Gerontius retired to Constantinople to try his luck. In the capital of the empire, he was lucky: thanks to his medical knowledge, cunning, and cunning, Gerontius ended up at court. From there Gelladius, bishop of Caesarea Capadocia, took him into the clergy, to whom Gerontius was able to provide a great service, and ordained him bishop of Nicomedia. Despite the love of the Nicomedians for Gerontius, Chrysostom brought him to trial, for he knew his shameful past. Gerontius defended himself, but to no avail: he was convicted. His place was taken by Pansophius, who had once been the empress’s teacher, a worthy man, although the Nicomedia received him with hatred, because they liked Gerontius. The drastic measures of Chrysostom were the reason that a whole party of dissatisfied people, with Gerontius at their head, formed against the formidable archpastor in Asia Minor. There were, however, much more of them in Constantinople. During the absence of St. the archpastor from the capital, the numerous enemies of Chrysostom were united into one party. It was composed of: bishops, priests, deacons, deaconesses and monks, dissatisfied with the denunciations of Chrysostom, which concerned them closely; ladies of the highest metropolitan society, whom the inexorably harsh ascetic archpastor denounced for luxury, immorality, gossip, greed for money - among them were especially famous: Marsa, Kastrizia and Evgrafiya, close to the court and the empress; the rich, who trembled before the eloquent description of the torments that are in store for the merciless and many others, “their number is legion.” But we have not yet indicated the most important enemies of Chrysostom, whose names have been preserved by history only in order to tarnish them with shame. Three women - Marsa, Kastrizia and Ephgraphia - were the secret springs of the conspiracy. His goal was the deposition of St. John. But they did not play the main role in this shameful matter. The soul of the conspiracy was the empress herself, offended by the hints of her vices in the sermons of St. John. She was told that under Jezebel and Prodias, of course, it was the august queen herself, and the names of these shameful women very often came across in the speeches of Chrysostom. Evdokia was a vengeful, ambitious, domineering woman, outwardly religious, immoral and greedy. She could really recognize herself in many of the accusations of St. John, although he did not direct them against her. His fault was that “he knew how to give flesh and blood the most severe instructions; that he strongly castigated vice, completely illuminating it in order to present it as disgusting and worthy of ridicule” 24. How church dignitaries who could be useful were recruited into this party is easy to imagine in several cases. Akakiy of Beria, a highly respected 80-year-old elder-bishop, from strong friends of Chrysostom, who lived with him in the same house, turned into a bitter enemy simply because St. John did not know how to treat him as he should have. Akaki loved to eat, and St. John offered him the simplest lunch, which he himself was always content with. They explained to Akaki that Chrysostom wanted to laugh at his voluptuousness through this, which the old man believed and, offended, exclaimed: “if he neglects me so much, then I will pay him and make a drink that will not be so easy for him to drink” 25. Even before the events of Asia Minor, Bishop Severian of Gabala, a fellow countryman of Chrysostom (both from Syria), came to the capital. Severian was an intelligent, crafty, flattering, and somewhat eloquent man. He preached several sermons that pleased the court. Before leaving, Chrysostom entrusted Severian with the management of the department - and he was mistaken: he turned out to be the secret enemy of the saint. Severian decided to surpass Chrysostom in eloquence. The ambitious Severian, whose goals were obvious to everyone, was made to understand at court that his eloquence gave him the right to be the successor of St. John, if Severian helps his deposition. Augusta Evdokia gave birth to a son, who was baptized by the deputy of St. John Severian, who through this became a very close bishop at court. Severian quickly became an enemy of Chrysostom, hoping to be his successor. Antiochus, Bishop of Ptolemais, was similarly recruited into the party of the enemies of St. John, who returned to Constantinople by May 401. The people, who loved Chrysostom very much, solemnly met their shepherd. An incentive to quickly return to the capital for St. John had a letter to him from his friend Serapion, who wrote about all the intrigues of Severian. Welcome speech of St. John's message to the people contains hints of his enemies, who during his absence very intensively developed their activities harmful to the good of the church. When meeting St. John personally said to Antiochus and Severian: “You lead the life of hangers-on and flatterers; you have become the fable of the city, you are portrayed in a comedy in the theater.” It was true. The people laughed at these preachers, seeing their unsuccessful efforts to compete with St. Chrysostom in eloquence. The camp of Chrysostom’s supporters among the aristocracy was very numerous, but the people and the truth were on his side. And now, by the beginning of 402, when Chrysostom’s fame became worldwide, the hatred of his enemies knew no bounds. A war broke out in Constantinople, in which the opponents were the enemies and admirers of Chrysostom. The court and the nobility formed the center of his enemies, and the people and the best part of the clergy formed the strong defense of the saint. sufferer. Subsequently, love and hatred for him even divided the entire Christian world into two halves. The reason for the discovery of hatred was the quarrel between Severian and Serapion. Severian already expected to soon replace Chrysostom, whose importance had already been shaken after the trip, which is why he became proud, arrogant and did not show obedience and respect to the archbishop. Serapion made it clear to Severian that his behavior was indecent. Severian insulted the archdeacon. The offender was deprived of the Holy Communion by the archbishop's court. Tain had to flee from the capital, because the people, having learned about Severian’s intrigues, wanted to deal with him in their own way. Evdokia stood up for Severian. She asked Chrysostom to forgive him. He did not agree, but finally gave in to the empress’s insistence. St. John made a speech in which he convinced the people to forgive Severian for his disobedience. Severian accepted the reconciliation of St. John with an apology to him. The storm thus subsided, but not for long. “At the same time, another was gathering - on the distant edge of the Eastern Empire, near the Nile Valley - and winds hostile to Chrysostom pushed it from Alexandria to Constantinople” 26. The pen refuses to depict the actions that this new storm caused Chrysostom, bringing him to an untimely grave in distant exile. Chapter Four. Fight St. John Chrysostom with his enemies, his exile, death and glorification No matter how large the party of Chrysostom’s enemies was, there was still no such prominent church dignitary in it who could start a fight with Chrysostom. It is known that a skillful start to a business is a harbinger of its good end. The ground for the struggle was prepared. It was necessary to begin the struggle itself, to look for a new reason for it, because the desire of Chrysostom’s enemies to see him deposed - the desired result of the intended struggle - manifested itself in them with greater force than the need for food and sleep. Such persecution was, however, aroused by good in its highest manifestation in the person of Chrysostom. It should be noted that historians of Chrysostom’s life no longer convey to us anything about his administrative archpastoral activity, for it was narrowed to the extreme under the opposition of his enemies, but are only concerned with depicting the struggle that opened up between Chrysostom and his enemies. As impeccable as Chrysostom's behavior was in this struggle, his enemies stained themselves with bribery, flattery, slander, slander, violence, forgery, etc. vices. Finally, they found a reason for the fight and a very high-ranking person to start it. Far from Constantinople, in the Egyptian Nitrian desert, where “the cities were monasteries, and the farmers were hermits,” four brothers, known under the name “Long” or “Long” (according to their high stature), enjoyed great fame. Leading an ascetic life, they were engaged in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and their literary experiments of this kind gained them fame. The bishops of Alexandria treated them carefully. In turn, all these brothers were offered episcopal thrones, which they stubbornly refused, except for Dioscorus, who was appointed bishop of the “Nitrian mountains” (inhabited only by monasteries), but did not abandon the usual harsh feats of asceticism. These brothers were friends with the “great successor” Isidore, who had the misfortune to attract the unjust wrath of Theophilus, archbishop of Alexandria, in a case in which God and conscience justified the behavior of Isidore. Theophilus was the evil genius of his age. He possessed enormous theological knowledge and his authority as a scientist was very high. His church activities were a long series of atrocities. Theophilus was vengeful, ambitious and selfish, and to satisfy these passions he used cunning, flattery, violence, slander, bribery and other illicit means. The clerics did not like him. He oppressed the bishops. He appropriated church property for himself. Isidore Pelusiot called Theophilus “an ardent friend of precious stones, a zealous admirer of gold.” Respected in Constantinople, Theophilus always took a strong part in replacing the Alexandria prefecture. Spies diligently (for money) reported to Theophilus what was happening in the imperial palace and among the highest nobility of the capital. Palladius calls Theophilus the "Christian Pharaoh" of Egypt. The enmity between Isidore and Theophilus arose due to the latter’s greed, which was immeasurable. Isidore, at the request of one woman, did not tell Theophilus that he had received a sum of money from her to distribute to the poor. The money was distributed without the participation of Theophilus, who received nothing. For the second time, Isidore did not confirm the false testimony that Theophilus demanded of him in order to appropriate for himself the inheritance intended through his sister for the benefit of the church. Isidore was put on trial by Theophilus, but not for these actions. The “long” brothers were ordered to confirm the slander brought against Isidore by Theophilus. But the “Long” monks said that they “did not know a more worthy person in Egypt” than Isidore. Isidore, nevertheless convicted, had to seek salvation from the persecution of the vengeful Theophilus and briefly found peace in the Nitrian monastery with the Long Brothers. They tried to ask Theophilus for forgiveness, but they failed. Theophilus accused the Long Brothers of Origen's heresy, of Origenism 27, put them in chains, beat Ammonia's face until it bled, imprisoned the unfortunate monks, and then, releasing them at the insistence of the people who loved them, sent them to the places of their harsh exploits. The inhabitants of the desert were surprised that the monks, who were their pride, were chained. Soon the message of Theophilus made it clear that the Origenism of the Long Brothers had brought this punishment upon them. Theophilus persuaded unfit individuals, “whom they would not have previously made gatekeepers,” and subsequently one of them was consecrated as a bishop, to slander that Origenism had found a strong nest for itself in Nitria. The desired denunciation came and Theophilus and his army, drunk and rude, set off on a campaign against Nitria to drive out the heresy from there. It was a terrible night in which reprisals against the alleged heretics took place: their cells were robbed and broken, the inhabitants fled into the night, which was illuminated by the glow of the fire. The long brothers disappeared, which is why Theophilus, who had hoped to catch them, became very angry, burned their hut along with the boy guarding it and “left no sooner than the last glow of the fire had gone out.” The fleeing monks - about 300 - were condemned as heretics, without accepting their justifications, by the district