Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople

Antioch of Syria nurtured me: I was born in that city. My parents, Secundus and Anthusa, belonged to the best Antiochian society and confessed the Christian faith. My father Secundus was a military commander and held an honourable post, but he could have no influence on my upbringing, for he died when I was still a young child. All the care fell upon my mother, the pious Anthusa: having lost her husband at the age of twenty, she did not wish to marry a second time, but devoted herself entirely to my upbringing. From her I received my first lessons in the Christian truths and in piety.

Having confirmed me in the faith, my mother gave me over to the sophist Libanius and the philosopher Andragathius for the study of rhetoric and philosophy. When I was eighteen years old, still not enlightened by holy baptism — which by the custom of that time was received in mature age — I was sent to Athens to perfect myself in rhetoric and philosophy. While studying there, I soon surpassed in wisdom my peers and many philosophers, for I studied all the Greek books and sciences and became a wise philosopher and eloquent orator.

In Athens I had in the person of the philosopher Anthimus a very malicious adversary. Envying my good reputation, he slandered me, stirring up hatred against me in others. But I, with God’s help, put my adversary to shame and at the same time turned many to Christ. It happened in this way: when Anthimus in a dispute with me began to utter blasphemous words against our Lord Jesus Christ, an unclean spirit suddenly seized him and began to torment him. Anthimus fell to the ground, writhing and twisting with his whole body and opening his mouth wide, from which foam flowed. Seeing this, all those present were horrified, and many fled in fear. Those who remained began to beg me to forgive and heal the possessed man.

I answered: «If he does not repent and believe in Christ God, Whom he has blasphemed, he will not be healed.» Anthimus immediately cried out that there is no other God besides Him Whom I confess. When he uttered this, the unclean spirit came out of him, and Anthimus rose up healthy. All the people who had seen this miracle cried out: «Great is the God of the Christians!» Having forbidden Anthimus to blaspheme the Son of God and having taught him the true faith, I sent him to the bishop of the city of Athens, and Anthimus received holy baptism from him together with all his household; together with him many of the honourable citizens also believed and were baptised.

When the bishop learned that through me this conversion of the Hellenes to Christ had taken place, he decided to ordain me to the sacred rank and to keep me in Athens, so that after his death I might receive the archpastoral see. When I understood this, I secretly departed from Athens and came to my native Antioch.

My friend Basil, a native of the same city of Antioch, with whom we had studied under the same teachers, having himself already taken the monastic habit, advised me also to choose the monastic life. Obeying his good counsel, I desired to withdraw to a monastery at once, but was restrained by my mother. When she learned of my intention, she began to speak to me with tears: «Child! For but a short time was I gladdened by life together with thy father; with his death came thy orphanhood and my widowhood. Yet no misfortune could compel me to a second marriage or to introduce another husband into the house of thy father. Therefore I implore thee, child, cast me not into a second widowhood, but await my death. When thou hast buried me beside the bones of thy father, then do as thou wilt».

Under the influence of these entreaties I resolved for the time being not to leave the house; but, remaining at home, I exchanged bright garments for poor ones and began to lead a solitary life, spending my time in prayer and the study of the word of God. At that time I drew close to Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, who persuaded me to receive Baptism without delay; and having baptised me, he ordained me a reader in the church. In that office I remained for three years. At that time my mother reposed. After burying her, I at once distributed all my property to those in need, granted freedom to my menservants and maidservants, and myself settled in a monastery and became a monk.

The gift of teaching and the grace of the Holy Spirit which I had received from God were revealed to a certain monk named Hesychius who was labouring in our monastery. Advanced in years and perfect in virtue, he possessed the gift of clairvoyance. One night, when he was keeping vigil and praying, he was caught up in mind and saw two handsome men, clothed in white raiment and shining like the sun, descend from heaven and enter where I stood at prayer. One of them held a written scroll, and the other – keys.

Seeing them, I was troubled and hastened to bow down to them to the ground. But they, taking me by the hand, raised me up, saying: «Be of good courage and fear not!» I asked them: «Who are you, my lords?» They answered: «Fear not, O man of desires, new Daniel, in whom, for the purity of thy heart, the Holy Spirit has deigned to dwell! We have been sent to thee by the Great Teacher, our Saviour Jesus Christ». One of them held out the scroll to me, saying: «Take this scroll from my hand! I am John, who leaned upon the breast of the Lord at the Mystical Supper». The other handed me the keys with the words: «Take these keys, for I am Peter, to whom the keys of the Kingdom have been entrusted».