council of Egyptian bishops at the insistence of Theophilus, and their native Egypt became a foreign country for all these monks, from which the condemned hurried to leave in order to find truth and protection from violence somewhere on earth. But... their hopes were not destined to come true. The long brothers, about whom we are now speaking, hurried to Constantinople, to the great John, who, in his position as the capital's bishop, was superior to Theophilus; At Saint Chrysostom, whose fame spread throughout Egypt, innocent sufferers sought a fair trial of Theophilus. The monks' path to the capital was difficult, for Theophilus's district message announced that they were heretics, but finally, after numerous hardships, the Long Brothers with other monks - there were up to 50 of them - reached the capital. Appearing to St. Chrysostom, the Long Brothers told about all the furies of Theophilus so truthfully and thoroughly that there was little room for doubt. St. John, “himself educated in the flower of Eastern teachings,” found the brothers Orthodox. St. John promised the Long Brothers that he would either convince Theophilus to lift the excommunication from them or the new council would acquit them. However, the cautious saint did not place strangers in his house, did not allow them to reach St. Communion and advised them to remain silent so as not to disgrace the church in which such things were happening. Chrysostom wanted to try all the means to reconcile the Nitrian monks with Theophilus. To him St. John wrote a letter, begging Theophilus, in the name of the church and the glory of God, to grant him, as a brother and son, forgiveness of imaginary criminals, in whose teaching there was nothing contrary to the universal faith. Theophilus responded to Chrysostom with a letter in which he reproached him for violating the Nicene cathedral rules, but it was completely wrong. Soon after Theophilus’ letter, a deputation from members of the clergy of the Alexandrian Church came to the emperor with a request to expel from Constantinople the rebels against the church and state, sorcerers and heretics, whose name is the Long Brothers and their comrades, who appeared as Theophilus’ accusers. But the unfortunate monks filed a complaint against him to the emperor, after which their defender Chrysostom refused to assist them, as violators of the word they had given, to remain silent about the matter and not to complain to the worldly court. The Empress, out of hatred for Chrysostom, took them under her protection and in the hands of this vicious woman things began to boil. Under her influence, the emperor, with the consent of Chrysostom, signed a decree convening a council to consider the complaint of the Long Brothers against Theophilus, to whom Elathius personally went to Alexandria to convey the order to appear for acquittal of the charges brought against him. This unfavorable turn of affairs for Theophilus greatly frightened him: instead of the judge, he was ordered to appear as the accused. But Theophilus’ dexterity helped him get out of trouble. Having a lot of spies in Constantinople, Theophilus knew perfectly well the whole state of affairs at court. Theophilus understood that the whole matter was turning into a struggle between him and Chrysostom. But Theophilus knew from the reports of his spies that the highest nobility did not like St. John that in the capital he had many enemies who only lacked a leader. Theophilus decided to take on this difficult and responsible role. And he managed to see it through to the end. But how can one turn from an accused before a council into an accuser of the first Patriarch of the East? What can I blame him for? And who will come to support the accusation? Theophilus quickly resolved all these issues. He decided at the Council of Constantinople to accuse Chrysostom of Origenism on the grounds that St. John supported the Nitrian monks, who were declared Origenists by Theophilus. The evil bishop forgot that St. John found nothing heretical in their confession. Theophilus wrote a letter to the famous Archbishop of Salamis, Saint Epiphanius, asking him to come to Constantinople for a council on the matter of Origenism, the defender of which, with all its extremes, was supposedly St. John. Epiphanius, it should be noted, spent his entire life denouncing Origenism, or more precisely, the extremes of Origen’s theology. Having received from Theophilus the acts of the Egyptian Council, at which the Long Brothers were tried for Origenism, St. Epiphanius became acquainted with the front side of the case about the brothers and was inflamed with hatred towards them. Epiphanius, an 80-year-old elder, decided to appear in Constantinople for the solemn defeat of Origenism with its imaginary head Chrysostom, whom he sincerely but mistakenly considered a heretic. Having learned about this, Theophilus decided to go to Constantinople with forty Egyptian bishops in order to form his own council there for the trial of Chrysostom, on charges of Origenism. Poor Theophilus! In vain he worked in Egypt to draw up indictments against Chrysostom: upon arriving in Constantinople, he found so many supporters who quickly accepted his hand when they learned that Theophilus had come to judge Chrysostom, and so many accusations against him that preparing all this in Egypt turned out to be completely in vain. Theophilus, designated as an ally of St. Epiphanius did not help him either. Epiphanius, having solemnly appeared in the capital as an enemy of Chrysostom, refused to enter into communication with the primate of the capital and the East, for which he was enthusiastically received by his many enemies. Moreover, Epiphanius violated his rights by serving liturgy in a foreign church without proper permission, ordaining him to the diaconate, and already wanted to arm the common people with a speech against Chrysostom, whom he was going to declare deposed for Origenism. When these intentions became known to Chrysostom, the latter gave orders not to allow St. Epiphany. Serapion, standing at the church entrance, in the presence of a large crowd of people, showed the entering Epiphanius all the wrongness of his actions. As a highly moral person, St. Epiphany, having sincerely discussed his behavior, found it wrong, which is why he even returned home. Soon the Long Brothers visited him and explained that he condemned them based on their trust in Theophilus, their accuser, without reading their works, which allegedly defended the errors of Origen. And it was true. The holy elder realized that he was a means of revenge on the part of Theophilus Chrysostom, that he had nothing further to do and decided to leave the capital. At farewell to St. Epiphanius said: “I leave you your city, your palace, your spectacles; I can’t wait to leave all this, I assure you” 28. On the way to Salamis the saint died. Theophilus has already left for Constantinople to carry out the trial of St. John, as he wrote and spoke to the eastern and Asia Minor bishops, forming adherents among them. In the capital, Theophilus was already eagerly awaited so that with his arrival they could begin the fight against Chrysostom. In Constantinople, Theophilus found the ground completely prepared for it - and the struggle began. St. Epiphanius did not live to see its serious beginning. Having arrived in the capital, Theophilus’s first act offended Chrysostom, which showed that he had not forgiven him either for the defeat in replacing the See of Constantinople, or for the insult caused by the case of the Long Brothers. Theophilus completely forgot that he was still the accused, and not the accuser. At court he was caressed: the empress, who considered herself offended by the recent sermon of St. John, consulted with him on how to destroy Chrysostom; influential bishops, Antiochus and Severian, explained to Theophilus all the plans and means of struggle. Theophilus himself, having settled in one of the imperial palaces, gathered supporters for himself using his usual means: dinners, money, flattery, etc. The case of the Nitrian monks, forgotten for a while, resurfaced. The long brothers were acquitted in a civil trial of sorcery; their accusers were threatened with the death penalty, under the influence of which they confessed that they had acted under the influence of Theophilus. Theophilus again had a bad time, but he managed to extricate himself, which was helped by his supporters, who needed him to overthrow Chrysostom. Theophilus’s role as an accused ended and he was preparing to act as the accuser of Chrysostom. The fight began. In the courtyard of Placidia, where Theophilus settled, meetings very often took place on how to destroy the righteous man. Theophilus was the leader of the conspiracy, and the empress was its soul. The events we describe took place in the spring of 403. The people, having heard about the machinations of Chrysostom’s enemies, decided to protect him, and he convinced his guards to better “pray and oppose the intercession of heaven to the evil plans of the earth.” The site of the cathedral, scheduled for the summer of 403, was chosen to be the Rufino Palace, “a miracle of art of the 5th century,” in the Chalcedon suburb, called “The Oak”: they were too afraid of the Constantinople mob, devoted to Chrysostom and capable of indignation. Egyptian bishops and some of the eastern bishops, dissatisfied with the Asia Minor reforms of Chrysostom, arrived at this cathedral. Theophilus presided over the council, and its leaders were: Antiochus, Severian, Acacius, the deposed Heraclides, and others. They were called “Alexandrians,” and the “Johnnites” gathered under the leadership of St. John in his palace: there were very many of them and this was the best part of the Constantinople clergy. The Council in Duba was convened to consider: a) the complaint of the Nitrian monks; b) John’s crimes committed in Asia Minor and c) his ecclesiastical and political misdeeds. Archdeacon John, once punished by Chrysostom for rude treatment of a servant, presented a 29-point indictment against the saint to the council meeting. “It was a set of accusations, mostly implausible, some obviously false, drawn from rumors unjust or false, imaginary or exaggerated, which for two years the malice of a hostile party had been spreading about Chrysostom, for which the testimony of the archdeacon (he was considered a knowledgeable high-ranking person in the church) gave unexpected confirmation” 29. The accusations say that Chrysostom once struck Memnon and then served the liturgy, that he spoke rudely about his subordinates, that he was an accuser and a judge at the councils of Asia Minor, that he ordained four bishops at a time, that he raised criminals to church ranks, that he was selfish, that he dined alone, indulging in excess, that he called the Empress Herodias and Jezebel, that in his sermons there were blasphemous and unfortunate expressions, etc. Chrysostom was called to answer at the council. At this time St. John convinced the bishops devoted to him to be faithful to the church, not to tear it apart by rebellions and schisms, and explained the meaning of the disasters that befell the church. The bishops wept because they “remained orphans, and the church remained a widow; her holy laws are overthrown, and pride and wickedness triumph; the poor are abandoned; a people without instruction..." 30, as one of the bishops stated. It must be admitted that he did not at all exaggerate the evils of the church at that time... The bishops sitting around Chrysostom, having heard the contents of the letter from the cathedral, decided to send a response in which they showed that the cathedral in Duba was not real, that church rules were violated in it, etc. Chrysostom added on his own behalf that he would only appear to testify at the cathedral when Antiochus, Severian, Acacius and Theophilus became among his direct accusers, and not judges, which they could not be because of their hatred of the accused, known to everyone. The council, having failed to fulfill Chrysostom’s legal demand, once again sent bishops, among whom was the worthless monk Isaac, who had just been ordained bishop for his services to the council, to call Chrysostom to the council. Soon he came to St. John and the emperor's envoy with orders to immediately go to Dub. Chrysostom sent three bishops to convey his previous answer a second time. The bishop-envoys were tortured at the council, and one of them was chained in a chain intended for Chrysostom: so quickly his case was decided! They did not care much about the witnesses: a sufficient number of them appeared, at the call of the all-powerful Theophilus, and they were capable, out of their malice, of showing and confirming anything. After several meetings, the council moved to a decision by casting votes, but it is already easy for us to judge its nature. Even earlier than this, Chrysostom’s future successors Arzas and Atticus shouted: “John’s guilt has been abundantly proven; there is no need to continue interrogations.” And how they were subsequently zealously rewarded for their zealous activities! The council decided to depose Chrysostom, and the emperor approved the council's report on this. The Council wanted to reconsider the complaint of the Nitrian monks, but this once again threatened Theophilus with dangerous scandalous revelations about why, having defeated the main enemy, he agreed to make peace with the minor ones. The Nitrian monks were exhausted by the failures and death of very many of them, which is why they agreed to repent before the council of the sins committed against them, which they did in one of its meetings, and then having received forgiveness, they went to their native Egypt, but not many reached the Nitrian mountains. About Origen, Theophilus himself later expressed: “Origen’s creations are a garden in which flowers and thorns are mixed - I throw away the thorns and admire the flowers.” How changeable people's judgments can sometimes be! It remained for the council to consider the case of Bishop Heraclides, whom the Ephesian Christians had overthrown from the throne. But then much more important events happened, which were the reason that the council ceased to exist and dispersed without making many decisions... Upon the promulgation of the verdict on the deposition of Chrysostom, the people of Constantinople expressed such sympathy for the persecuted righteous man, their Gold-bearing teacher, that it was difficult to carry out the sentence. The more bishops Chrysostom left who had previously been devoted to him, the more the people were imbued with love for him, which did not allow the separation of the shepherd from his flock. The emperor was in no great hurry to carry out the sentence, but Sermon 31 of Chrysostom, in which it was said about the emperor that in the affairs of government he was a slave of a woman, and the empress was called “dishonorable,” forced the weak Arkady to put an end to the hesitations of his cowardly and pathetic conscience, as if embarrassed by the fact that Chrysostom was being expelled. Once again an imperial official appeared to him with a strict order to go into exile, the place of which was not yet known: Chrysostom’s enemies had not yet agreed on this. The people guarded Chrysostom's house day and night, fearing that their beloved teacher would be taken away from him. Only one voice was heard: “we demand an ecumenical council for the trial of the archbishop.” But the faithful Christians did not protect their Chrysostom: he was taken away from them secretly at night across the Bosporus. They soon learned about the secret and the crowd was completely numb: they did not want to believe what had happened. However, Chrysostom taught the faithful how to act in sorrowful situations in life, and the grief of the people was indescribable. Everyone rushed to the church “to pray to heaven for the return of their father, who was kidnapped by people.” On this night, according to Chrysostom, “the whole city turned into one church.” Crying and sobbing mixed with the words and sounds of church and extra-church prayer. Nobody knew what to do. Severian, who in his sermon called the righteous man “proud,” was expelled from the church and the city. Theophilus was not allowed into the archbishop's church by the people, and his orders were not listened to. The adherents of Theophilus and the bishops and priests who bowed before him out of cowardice were rejected with contempt by the people. When troops were sent in to pacify the mob, a massacre occurred: the baptismal cup was filled with blood, and the church was filled with corpses. The new night brought unheard of horrors. The earth spoke: the underground shocks were so strong that the empress did not find salvation in her bedroom: her bed fell. The frightened culprit of all the evils of Chrysostom rushed to the emperor with a very unexpected plea - to return Chrysostom: Evdokia correctly guessed the cause of the earthquake. “The one whom we were forced to expel is a righteous man (now she was afraid to even say his name: unfortunate one!), and God himself armed himself with vengeance. If you want to save the empire, go immediately to return it." The fear of heavenly execution forced Evdokia to lie before St. John, to whom she wrote in a letter with a trembling hand: “Holy One! I beg you, do not think that I took part in what happened to you. Evil and corrupted people (how rightly so!) have conspired against you. God is the witness of my words and those tears (very cheap and forced) that I sacrifice to Him.” The messengers, one after another, with a handwritten letter and verbal orders from the repentant empress, hurried to catch up with Chrysostom. Chrysostom was delighted by the mercy of God and embarrassed by the unexpected changes in the mood of his enemies. When Chrysostom sailed to Constantinople, he could enjoy a wonderful picture: the sea became (the meeting took place at night) as if on fire from the many torches with which thousands of Christians sailed in boats along the strait: they were meeting their father and shepherd. Not a single triumphant of ancient Rome and Greece was greeted with such sincere joy that animated the faithful who saw St. sufferer. St. John did not want to enter his diocese without being restored to rank and power by a new council, more numerous and legal. But the people forcibly drew St. Chrysostom went to church, where he was seated at the pulpit, asking him to teach words of peace and instruction. The speech delivered by Chrysostom was filled with gratitude to the Empress (he was always so filled with feelings of love and forgiveness) and an expression of the joy of the meeting between the flock and the shepherd. Chrysostom's enemies quickly disappeared from Constantinople. Just as Theophilus solemnly appeared in the capital, so shamefully he fled from it with his like-minded people. Chrysostom nevertheless insisted on his legitimate request: the emperor issued a command to convene an ecumenical council to justify Chrysostom. He now, by the force of events, gained influence over Arkady and the empress, apparently, came to terms with the new turn of affairs, but not for long, as it later turned out. Chrysostom won with the truth and the power of God once again, but this was the last time. Chrysostom began a new, very short period of governing the church by fulfilling the will of the people, who, having elevated him to the cathedra, gave advice: “Bishop, cleanse your clergy, drive out the traitors.” Chrysostom rewarded his courageous followers with increases in church degrees and trust, and punished the faint-hearted, traitors and traitors according to the guilt of each. But these measures of the bishop, which were very necessary given the acute state of affairs at that time, aroused minds again. Again Chrysostom became hostile towards the court. The mood of vicious, wayward women changes quickly: Eudoxia was no exception to this rule. Soon the fear of Chrysostom in her gave way to insolence, and repentance disappeared under the influence of impulses of pride and revenge. Her lust for power prepared the ground and reason for a new struggle with Chrysostom. The Empress wished for an honor that no Western woman had ever received. At her suggestion, Emperor Arcadius gave orders to place statues of Eudoxia for worship next to his own. The peoples of the East had to worship her as a deity. The Senate of Constantinople decided to erect a statue of Eudoxia made of a mass of silver, in imperial clothing, in a commanding position. The most honorable place in the capital was chosen for the statue, from where Eudoxia “dominated over the church, palace, city and seemed to be the soul of the meetings of the Senate” 32. The Christian empress demanded pagan worship: it is not surprising that Chrysostom armed himself in his soul against this novelty. The statue was erected. The people were offered treats and games, why did they forget the church and Chrysostom. This went on for several days. The screams and cheers of the stormy crowd interfered with the service in the main church of Chrysostom. Through the prefect of the capital, he asked to curb the fury of the crowd, but it did not subside. And Chrysostom burst out with a sermon (which has not reached us), which, together with two others, spoken after the deposition and return of Chrysostom, is considered a “miracle of church eloquence” - examples, the likes of which have not yet been revealed in the history of preaching. In the sermon, the names of John and Herodias once again appeared - as if so that the new Herodias would be tormented by feelings similar to those that tormented the ancient Herodias and forced her to demand the head of the holy preacher she hated. Fate did not allow Eudoxia to pierce the tongue of the new John with a needle, but she did achieve his head, although not in the literal sense. The mood of the enemies of St. John again became dangerous for him: they again appeared in Constantinople, except for Theophilus, whose fear had not yet passed. They were already conferring again on how to destroy St. John. They wanted to accuse him of lese majeste, but this was dangerous for many reasons. We decided to resort to the remedy that St. himself asked for. John, because they hoped to turn this remedy against him. The council, convened to justify Chrysostom, now had to accuse him. Again, Chrysostom, from being a judge, as the first time, had to become an accused. They collected accusations and witnesses against St. John. Empress Eudoxia and the bishops: Severian and Antiochus were the soul of the conspiracy. They called Theophilus, but he refused (he was greatly frightened by the jealous love of the Constantinople people for Chrysostom) for many things, promising to help the deposition with advice, and bishop supporters, and some documents. The bishops had already gathered for the council. It opened in 404 in early January. The council was tasked with revising the decisions of the Dub Cathedral regarding Chrysostom. The enemies of Chrysostom could choose no more than half of the bishops who gathered for the council into their party: new bishops also appeared in it (the party): Leonty of Ancyra, an intelligent but arrogant theologian, Cyrinus of Chalcedon, Ammonius of Laodicea, who came, as they said, “to put fire under the church,” etc. The members of the council were slow to begin a serious analysis of Chrysostom’s case: they they were afraid of the people who loved him. The Egyptian bishops were still looking closely and studying the environment in which they operated. Leonty turned out to be their like-minded person and it was he who gave serious impetus to the accusations against Chrysostom. This was the second Theophilus. Chrysostom was accused of taking the throne upon his return without council permission. We know how much factual truth there is in this accusation: Chrysostom was forcibly brought into the church. But did this accusation have a basis in church laws? Chrysostom's enemies were based on two rules of the Council of Antioch in 341. But these rules were not known and accepted in the East and West, but only in Egypt. The Council of Antioch enjoyed little authority because its dogmatic decisions were not Orthodox. And Chrysostom rejected the significance of these church rules for his cause - especially since the rules that prohibited a deposed bishop from again occupying his throne without a conciliar decision were not applicable to Chrysostom, for he was never deposed by a legal council. The council was divided into two parties. Some members defended the validity and applicability of the controversial rules of the Council of Antioch to Chrysostom, while others rejected both. The people were even interested in the question: can the Council of Antioch be recognized as Orthodox? The emperor, who saw the division and did not know how to eliminate it, accepted the advice of Severian, who proposed that the emperor himself be the