I again knelt, saying: «Who am I, a sinner and the last of all men, that I should take upon myself so great and terrible a ministry?» But they raised me up, saying: «Be manly, be strong, and do that to which our Lord Jesus Christ calleth thee. For the sake of truth thou shalt endure many afflictions and sorrows, but endure them as a hard adamant, for by this path thou shalt inherit the Kingdom of God». Having said this, they signed me with the sign of the Cross and departed.

While laboring for God in the monastery, I worked many miracles at that time. One inhabitant of Antioch, a wealthy man of noble birth, suffered greatly from a headache, so that his right eye had fallen out and was hanging on his cheek. Having given much of his property to physicians without receiving relief, he came to me in the monastery. I said to him: «Such illnesses befall people because of their sins and lack of faith; if you believe with all your soul that Christ is able to heal you, then you will see the glory of God.» He seized my garment and laid it upon his ailing eye — the illness ceased at once.

Likewise a certain Archelaus, an elder of the city, who suffered from leprosy on his face, came to me asking for healing; I commanded him to wash his brow with the water that the brethren in the monastery drink — and he was cleansed of the leprosy and himself became a monk. The monk Euclius, blind in one eye from birth, received his sight as soon as I pronounced over him: «May God heal you, brother.» I healed the woman with an issue of blood, Christina, through her husband, commanding her to cease her cruelty toward the servants, to give alms, and to keep herself pure in fasting and prayer.

At that time a fierce lion appeared not far from our monastery, devouring people and cattle; no weapon could overcome it. I gave the local villagers a wooden cross, commanding them to set it up at the place from which the beast emerged — and after several days they found the lion dead beside the cross.

I remained in the monastery for four years. Then, desiring greater solitude, I secretly withdrew into the desert, found a cave there and remained in it for two years, living alone. Worn out by many laborious struggles and suffering from the cold, I fell so ill that I could no longer care for myself, and therefore was compelled to return to Antioch. The most holy Patriarch Meletius received me with joy, gave me lodging and shortly thereafter ordained me to the rank of deacon. In this ministry I lived for six years, adorning the Church of God with a virtuous life and writings profitable to the soul: the «Book on Virginity», the discourse «To a Young Widow» and the apologetic discourse on blessed Babylas.

At that time Meletius had to go to Constantinople for the enthronement of Saint Gregory the Theologian as patriarch; soon after arriving there he fell asleep in the Lord. Upon hearing of the death of my patriarch, I again withdrew to the monastery in which I had dwelt before, and, pleasing God in silence, I remained there three years. The throne of the Church of Antioch was at that time occupied by Flavian.

Once when Flavian was standing at prayer during the night, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him and commanded him to go in the morning to the monastery where I was staying and ordain me to the priesthood, for I was a chosen vessel of God. At the same time the Angel appeared also to me while I was performing my nightly prayers, and commanded me to go with Flavian into the city and receive ordination from him. The next day my ordination was performed; when the patriarch laid his hand upon my head, a white, radiant dove suddenly appeared, flying above my head. The patriarch and all who were in the church marveled for a long time at this sign, and word of it spread throughout all Antioch and Syria.

In the rank of presbyter I cared for the salvation of human souls with even greater zeal: once or twice a week, and sometimes every day, I instructed the people in church, delivering sermons from the ambo. I often spoke my sermons extemporaneously, without a book or notebook, at which the inhabitants of Antioch greatly marveled, for until that time no one had preached the Word of God without a book. Many stenographers recorded my instructions on parchment and passed them on to others.

Once a certain woman, listening and not understanding what I had said, raised her voice among the people and said: «Spiritual teacher, or rather I shall call you — John Chrysostom, the well of your holy teaching is deep, but the ropes of our mind are short and cannot reach its depth.» Then many of the people said: «God Himself through the mouth of a woman gave this name to John.» From that time until the present the Church has preserved this name for me.

While teaching the inhabitants of Antioch the faith and Christian life, I was for them a comforter also in the days of public calamities. Once in the city, on account of the imposition of a heavy tax, a popular uprising occurred: the enraged mob threw down and smashed the statues of the emperor and members of his family. The Antiochians began to await the imperial wrath in terror. Flavian set out to the emperor to intercede for the city, and left me to comfort and heal the suffering souls. Great Lent arrived, and every day I ascended the ambo and addressed the people with words of comfort and edification, rebuking the vices of my fellow citizens. News of the pardon was brought by Flavian right on the day of Pascha, and on the first day of the feast I announced the good tidings to the people, saying: «Rejoice with spiritual joy, thank God not only for the cessation of the calamities, but also for the fact that He sent them».