judge of the dispute that would be waged before him by members of both parties. The resourcefulness of Bishop Eliidius helped Chrysostom a lot. Eliidius invited supporters of the Antiochian rules and, consequently, the deposition of Chrysostom to sign the dogmatic decrees (Arian) of the controversial council. Chrysostom's enemies turned pale, for they were convicted of defending heresy. And yet St. They decided to depose John again. Easter was approaching. St. John was asked to leave the city. “If the emperor wants this, then let him force me to do it by force,” answered the innocent saint. John, for the city belongs to him. Violence will be my justification before heaven; but I will never leave here voluntarily.” Arkady, concluding St. John in his palace, forbade him to come to church. But on Holy Saturday, Chrysostom appeared in the church to see the baptism of 3,000 people. The emperor was informed of the violation of his prohibition. The troops set off to carry out the imperial order to install the bishop in the place of captivity. And then scenes occurred, “the mere memory of which horrified historians half a century later.” The soldiers burst into the church, seized the archbishop, killed the masses of newly baptized people, dispersed the scantily clad women preparing for enlightenment, broke into the altar, and desecrated St. Gifts poured out to St. The blood of Christ, the baptismal font was stained with blood, “St. the waters of rebirth brought to the eyes the color of blood.” “What else could have been done in a city taken by storm by barbarians?” - asked St. John, an eyewitness of all these ugly horrors, in a letter to Pope Innocent. The dispersed faithful gathered, by agreement, in the baths of Constantius to complete the interrupted sacrament. Lucius (a pagan) and his troops carried out even greater beatings there. The true Church of Christ, therefore, fell under a persecution the like of which can only be found in the history of the third century. All deputations of bishops to the emperor to leave violence were unsuccessful. The Johannites began to be persecuted; prisons were filled with them, which “turned into churches, and the latter into places of lawlessness and blasphemy” 33. Chrysostom, held in captivity until Trinity Day, no longer harbored hope of acquittal. He could only alleviate his suffering by correspondence with the Bishop of Rome, Innocent. In this correspondence, Chrysostom outlined his case and asked Innocent to be merciful to him and to convene an episcopal council in the West to justify him. The bishops took letters to Pope Innocent, whose confidence Theophilus lost with his impudence and insolence. Innocent developed a whole system of struggle to protect St. John, but circumstances in which he was not the culprit did not allow the pope to complete the matter. Theophilus informed Innocent about the deposition of St. John. He was silent. And St. He wrote to John in a friendly manner: “Let the sorrow that burdens you not prevail over the voice of a clear conscience that comforts you. It is an invincible bulwark against all injustices”... Theophilus was sent by the pope a cold invitation to appear at the Western Council for acquittal in the case of Chrysostom. In the opinion of the people, St. John stood so high that they were afraid to use new open violence against him. His enemies then began to look for secret means to kill St. John. But all attempts on his life ended in failure, to the great chagrin of his enemies. The murderers were caught and the people almost tore them to pieces. After Pentecost, the enemies of Chrysostom: Antiochus, Acacius, Severian and others came to the emperor, asking him to finally expel St. John from the capital. “Let the deposition of John be upon our heads!” - they concluded their request. The Emperor gave the necessary order. Soldiers surrounded the house of St. John and, despite the bloody battle with the crowd of people guarding the house, of which many were later killed and even more wounded, they took Chrysostom away in a secret passage, barely allowing him to say goodbye to the church. Chrysostom no longer saw his beloved house or church: “The angel of the church left with him,” wrote Palladius. Sad but true! A sea storm broke out again, this time over the church of St. Sofia. Suddenly she burst into flames; It seems the fire started from the bishop's place for an unknown reason. The entire church burned down. The Senate building burned down. They both were a decoration of the capital. Chrysostom could only mourn the unspeakable disasters that befell the Church of Constantinople on the way to exile. An investigation was launched into the fire. The Johannites were suspected of arson, and since there were quite a lot of them, the investigation promised to be bloody. His companions were taken away from Chrysostom in order to subject them to interrogation and torture. Chrysostom was left alone with the guards accompanying him without friends. The rude warriors softened and replaced them for him. They tried hard to relieve St. the sufferer of the hardships of the journey and the unspeakable physical suffering to which Chrysostom was often subjected. He, like those around him, did not yet know about the place of exile, about which he was very worried, for he was afraid of the cruelty of his enemies. In Nicaea of ​​Bithynia, Chrysostom found many comforts, rest, and somewhat recovered. But imagine his disappointment when he learned that Kukub (in distant Armenia) had been assigned his place of exile. Eudoxia, proud of her victory, found another new means of increasing the suffering of the persecuted saint. But Chrysostom's gaze was directed to the future. He saw the mysterious ways of Providence in his life - and was calm, finding the strength to calm even the bishops, priests and deaconesses of the Church of Constantinople who remained faithful to him. In Constantinople, the Johannites truly needed encouragement and consolation. Horrors were committed in the capital. All the main figures of the St. party were interrogated and tortured. John. Tigrius the deacon was tortured and sent into exile. Serapion, Bishop of Heraclea, was tortured and sent to Egypt under the supervision of Bishop Theophilus, his worst enemy: they really knew how to take revenge on the followers of Chrysostom for their devotion to legitimate power. Even Olympias, this noblest benefactor, was almost tortured, but was limited to expulsion, which was not in a hurry. Nikareta received exile as a reward for her charity. Other deaconesses were more unhappy: some of them were tortured. Chrysostom wrote letters to all of them, in which he consoled them in their suffering and thanked them for their loyalty to the truth. After Chrysostom was expelled, his enemies took care of a successor. Severian, Antiochus, Acacius and others will be deceived in their ambitious hopes. Eudoxia chose Arzas, Nektary’s brother, an 80-year-old archpriest who had never declared anything about himself in his entire life, a lazy man. Contemporaries said about him that he had the multilingual speech of a fish 34 . In choosing him, Eudoxia wanted the new archbishop to be free from any desire to expose her vices - and she was not deceived. Arzas's rivals made peace with him because they expected his imminent death. This man was destined to replace Chrysostom: he called him “a feeble-minded idle man.” Chrysostom was surprised by the choice of the empress. He wrote to the Olympiad: “Do not be saddened in your heart by the fact that one church is caught by fierce waves, another is shaken by a storm, a third is covered with unbearable wounds, that this church received a wolf instead of a shepherd, and that a sea robber instead of a helmsman, an executioner instead of a doctor”... All this was applicable to the actions of Arzas at the capital’s see, which were led by others. It was decided to end the investigation of the Johannites in the case of the fire due to the impossibility of finding the culprits. But soon something else began. All the enemies of Chrysostom were outraged by the opposition that the Johannites showed to Arsas. On September 11, 404, he issued a decree to persecute them for the schism and rebellion in the church that they allegedly caused. The Johannites refused to visit churches run by Chrysostom’s enemies, especially since they were forced to curse Chrysostom’s name when they entered the church, but not a single honest person had the courage to agree to this - and the churches were empty. The troops were given orders to forcefully gather the people into the church, and to disperse the meetings of the Johannites outside the city. The previous abuses, beatings, and violence were repeated: truly Arzas was an “executioner” and not a “doctor” of church evils! No sooner had this “executioner” left the stage of history than the empress died - and her death was terrible. “The court bishops took pity on her, but only her husband cried for her” 35. God punished her when she did not want to come to his senses with His threats. The terrible death, it should be noted, was generally merciless towards the enemies of Chrysostom. Palladium describes their deaths. One bishop fell from his horse while returning after condemning St. John, and died. Another, having contracted purulent dropsy, was eaten alive by worms. The third, having contracted malignant erysipelas, died of scabies. The fourth’s tongue, which pronounced the condemnation, was so swollen that the sufferer could not breathe - and he suffocated. Constantinople was shaken by earthquakes, hail that destroyed grain, and famine. Everyone - both the Johannites and their opponents - equally saw in these coincidences and horrors manifestations of heavenly wrath for the expulsion of St. Chrysostom. The emperor, weak and pitiful Arkady, probably suffered more than others: the empress was not there - and his conscience, which had been put to sleep earlier, now woke up. The Monk Nile, to whom Arkady turned for spiritual consolation, pushed him away, reproaching him for expelling the righteous man. Arzas himself soon died. His successor, more intelligent and active, but just as dishonest, was Atticus, a priest of Constantinople. To him belongs the honor of persecuting the Johannites in alliance with Theophilus and other patriarchs of the East throughout the East. What was repeated several times in Constantinople was now about to happen in all the largest cities of the East: we mean the beating and persecution of the Johannites; For this purpose, even a triumvirate of patriarchs was formed. His activities to suppress the Johannites do not deserve description: they are too shameful. The Roman Bishop Innocent received a message outlining the persecution of St. John from several conscientious shepherds of the East, in which they asked the pope to restore order and legality in the Eastern churches. What was St. doing at this time? exile? He, of course, blessed his enemies, cried about the disasters of the church dear to him, consoled its best representatives, wrote letters to the West for help. On July 6, 404, Chrysostom left Nicaea for Caesarea. The path through the diocese of Leontius was very difficult for the sufferer: he caused several griefs for the exile. Cappadocia greeted Chrysostom with love. Residents came out in droves to meet him; many said: “It would be better if the sun deprived the earth of its light than to see these golden lips doomed to silence.” He was met by the archbishop's clergy, and doctors were found to help St. to the sufferer in the stomach diseases that have returned to him again. A resident of Caesarea, Dioscorus, placed him in his house, where he was carefully looked after. But... the Archbishop of Caesarea did not provide for St. No attention to John, just wanting him to leave as soon as possible. There are only 200 miles left to get to Kukuz. But this path was extremely dangerous. Gangs of robbers of the Isaurians, a wild mountain people who caused terror throughout the country, could cause thousands of troubles to a traveler every minute. As soon as Chrysostom wanted to leave Caesarea, cries were heard in the city: “The Isaurians are robbing! To arms! I had to postpone my departure. But the Archbishop of Caesarea Faretrios armed a crowd of monks, who the next day came to the house occupied by St. John, and shouted for him to leave immediately. No matter how much they were convinced, the monks stood their ground. The priests of the city, seeing the displeasure of their bishop, stopped visiting the traveler. He had to choose between death from the monks and death from the Isaurians. He chose the latter. Chrysostom's convoy took him further. They wanted to stop on the outskirts of the city, but Faretrius caused violence there too. In the dead of night, almost in sight of the robber gangs, the deeply shocked and sick Chrysostom had to move on. The road went along steep mountain ledges. Every minute the convoy expected to fall into the abyss: nothing was visible, and then there were robbers... Suddenly the horse of St. Joanna fell to one knee and he fell: they raised him unconscious... Finally, this night of misfortunes passed, and another was preparing the same troubles. Thus they continued their journey until they arrived in Kukuz. Chrysostom later wrote to Olympias: “I am now in Kukuza, respected by everyone and out of danger: do not be afraid of the Isaurians, whom winter has imprisoned in their holes; I myself fear no one as much as bishops (alluding to Faretrius), with the exception of a few.” The hospitable Dioscorus, known to Chrysostom from Caesarea, hastened to put the traveler to rest in his Kukuz house. The bishops of the city and its ruler immediately visited St. John, offering their services. The Syrian rich man, who owned lands near Kukuz, furnished the life of the exile with all comforts. “As you can see, small towns brought him more happiness than big cities, villages - more than capitals - these dwellings of envy, ambition and baseness” 36. Chrysostom came to life. He was looked after by Sabiniana, a deaconess, his relative, from Antioch, who came to Cucus for this purpose. He felt as good as possible for a person in the position of an exile. Winter, harsh in those places, had not yet had time to make itself felt. But soon her horrors made the exile's situation intolerable. He began to suffer from a cough, a headache, and it became so hard for him that he later wrote: “I was at the very door of death, and during two winter months there was only enough life left in me to feel suffering.”… Summer came and Chrysostom felt better. He immediately got down to business, of which there was a lot. When it became known to the whole world that the great John had been exiled to Kukuz, letters and envoys from all sides flew there: he still had many friends in the world, in which now there was nothing more famous and glorious than the name of John. It seems that now he learned of the death of Flavian, Bishop of Antioch, and burning memories associated with his homeland and his service to it were awakened in him. In Antioch the Johannite party was stronger than anywhere else. Why was the violence revealed during the election of Flafian's successor more brutal? Porfiry, a sorcerer and libertine, came to the throne by cunning. Antiochus and Severian chose him. Correspondence of St. Joanna was huge. Visitors and travelers hurried to it from everywhere. Porfiry wrote to the court: “all Antioch is in Cucusa.” The Kukuz exile undertook three things. He intended to convert the Persians and Phoenicians to Christianity and strengthen the Goths in Orthodoxy through dedicated missionaries. Chrysostom began to look for them. But the conversion of Phenicia, begun long ago, in spite of the courage of the missionaries, progressed so poorly that in a few years scarcely a few parishes were founded. The priest Rufinus asked St. Chrysostom. relics and he pointed to the Arabian bishop, who, out of love for the exile and his cause, gave the priest Terentius St. the remains of some martyrs, with whom he returned to Phenicia, and the work of converting it advanced so much that soon the whole country became Christian. She always considered St. exiled sufferer. Bishop Unila, an amazing man, died among the Cimmerian Goths. A letter arrived in Kukuz with a request to send a bishop. St. John, no matter how hard he tried, did not have time to arrange this matter. A Christian town was founded on the borders of Persia, whose founder and then bishop was Marufa, a man of little learning, but of good life. Chrysostom began to strike up a relationship with him in order to introduce him to his plan to convert Persia to Christianity. But Marufa was too hostile against him to enter into relations with him. He did not think that an exile could have sufficient means to successfully begin his preaching. Chrysostom suffered a new grief, about which he hastened to write to Olympias. His correspondence with her describes to us all the difficulties of his life in Taurian Kukuza. The next winter was even more terrible than the previous one, and brought familiar diseases to Chrysostom, and the attacks of the Isaurians, their robberies, famine, etc. forced the exile to flee to Aravissa, which was considered impregnable. "The Aravis cold nearly killed him." The attacks of the Isaurians on the outskirts of the city completed the cup of evil. “Wherever you look,” wrote Chrysostom, “everywhere you see streams of blood, destroyed houses, devastated villages.” It was hard for an exile without letters. “Nothing reaches here, nothing penetrates from here,” the sufferer complained. A new spring has come. Chrysostom again transferred to Kukuz, where a mass of correspondence awaited him. But her news saddened him deeply. He read about new exiles, about torture, about executions of his followers. His heart sank painfully. However, Chrysostom was relieved by the small notes that many secular dignitaries took his side when they began to hate the fury of Atticus and his minions. Hearing that Innocent was preparing an embassy to Arcadius with a handwritten letter from Honorius (the Western emperor) and his message, St. John once again wrote to Innocent a request for a council and supplemented it with the latest news about himself. But the embassy, ​​let us now add, was not successful. The ambassadors, arriving in Constantinople, were insulted, imprisoned, their letters were taken away from them and they were driven back. Chrysostom's enemies had now acquired too much power over Arkady. Chrysostom had now lost all hope of acquittal and return to the capital, but his enemies had not yet forgotten him. After the winter of 406, for which Saint John had prepared in advance for all the contingencies, the last spring of his life began. But she was unhappy for him: a new decree was received - evidence of the inhuman vindictiveness of his enemies - to imprison the prisoner in the Aravis fortress and prohibit him from correspondence and relations with the world: the enemies were horrified by the sympathy that was shown to him in Kukuza. Chrysostom blessed God for the suffering and the enemies who brought it to him. But it was hard for him. From Aravissa he managed to send one and last letter to Olympias 37, imbued with wondrous faith in the Providence of God. But the anger of Chrysostom’s enemies did not calm down. Porphyry of Antioch tried to have Chrysostom sent even further: the sympathy of the Antiochians for Chrysostom was hateful to him. It's scary to think how vindictive people can sometimes be! Chrysostom's enemies "would like to see him dying, asking for mercy." At their insistence, Arkady appointed Chrysostom as a place of exile at Pitiunt, on the border of the Caucasian possessions of the Romans. The enemies were sure that “the golden lips of John were doomed here to grave silence” 38. The enemies ordered the convoy sent from the capital to treat the prisoner with extreme rudeness. Chrysostom was dragged to a place of new exile. The convoy officials made the hard journey of the sufferer even more cruel. They tried to lead St. John either during the rains or during the midday heat, and they avoided stopping in cities and forbade showing the exile any sympathy... The Comans passed and stopped at a secluded church dedicated to St. John. Basilisk (bishop of the Comanian Church, 3rd century): Chrysostom felt bad. At night St. appeared to him. Martyr Basilisk and said: “Hope, John! tomorrow we will be together." The next day they wanted to go further, but they had barely walked a few miles when St. the sufferer began to suffer indescribably from fever; it was clear that he had few hours left to live. We returned to the parking lot. The priest, at the request of Chrysostom, dressed him in white clothes and introduced him to St. Secrets at the very altar. Chrysostom began to pray; the prayer of the righteous man was fervent; it ended with the words: “Thank God for everything. Amen." Chrysostom lay down on the church floor, crossed himself, his gaze faded and he did not get up again... “His soul shook off the dust of earthly life,” ascending to heaven, where Chrysostom turned his gaze all his life. The whole world, having learned about the death of St. John, mourned the exile. And which of his friends could wish him to return again to this worthless “world of evil”? His death followed on September 14 (407), when the entire Christian world worshiped St. Cross of Christ. Who, more accurately than Chrysostom, fulfilled the Savior’s commandment: “If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me?” The whole life of the great John, for whom the very name “great” we consider small, was self-sacrifice for the sake of the cause of Christ, with which the sufferer finally united, cheerfully carrying “his cross” throughout his long-suffering life. But let our praise be silent: all the same, we cannot express in words the greatness of the feat of the life of St. John. Let us try our best to imitate his patience, his love for his neighbors, his forgiveness of enemies who never knew the limits of their malice. Chrysostom lived for sixty years, was a bishop for 9.5 years, and of which he spent 3 years and 3 months in the suffering of exile. But the life story of St. John did not end with his death: “the righteous live forever” - in heaven in their spirit, and on earth - in the memory of people who honor their exploits and worship their saints. relics. It remains to describe the celebrations of the glorification of St. John following the horrors of the last years of his life. Name of St. John divided the world into two halves during the life of its bearer, and after death it united them into “one body of Christ,” which was previously tormented by human hatred. 7 months after the death of Chrysostom, Arkady died; he was succeeded by his son Theodosius II, a young boy. A correspondence began between the eastern and western bishops, the subject of which was the act of the new Patriarch of Antioch, Alexander (an admirer of St. John), who introduced the name of St. John on the church memorial and asked other patriarchs about it. Finally, after the death of Theophilus, who wrote slander against the deceased St. John and was soon found dead on his bed, his place was taken by his nephew Cyril. It was especially difficult to convince him of the need to include John’s name in the memorial as a bishop. The worst enemy of St. John of Constantinople Atticus, under the influence of the people, had already included the name of Bishop John in the diptychs (memorial books), when Cyril was still persistent, but finally he agreed. In the West, Pope Innocent immediately after the death of St. John began to remember him in church prayers as a bishop. Finally, East and West, under the Patriarch of Constantinople, St. Procles, recognized John as a saint and martyr, and his relics were solemnly transferred to the capital. One day St. Proclus spoke to the people a word of praise from St. John. There was a desire among the people to see his relics in the capital. The emperor agreed, because he respected the great fighter for truth. God arranged it in such a way that Chrysostom, shamefully expelled from Constantinople during his lifetime, returned to it in triumph after his death. This happened 30 years after the death of St. John. The emperor asked St. forgiveness in writing for his father and mother. exile. The embassy with the letter arrived in Comany, the resting place of St. John, and the transfer of his relics began (which took place in 437, celebrated on January 27). This return procession of the saint to his capital was solemn. The Isaurians no longer threatened; the bishops did not persecute; the enemy's lips closed under the seal of death. The holy remains of John were surrounded throughout the journey by presbyters, monks, virgins and crowds of people, always reverent. We approached the Bosphorus; the third time he was decorated with ships, boats, and torches, so that “the sea seemed like dry land.” Tears