At this time I also worked other miracles. A certain woman, named Euklia, had an only son who fell ill with a fever and was at the point of death; taking water, I made the sign of the Cross over it three times in the name of the Holy Trinity and sprinkled the sick boy — the fever immediately ceased. The wife of a certain commander of a fortress, an adherent of the Marcionite heresy, suffered from a severe illness; when the husband and wife joined the Orthodox Church, I ordered her to be poured with water over which Flavian had made the sign of the Cross — and she immediately rose up healthy.

After the death of Patriarch Nectarius of Constantinople they could not for a long time find a man worthy of the throne. Then they informed Emperor Arcadius about me, for my fame had spread everywhere, and the emperor sent a letter to Flavian ordering him to release me to Constantinople. When the people of Antioch learned of this, they gathered at the church and did not wish to be deprived of their teacher; nor did I myself wish to go, considering myself unworthy of the patriarchal rank. Then the emperor ordered Asterius, the governor of the East, to secretly convey me from Antioch, which was done. When I was approaching Constantinople, the whole city came out to meet me; the emperor together with the council of hierarchs and the people met me with honour, and all rejoiced at my elevation to the patriarchal throne. I was enthroned on the twenty-sixth of February.

The emperor and all the nobles came to me, desiring to receive a blessing. Having offered a prayer for the emperor and the people, I gave them a soul-profiting instruction, saying to him: «Let your piety know that I shall not fear, when the need arises, to offer admonitions and rebukes for the benefit of your soul, just as the prophet Nathan did not fear to rebuke the sins of King David». When after this I was conversing with my flock, a demon-possessed man appeared among the people, who in a fit threw himself to the ground; I ordered him to be brought forward, made the sign of the Cross over him and, casting out the unclean spirit, restored him to health. The emperor and all the people rejoiced and glorified God.

Having accepted the government of the Church, I began zealously to pasture the rational flock of Christ, uprooting evil customs and planting purity of morals, love and mercy. Having care for the infirm and the poor, I established many hospitals for strangers and the sick, supplying them with all necessities. I also sent experienced clergy to strengthen Orthodoxy by preaching: I utterly destroyed the pagan temples in Phoenicia and turned to the faith the Celtic people infected with Arianism, ordering the priests to learn their language.

In Constantinople there still remained many Arians. I said to the emperor: «If anyone were to set a simple, dark stone into your crown, would he not dishonour the whole crown? So too is this city dishonoured, having among its inhabitants the unfaithful Arians.» The emperor ordered them to be expelled from the city; then, for the first time, crosses on poles were made for solemn processions against the Arian blasphemies; these were carried through the city together with the holy icons — thus processions with the Cross arose. The general Gainas, a barbarian by birth who held to the heresy of Arius, asked the emperor for a church for the Arians; I reminded him of what he had been before and what he had become by the emperor’s mercy — and he asked no more for a church.

In my hours of solitude, as I continued to interpret the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, I doubted whether my understanding of the Scripture was pleasing to God. And then Proclus, who served me, saw three times by night that a certain elder, resembling the image of the Apostle Paul on the icon in my cell, stood behind me and quietly spoke into my ear. Realising that this was the Apostle Paul himself, I fell to the ground and prayed for a long time, thanking God.

Many people came to hate me for rebuking unrighteousness, and among them was the empress Eudoxia herself, for she was exceedingly avaricious. In Constantinople there lived a nobleman named Theodoric; the empress, wishing to appropriate his property, ordered him to lend part of his wealth to the treasury. I wrote to the empress, begging her not to wrong him; Theodoric, instructed by me concerning almsgiving, himself donated his wealth to the church hospice. The empress grew angry, supposing that I had seized this property for myself, and I replied to her in a letter that I had voluntarily renounced the wealth of my parents and had taken nothing from Theodoric.

The widow Callitrope was wronged by the governor Paulicius, who had taken from her five hundred gold pieces, and later by the empress herself, who returned to her only a small part of what had been taken. Coming to me, she told me of her trouble; I summoned Paulicius to the church and ordered him to return everything to her down to the last gold coin. When the empress sent soldiers to remove him by force, an Angel of the Lord with a drawn sword appeared to them in the church doors; one of the soldiers who had raised his hand against the door immediately withered in his arm and was healed only after washing it in the church washbasin. Paulicius returned the gold to the widow.