of joy on the occasion of the return of St. the relics were in front of everyone. The imperial ship received St. John and quietly sailed towards the capital. St. was waiting on the shore. the relics of another countless crowd: the whole of Constantinople with the court at its head was on the pier. From here the relics were transferred to the Church of St. Apostles, in which they remained. The people and the royal family bowed before St. relics with words of prayer, forgiveness and tears. St. Proclus turned the face of St. John to the people; he cried out: “Holy Father! Take your throne." Some, purer souls, heard his quiet greeting, like a light breeze: “Peace be with you.” Thus the “strong waves” calmed down, the “cruel storm!” "Blessed be God!" the mouth of St. John during his lifetime. Truly “glory to God for everything!” No matter how the passions of people agitate the “strong ship of Jesus,” it will reach its pier! And we, Christians, who are not firm in our faith in God’s Providence, must always firmly remember this truth! Glory to God, who gave Chrysostom fortitude! Glory to Him who crowned him with an imperishable crown! Now the relics of St. John rest in Rome, where they were transferred during the destruction of Constantinople by the Latins. Chapter five. About the works of St. John Chrysostom “Not to know such beautiful creations also means that not to see the sun at noon." Rev. Isidore Pelusiot on creations Having served the Church of Christ selflessly all his life, Chrysostom left her a rich inheritance. These are his marvelous creations. But for us, distant from St. John for fourteen centuries, it is difficult to understand this wealth of wisdom and spiritual knowledge. First of all, there is no accurate, so to speak, inventory of this inheritance. None of St.'s contemporaries John did not bother to collect all his works and keep them in good hands. Yes, this, let’s say in apology to contemporaries, was very difficult to do then, as it is completely impossible now. In Chrysostom, we are first of all amazed at the extraordinary fertility of his mind and heart. “No one except God,” says Svida, “knows how much Chrysostom wrote.” But how much has reached us through 14 centuries is quite enough to study over the course of a lifetime. And there were lovers of the writing of St. John - he fully deserves it - who devoted their entire lives to studying it. Creations of St. John was written by him during his life in the desert, during the years of service to his native Antioch and in Constantinople. The earliest Christian work of St. John had two “exhortations” written to his friend “Theodore the Fallen” during the asceticism of St. John in the wilderness (369). The main idea of ​​the “exhortation” was the depiction of the vanity of the world with its charms, which captivated the friend for a while. This “test of writing” was a success for St. John: the monks of the desert read the first work of young John, rejoicing at the grace of the word that was revealed in him. Soon those “contrite and saddened by their sins” could be consoled by the sweetness of hope for salvation, poured out in the new and best work of St. John - in two words “about contrition”: this work established the literary fame of St. John. His writings satisfied the most stringent requirements; Monastic readers have already cultivated the confidence that every work of St. John will be great. The ensuing persecution of the monks by Emperor Valens prompted St. John to become a courageous defender of the persecuted. His defense of the monks was made in three words, written around 376. Literary fame of St. After these and similar experiences, Ioanna grew so much that they were going to make him a bishop, but the chosen one fled. This event excited the humble soul of St. John with many different thoughts “about the priesthood,” which he outlined in a small wondrous creation of this name. St. John justifies his flight by pointing out the height, importance and difficulty of the priestly office and his unpreparedness for it. The work is filled with thoughts that have not become outdated over the course of 14 centuries and encourage pastors to value the rights and responsibilities of their high calling, and the flock to honor pastors, sometimes unworthy, for the height and difficulty of priestly humility, almost beyond the strength of a sinful person. “Antiquity presents nothing like this work.” “There is no soul that, reading it, would not be inflamed with divine love,” 39 said the reverend. Isidore Pelusiot. The books “On Virginity” and “To the Young Widow” were written by St. John, it seems, before accepting the priesthood. With the receipt of the sacred grace of St. John became exclusively a preacher of the word of God. Preaching of St. John gained him fame, which he has enjoyed for fourteen centuries and it will increase more and more, for the Christian world has not shown a man like St. John. Posterity was not inferior in praise to St. John, as a preacher, to his contemporaries. He was called “the greatest lamp of the world, the universal teacher, the light of truth, the trumpet of Christ, the wise interpreter of divine mysteries, the eye of the Byzantine church and all churches” 40, etc. The name of Chrysostom was established with him forever. Sermons of St. John often caused tears and sobs from his listeners - the best evidence of their high quality, and sometimes - unpleasant applause for him. These brilliant successes were the share of St. John because he was an excellent psychologist. “The human heart was not an inaccessible abyss for him; he knew, he knew how to penetrate into all its secrets, to reveal its most hidden bends” 41. The sermons of the Antiochian period are said to be better and higher than the sermons of Constantinople origin. But we think that to evaluate the comparative merits of the sermons of St. John, it is as difficult as it is not easy to choose the best from the mass of diamonds and diamonds that blind the eyes. Eloquence of St. John is indescribable: “for Chrysostom, speaking eloquently was the same as simply speaking” 42. It is almost impossible to combine clarity of speech and depth of thought as successfully as the wondrous genius of St. John. It seems rightly noted that the sermons of St. John, spoken without preparation, due to unforeseen circumstances, are better than his ordinary sermons. This remark is new evidence of the extraordinary preaching gift of St. John. Conversations “about statues”, a word about Eutropia, “about the poor”, before leaving the capital and upon returning to it, the third praise of St. Paul - examples of the eloquence of St. John. He rarely wrote down his sermons before delivering them. Others wrote down his notes with almost literal precision. And Chrysostom composed sermons at the moment of their delivery, which raises the personality of St. even more in our opinion. John as a speaker. The preacher's speech moves easily and freely. Examples from the Bible, from the life of Sts. fathers and martyrs, sometimes even from the history of the Greco-Roman world, comparisons, comparisons, questions to arouse the attention of listeners alternate and are found in abundance in all the sermons of St. John. Their goal is to be as understandable to the listeners as possible, to arouse their will and feeling to fulfill the commandments of Christ. All this shows that St. John was, so to speak, a poet at heart and preacher. For example, his comparison of a church meeting with a rough sea and a cornfield is poetic. “How,” said St. John, the waters of this spiritual sea are pleasant for us, more pleasant than the waves of the sea! For these are raised by the disturbance of the winds, and these by the desire to hear teaching; those, rising, bring the helmsman into great fear, and these, appearing, put great boldness into the speaker. Those are a sign of the raging sea, and these are a sign of a joyful soul; those, hitting the stones, make a dull noise, and these, echoing the word of the teaching, make a pleasant sound. In the same way, the breath of a light wind, when it falls on the fields and either bends them to the ground or lifts the heads of the ears of grain upward, represents a semblance of sea waves on land. But this field is even more pleasant than those fields: because it was not a breath of wind, but the grace of the Holy Spirit that aroused and warmed your souls.” St. John often used the most unimportant circumstances to clarify church teaching. One day he was delivering a sermon. The church servant began to light the lamps. The listeners gazed at the man lighting the lamp, which caused reproaches from the preacher. “We speak to you about the Scripture, but you have taken your eyes away from us and fixed them on the lamps and the one who lights the lamps. What negligence it is, leaving us to look at this man! And I kindle a fire from the Scripture, and the lamp of doctrine speaks in our tongue. This light is more important and better than that light; We do not light a lamp moistened with oil, like this man, but we kindle souls moistened with piety with the love of listening.” In general, all the rich gifts of his mind and heart are St. John put preaching into the work of the ministry, trying only to be simple, understandable and edifying for the listeners. In Antioch St. John compiled a brief overview of the contents of the books of the Old and New Testaments, interpreted the books: Genesis (in 386), the psalter (not all), Job, part of St. Isaiah and some other major and minor prophets, conversations were said about Job, about Anna and Samuel, David and Saul, the Maccabees, “about the darkness of prophecies”, the Gospels of Matthew, John, Acts of the Apostles, Epistles of St. ap. Paul to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Timothy, Titus (the remaining epistles are explained from the see of Constantinople), words and conversations were written on the days of the Nativity of Christ, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord, St. At Lent (and Passion Week), on the days of remembrance of the holy martyrs, especially revered in Antioch, words were spoken against Jews, pagans and heretics, then continued in Constantinople, about repentance, etc. The See of Constantinople resounded with interpretations of the epistles to the Colossians, Philippiseys, Thessalonians, Hebrews and famous sermons delivered on the occasion of the outstanding circumstances of the life of St. churches and St. John. From the entire mass of works of St. Only 804 conversations and several works of John have reached us; probably the same number, if not more, of the conversations have been lost, and many have been distorted, as a result of which they belong to St. Joanna became doubtful. As we see, St. John Chrysostom explained almost all of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament and quite a lot of the books of the Old Testament. New Testament interpretations of St. John is superior to the Old Testament, because to interpret the sayings of the Old Testament, it was necessary, first of all, to have excellent knowledge of the Hebrew language, which St. John did not know, and his interpretations according to the New Testament are rightly considered exemplary, because the Greek language in which it was written is St. Chrysostom knew perfectly well, possessing the entire mass of Greek learning. Strong love of St. John's approach to the interpretation of the Word of God is explained by the deep meaning of the latter for a Christian. “The great protection against sin is the reading of Scripture, the great trouble, the deep abyss is ignorance of the Scriptures, the great destruction is not knowing anything from the Word of God; This is what gave birth to heresies, this is what introduced depraved life, this is what turned everything upside down.” St. John loved to explain the Holy Scriptures in his inspired sermons, each of which is divided into two parts. The first sets out the interpretation of the text, and the other explains how to apply Holy Scripture to life, how to implement what Scripture commands. Thus St. John, in his interpretative sermons, presents us with abundant material for moral edification and building a life according to the rules of the Word of God. Interpretations of Holy Scripture belonging to St. John, are distinguished by clarity, accessibility for everyone, and attentiveness to the Word of God. St. John gave a literal explanation of all Scripture and only in some necessary cases did he look for a figurative, allegorical meaning. To understand the direct meaning of the famous passage of St. John paid due attention to the connection of thoughts, to the common goal to which the entire holy book is subordinated, for which he sometimes compared translations of the Holy Scriptures, interpreted Jewish sayings with the help of the Greek text, etc. St. John was cautious about the prophetic meaning of the Old Testament Scriptures, bearing in mind the “obscurity of the prophecies” contained in them. Of the exemplary interpretations of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, the best is the explanation of St. Gospel of Matthew. It is of Antiochian origin and was already translated into other languages ​​during the interpreter’s lifetime. About the interpretations of Paul's epistles they say that “St. teacher of languages” Paul, who repeatedly appeared in visions to his interpreter, taught and inspired him in difficult work. “If St. Paul wanted to explain himself in Greek, then he would not have interpreted it differently, as St. “The famous Chrysostom” 43 (Isidore Pelusiot). What could be higher than this praise, which, however, is completely deserved? The Epistles to the Romans and Galatians explained by St. John is better than other epistles 44. “With the greatest help of St. John had his holy mood, good life, reverence and pure understanding of Christian teaching, and hence his ability to perceive the meaning of the Word of God with his mind and heart, to perceive the highest illumination of grace, which opened his mind to understand the Scriptures, and to introduce others into his understanding” 45. In the first place in the interpretive conversations of St. Chrysostom, in his sermons against pagans, Jews, heretics, stands, of course, dogmatic teaching as the basis and root of moral teaching. But the dogmatic writings of St. John after the refutation of the Arianism of St. Fathers of the Church: Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian for us no longer have all the delights of novelty of content, although for Chrysostom’s contemporaries they were the same in Antioch as the works of St. Athanasius - in Alexandria, Gregory the Theologian in Constantinople, Basil the Great in Caesarea, i.e. a touchstone for Orthodox theology, for they were distinguished (the dogmatic writings of St. John) by all the best merits of the works of St. John. Chrysostom is mainly a teacher of morality. The essence of the moral teaching of St. John believed in love for God and neighbor. He is primarily a preacher of love in all its many different forms. “Chrysostom considered the beginning and the end, the root and the top, the fullness and content of virtue to be love for God, combined with love for one’s neighbor” 46. According to his teachings, the highest and only object of human love on earth is the God of love, forgiveness and mercy. “Whoever is inflamed with love for God no longer wants to look at objects that are subject to bodily vision, but, having other eyes, the eyes of faith, constantly directs his mind to heavenly objects, contemplates them, and, walking on earth, does everything as if he lived in heaven, not encountering any human obstacles to the exploits of virtue.” A Christian, out of fiery love for God, always pours out all his feelings before him in prayer, for “it is a union of love with God, a conversation with Him.” To the question: can God give us good without our request, known to Him by the omniscience of the Divine, Chrysostom answered that “God can give to us before our request, but He therefore awaits our request in order to have an opportunity to righteously honor us with His providence.” Therefore, “don’t stop asking,” says the saint, “until you receive; the end of prayer is receiving what you ask for. Then stop when you receive it, or better yet, don’t stop then, but remain in prayer. If you have not received, then pray that you may receive; if you have received it, then give thanks for what you have received.” Wonderful St. John develops the idea of ​​the effectiveness of church prayer. “Just as a pier (at the sea), protected from winds and waves, gives complete safety to the ships entering it: so the house of God, as if plucking those entering it from the storm of worldly affairs, allows them to stand calmly and safely, and listen to the Word of God. The church is a school of virtue, a school of philosophy, not only during the service, but also before and after it... Enter the vestibule and, as if some spiritual breeze will blow on your soul. This silence inspires fear and teaches wisdom; excites the mind and does not allow you to remember the present, but transports you from earth to heaven. If it is so useful to be here without a meeting, then what benefit do those present here receive and what loss do those absent suffer when the prophets proclaim, when the apostles preach the gospel, when Christ stands in the midst, when the Father approves of what is happening here, when the Holy Spirit communicates his joy? Chrysostom also values ​​home prayer. “There is nothing more beautiful than a dwelling in which prayers are performed” by all its members together. From love for God flows love for others, which Chrysostom called “the mother of all blessings and the perfecter of every virtue.” “Every good deed,” says St. John, “is the fruit of love.” “Love, according to Chrysostom, is a great teacher; it can lead people out of error, transform the heart, guide people to wisdom and make people out of stones. If you want to test its power, bring to me a wild man who is afraid of all noise, afraid of shadows, a hot-tempered, ferocious man, more like an animal than a man, voluptuous, dissolute, in a word - a man with all the vices; give him into the hands of love, bring him into her school and you will soon see that the wild and not brave will become a courageous, generous man, daring to do anything.” But the best fruit of love for neighbors, according to the teachings of St. Chrysostom, there is philanthropy and almsgiving. In the teaching of St. John, both of these virtues are just other names of the same love. And the inimitably eloquent Chrysostom knew how to inspire Christians to exploits of philanthropy and almsgiving. It seems that I haven’t talked about anything so often as the need to be adorned with these virtues, with which we liken ourselves to the merciful Christ, who accepts our alms from the hands of the poor, sick, destitute, etc.; It seems that Chrysostom denounced nothing so often as stinginess, greed for gold, and the cruelty of the hearts of the rich. “God gave up for you,” St. once said. John to them - Your Son, and you do not give even a piece of bread to this Son, who was betrayed and slain for you? The Father without hesitation gave Him up for you, although He is truly His Son, and you leave Him to die of hunger, although even what you would give Him comes from Him, and you would give it for your own benefit. Can there be greater wickedness than this? He was crucified for you, He died for you, He suffers hunger for you; would you give Him only what belongs to Him and, moreover, for your own benefit, and you refuse to give it? Are they not harder than stone who, carried away by so many impulses to be good, continue to persist in this “diabolical inhumanity”? For Jesus Christ it is not enough that He died on a shameful tree: He wants to be poor, naked, a stranger, He wants to be a prisoner and sick, in order to gain you at least with this. If you, He says, do not respond to My love, then have pity on My poverty. If you are insensitive to My poverty, do not be so to My illnesses and My prison. If the calamities that I suffer cannot soften your heart, consider how little I require and do not refuse. I do not demand from you any excessive generosity, but only bread, shelter, consolation in a few words. If you are still merciless, then become more humane when you think about the kingdom of heaven, about the rewards that I promise. If all this does not affect you, then take pity at the sight of Me naked, remembering My nakedness on the cross. I was naked, and naked even now; I was a prisoner, and I still am. Let this or that state affect your soul. For your sake I endured hunger, and I still endure it now. I thirsted on Calvary, and I thirst in the face of the poor, so that My past and present disasters would attract you to Me and have mercy on you for the sake of your own salvation. At least you owe Me a thousand blessings. I do not demand a debt from you, but I offer you a crown: I promise you heaven for a modest alms. I do not tell you: deliver Me from poverty, give Me your riches, although I am poor, it is for your sake; I ask you only for a little bread, clothing, and help in my misery. Being a prisoner, I do not ask you to break My chains, but to visit the one who is bound for your sake; I will be content with this good deed, for which I promise you heaven. I have loosed your chains, the heaviest of chains; in exchange for this, it is enough for Me if you come to visit Me in prison. I could have crowned you without all this, but I want to be your debtor, so that when you receive the crown, you have the satisfaction that you deserve it. That is why, having the opportunity to feed Myself, I beg for food for myself. That is why I stand at your door, reach out my hand and ask you to help Me, for I love you. I love as much as is customary among friends; I lay aside my glory to receive my bread from you; I will say before the whole earth, I will proclaim to all people that it is you who have satisfied My hunger. We are ashamed to live at the expense of others; we hide the benefit that we have received. Jesus Christ, on the contrary, loves us so much that even when we secretly give alms, He proclaims it everywhere with great praise and is not ashamed to say that He was naked and we clothed Him, was hungry and we fed Him.” This passage forms part of one of Chrysostom’s enthusiastic conversations about the “queen of virtues” - alms, which caused thunderous applause from the listeners. But the preacher rejected them. “What do I need,” he exclaims, “these clicks and all this noise? I ask only one thing from you - an example of good deeds, your attentiveness, proven by deeds. This is what is better for me than the most beautiful diadem. Let us try to get this diadem from the hands of the poor.” 47 On the teaching of love for God and neighbors, St. John built a whole system of moral teaching, for which his creations provide the richest material. St. John, as we know from the history of his life, taught patience, contrition for sins, humility, and mercy; denounced pride, arrogance, passion for spectacle, slander and gossip, swearing, etc. The source of the moral teaching of St. John recognized only the Holy Scriptures, and gave very little place to philosophy. St. John did not like to substantiate moral truth on the principles of reason, but in order to understand it, he always tried to find the direct meaning of Holy Scripture, to understand the thoughts contained in it, and presented them simply and publicly. These features in the interpretation of Scripture and in the presentation of moral teaching were brought up in Chrysostom by Diodorus, whom he himself called his “father and teacher,” and Flavian. Both of them, together with Chrysostom, were the best representatives of the Antiochian theological school, in which, simultaneously with the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, the main attention of the students was drawn to moral and ascetic issues and the interpretation itself was carried out according to a method that should be called practical, and which gave little scope for the subtleties of speculation and philosophical reasoning. In contrast to Athanasius the Great, Gregory the Theologian and Basil the Great, who developed the dogmatics of Christianity, St. John Chrysostom exposed the moral meaning of Scripture, its guiding significance in life. If those great fathers studied Scripture mainly for the purpose of deducing from it the foundations of faith, then Chrysostom read it day and night in order to build a harmonious edifice of Christian morality on its basis. St. John worked a lot in arranging the divine service, the splendor of which he always cared about with a zeal worthy of this great work. A little after St. Basil the Great shortened the rite of the ancient liturgy, St. John Chrysostom shortened the liturgy of St. Basil the Great, which quickly came into general use in