Later the empress seized the vineyard of the widow Theognosta; I begged her to return what she had taken, calling her a second Jezebel if she would not cease from unrighteousness — and she drove me from the palace with dishonour. On the feast of the Exaltation of the Honourable Cross I ordered the church doors to be shut before the empress, and she returned humiliated, burning with anger.

The Patriarch of Alexandria, Theophilus, who had long envied my glory, found an occasion to accuse me: I had taken under my protection monks whom he had expelled from Egypt without cause, and I had not refused them communion until I should examine the matter in council. Theophilus, having secured the favour of the empress, arrived in Constantinople with many bishops and convened a council against me in the Chalcedonian suburb. I replied to those sent from that gathering: «I cannot go to my manifest enemies», and I sent bishops in my stead, but I was not heard; the council condemned me without seeing my face or hearing my voice.

The emperor, believing the unrighteous council, ordered me to be expelled from the church; fearing to give occasion for further accusation, I secretly gave myself into the hands of the soldiers, and they conveyed me in a small boat to Prenetus, which lies opposite Nicomedia. The people raised a great tumult; many were killed and wounded; Theophilus in fear fled to Alexandria. That same night a violent earthquake occurred, and the empress’s palace was shaken; terrified, she implored the emperor to recall me. Yielding to her entreaties, I returned to Constantinople: the whole city came out to meet me with lighted candles, and I again sat upon my throne, imparting peace to the people.

Not two months had passed before a new storm arose against me. The empress set up her pillar near the church of Holy Wisdom, and around it there were disorderly rejoicings that drowned out the church singing. Zealous for the honour of the sanctuary, I said in church: «Again Herodias raves, again she is troubled, again she leaps and dances, again she seeks the head of John!» My enemies reported to the empress that by these words I had compared her to Herodias, and she again persuaded the emperor to convene a council. The assembled bishops, finding no other accusations, condemned me on the basis of the old Arian decrees because, having been deposed, I had of my own accord ascended the throne before a new council.

When the feast of Pascha arrived, the emperor, at the instigation of the bishops, ordered me to depart from the church. I was left under guard in the patriarchal house, and at the arrival of Pentecost I was led into exile. The soldiers, who had been ordered to wear me out, seated me on an unsaddled donkey and drove the animal swiftly, allowing me neither rest nor food; nowhere did they permit me to enter a church. From Cucusus, where I was at last brought, I wrote to Bishop Cyriacus: «We have suffered much distress on the journey, but we are not grieved by anything; whole companies of fathers and monks came out to meet us and wept, saying to one another: it would have been better for the sun to hide its rays than for the mouth of John to fall silent.» From there the empress ordered me to be sent still farther — to the deserted Pityus on the shore of the Pontic Sea.

During this last journey, enduring the cruel treatment of the soldiers, I also reposed. Shortly before my repose, while I was standing at prayer by night according to custom, the holy apostles Peter and John appeared to me and said: «Rejoice, good shepherd, steadfast passion-bearer; after a few days thou shalt depart to the Lord and shalt eternally rejoice with us in the Kingdom of Heaven». Having reached Comana, where there is a church of the holy martyr Basiliscus, on the night before the feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross I beheld in a vision the martyr himself, who said to me: «Brother John, take courage! For tomorrow we shall be together». I entreated the soldiers to remain longer by that church, but after they had sailed away they miraculously came to shore again at the same place; then I entered the church, partook of the Immaculate Mysteries, and after giving my companions the last kiss, with the words «Glory be to God for all things» I gave up my spirit to the Lord. This was on the very day of the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross of the Lord.

They laid me in the same church near the tomb of the martyr Basiliscus. The Lord took vengeance on my persecutors still on earth: they died in grievous illnesses, while the empress Eudoxia, eaten by worms, perished in that disease. After her death her tomb shook for thirty-two years, until the translation of my honorable relics from Comana to Constantinople took place. Thus was extinguished the lamp of the Church, thus fell silent the voice that was called not only most eloquent but also Chrysostom.

From your lips, like the brightness of fire, grace has shone forth,/ enlightened the universe:/ you have not won the treasures of the world through the love of money,/ show us the height of humbleness of mind./ But punishing with your words, father John Chrysostom, // pray to the Word of Christ God to save our souls.