the East, but seemed too long to the Christians of Constantinople. They could not stand the entire liturgy, and left without listening to it to the end, which is why they were reproached by St. John. To take away from Christians every reason for laziness, St. John shortened the Vasiliev Liturgy and did this difficult task no less successfully than St. Basil the Great. Subsequently, the Chrysostom liturgy was supplemented by many hymns, such as: the song “Only Begotten Son”, “Blessed”, “Trisagion”, “Cherub Hymn” and a prayer explaining it, “It is worthy to eat”, “Let our lips be filled” - so that the liturgy of St. Ioanna is now hardly smaller in volume than Vasilyeva. The life story of St. John shows us that he was the first to organize religious processions and all-night vigils. He composed church hymns for them, pouring out his highly religious, poetically inclined soul into them, wrote prayers, etc. From the prayers composed by St. John, the prayers before the reception of St. The Mysteries (including: “I believe, O Lord, and I confess”...), at baptism, at burial (“God of spirits and all flesh”), some of the vespers (“Lord, accept me in repentance” - a particularly beautiful prayer), etc. The ancient church song is indebted to St. John of Constantinople - the doxology “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit...” in that from his time the song this began to be part of every service, became a refrain at the end of almost every prayer; now it clearly teaches the highest mystery (the truth of the consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity) to simple hearts” 48. Finally St. John Chrysostom is known for his letters to the Olympiad. All writers have the highest opinion of these letters. “Not a single philosophical work of antiquity seems to me,” says Thierry 49, “more worthy of such sincere surprise as the entire set of small works in the form of letters and reasoning addressed by Chrysostom to the Olympiad from exile... Their letters can be seen that some of them were written during travel stops, under roofs open to all kinds of weather changes, in snatches at moments of stops that were given to him for sleep; others in the wild deserts, partly in Kukuza under the fear of the Isaurians, partly in Aravissa among the eternal snows. In this most terrible of their exiles there was no such suffering, the bitterness of which the saint would not have drunk. John to the bottom, drop by drop - and at the same time he consoles others, but about himself he says: “exile is nothing,” showing this by his deeds 50. But Olympias needed consolation: she was depressed beyond measure, saying: “I will no longer hear the voice of God from these golden lips, his best interpreters.” Having proved to her that “there is only one evil - sin, and there is no other good except virtue” 51, Chrysostom finds out “that in struggle the human spirit is strengthened by the very trials that it endures. This is the nature of sorrows: they elevate above all suffering those who experience them calmly and generously. Trees growing in the shade lack strength and become unable to produce fruit; those who are left to the changes of air, gusts of wind, rays of the sun are full of strength, clothed with leaves and covered with fruits...” 52 and further advises: “without allowing yourself to despair, revive the thoughts of others, teach them to despise empty shadows, ghosts of the night, dreams, the dirt trampled by them; teach them to despise this flying smoke, not to look at the web as a real obstacle; teach us to walk without stopping in front of the grass that is ready to decay - for what else is it, if not all this, our earthly prosperity and disasters? Yes, such letters, received in the Constantinople camp of John’s supporters, could encourage, strengthen, strengthen and turn them into such a formidable stronghold of oppressed truth and innocence that no waves of triumphant hatred and malice were able to shake and destroy it (the stronghold)... Bored separation from St. John advised Olympias to learn from his works. St. John Chrysostom, who set one of the goals of his ministry to the Word of God to cultivate in his listeners love for God and neighbor, was himself a model of love for neighbors. If he preached twice a week, every day, twice a day, it was because he passionately loved his flock, wished them salvation, and tried to be their support in this feat. In the mouth of Chrysostom, the usual terms: “beloved, your love, brothers and sisters” were “living echoes of a loving soul” 53. “And recently to you, and now I say to you: oh, if only I could always be with you! And, by the way, I am always with you, if not in body, then in the power of love: because for me there is no other life except you and concern for your salvation. The farmer only cares about seeds and crops, and the helmsman about the waves and piers: so the preacher cares about his listeners and their success, just as I do now. That’s why I carry you all in my mind, not only here, but also at home. Although the number of people is large, and the measure of my heart is small, love is vast and does not fit tightly within us.” “If they didn’t accuse me of ambition, every day you would see how I shed streams of tears. You are everything to me... If my heart, having burst, could open before you: you would see that you are all spaciously placed there"... And Philaret adds: “in the soul of St. John there was both the tender love of Christ’s beloved disciple (Apostle John) and the zeal of a teacher of languages" (Apostle Paul). If the listeners repaid the righteous man with love, listened and carried out his word, then he did not feel the work of teaching, because he was facilitated by the benefits of listening. “This reward is enough to encourage us, and inspire us, and make us courageous, and convince us to endure all kinds of labor for you.” If the flock somehow offended Chrysostom’s jealousy and self-love, he said: “All the more will I love you, since, loving you more, I will be loved less... After all, to be a disciple of Christ means to be meek and kind.” “If you have fallen into sin a thousand times, come to me,” says Chrysostom, “and you will be healed. And full of love for the sinner, he lavished upon him the treasures of eternal love, in order to inspire him with the love of his salvation, in order to overcome his sin in the sinner.” Such an attitude towards a sinner is understandable in a preacher of love. “You,” Chrysostom said to the sinner, “do not want your sins to be forgiven as much as the Lord wants to forgive your sins.” For the sake of love for the listeners and flocks of St. John did not give himself sufficient rest necessary for recovery (he often fell ill), but, barely recovering from suffering, he hurried to the pulpit. “Fever,” he said on one of these occasions, “usually does not burn the body of those possessed by it, as our souls do because of separation from our loved ones, and just as those seek cups and glasses and cold water, so do these – the faces of loved ones: those who are accustomed to love know this well. So, when we are freed from illness, we will again be satisfied with each other, if it is ever possible to be satisfied; because love does not know saturation, but constantly enjoying its loved ones, it becomes more and more ignited.” After his illness, Chrysostom spoke more extensively. “The previously silent soul of the preacher pours out in an uncontrollable stream of conversation, inspired by love” 54. The spirit of meekness and humility, the spirit of prayer and higher illumination is visible in Chrysostom’s sermons, due to which they are irresistibly convincing, constituting a consequence of their all-pervading love for the flock, especially since the preacher carried out his fiery word in his arduous pastoral feat. “Here the defendant,” writes Blessed Theodoret, “calls him his lawyer; a hungry man asks for food, a naked man asks for clothes, another man takes off his shoes... He drags him to look at his wounds; Here the debtor is shedding tears, and then they are called to reconcile domestic quarrels and the servant runs to him to explain the bitter complaint against the master. The widow cries: have mercy on me; the other mourns her orphanhood. His father (St. Chrysostom) had thousands of things to do, different from different” 55 - and Chrysostom knew how to complete everything successfully. Having so many worries, Chrysostom asked for prayers for himself from his flock... “Pray for us. Although you receive no great or amazing benefit from us, “pray for the rank.” Here is a feasible outline of the personality of St. John as a shepherd. “Is there such an insensitive person who would not thank Providence for giving the world such a brilliant luminary?” – we will end with the words of Rev. Isidore Pelusiota. In the life of St. John showed us “the height of humility,” and in the word - the fiery grace of Christ’s grace, “received from heaven.” Works of the Holy Fathers, 1855, XIV, 170 (approx.). Works of the Holy Fathers, 1855, XIV, 173. Theological Bulletin, October 1895, p. 335. Life of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople. Moscow. 1860, p. 7. B. Bulletin, October 1895, pp. 23–28. Life of St. John Chrysostom. Moscow. 1860, p. 50. Life of St. John Chrysostom. Moscow. 1860, p. 95. B.V. November 1895, p.195. Works of K.D. Academician 1890, III, 189. Article by I. Malyshevsky: “St. John Chrysostom in the rank of reader and in the rank of deacon and priest." Proceedings of K.D.A. 1890, III, p. 189. “Historical teaching about the church fathers” by A. Filaret. II vol., p. 276. "The Power of Darkness in the Kingdom of Light" op. Farrara. St. Petersburg, 1896, p. 71. Farrar. “The power of darkness in the kingdom of light”, 146 pp. Life of St. John. 266 pp. A. Thierry. St. John Chrysostom and Empress Eudoxia. Translation. Moscow. 1884, p. 26. In 399 there was again unrest among the people in Constantinople before Easter. On Wednesday of Holy Week, residents of the capital were frightened by thunderstorms and rain, from which they found salvation in fasting and prayer in churches; on Friday of the same week, masses of people were already enthusiastically watching the horse racing, and on Saturday - the spectacle. Such inconstancy in the matter of faith greatly embarrassed Chrysostom and he burst out with a thunderous sermon that gained worldwide fame. The people repented, paying Chrysostom with tears for his love for him. Life of St. John Chrysostom. Moscow. 1860 pp. 307–308. “Simony” is the name given to acquiring ecclesiastical rank through bribery or money. Origen was the most famous Alexandrian theologian of the 3rd century. His essay “On the Principles,” which expounded the dogmatics of Christianity, and interpretations of the Holy Scriptures gained Origen worldwide fame. But in his truly remarkable works there were erroneous, non-Orthodox opinions, of which Origen was not a stubborn defender. There were two parties in Christianity, one of which considered Origen to be Orthodox, and the other even a heretic. Origen's body of erroneous opinions is called "Origenism," and as such it is worthy of censure. Theophilus at first considered Origen a heretic, and then began to respect him, except for his erroneous opinions; The latter kind of attitude towards Origen is fair. It should be noted that the Long Brothers highly respected Origen, excluding his erroneous views, which Theophilus did not want to take into account. The “Long” monks did not suffer from “Origenism.” This famous sermon began with the words: “strong wars, fierce storms!...” After the expulsion of St. John, Olympias left Constantinople: she hated it - and finally settled in Nicomedia. In her house, “only prayers and tears” were heard. People who knew her well treated her like a saint. Before her death, which was witnessed by the Bishop of Nicomedia, Olympias asked him to release her coffin into the waves of the sea, which was done after her death. The sea carefully carried her remains to the shore of a Constantinople suburb. In the church of St. Thomas, she rested until 618, when her relics were transferred to the capital. A. Filaret, II, 305, 321. Life of St. John Chrysostom. Moscow, 1860, 220 pp. Malyshevsky, “Proceedings”, 1891, I, 305. From his interpretation to the last. only short notes remained to the Jews, undoubtedly, however, genuine. From an article about St. Zlaouste A. Lopukhin (Christian Reading, 1897, February, 246–247). Proceedings of K. D. Acad., 1892, II, 525.