Saint John
Chrysostom - Patriarch of Constantinople
Troparion
in Tone 8
Grace shining forth from your lips
like a beacon has enlightened the universe;
It has shone to the world the riches of poverty;
It has revealed to us the heights of humility.
Teaching us by your words, O Father John Chrysostom,
Intercede before the Word, Christ our God, to save our souls
Kontakion
in Tone 6
Having received divine grace from heaven,
You teach all men to adore the one God in three persons.
O all-blessed John Chrysostom, we rightly praise you,
For you are our teacher, revealing things divine!
The legion of saints of the Church is comprised
of men of extraordinary ability whose talents may have been dissimilar
but many of whom seem to have shared a common genius for oratory. Yet
out of this vast assembly of eloquent speakers, whose reputation might
have rested on their gift of expression alone, the one for whom the
title "Chrysostom" (in Russian, "Zlatoust"), or "golden-mouthed" was
reserved, was John of Antioch, known as St. John Chrysostom, a great
distinction in view of the qualifications of so many others.
Endeared as one of the four great doctors of
the Church, St. John Chrysostom was born in 347 in Antioch, Syria and
was prepared for a career in law under the renowned Libanius, who
marveled at his pupil's eloquence and foresaw a brilliant career for his
pupil as statesman and lawgiver. But John decided, after he had been
baptized at the age of 23, to abandon the law in favor of service to the
Savior. Shortly thereafter his mother died and Chrysostom fled
from the deductions and tumults of city life to the monastic solitude of
the mountains south of Antioch. There he spent six happy years in
theological study, sacred meditation and prayer.
Chrysostom as a Monk
(AD 374-381)
There spent six happy years in theological
study and sacred meditation and prayer. Monasticism was to him (as to
many other great teachers of the Church) a profitable school of
spiritual experience and self-government. He embraced this mode of life
as "the true philosophy" from the purest motives, and brought
into it intellect and cultivation enough to make the seclusion available
for moral and spiritual growth.
He gives us a lively description of the bright
side of this monastic life. The monks lived in separate cells or huts,
but according to a common rule and under the authority of an abbot. They
wore coarse garments of camel's hair or goat's hair over their linen
tunics. They rose before sunrise, and began the day by singing a hymn of
praise and common prayer under the leadership of the abbot. Then they
went to their allotted task, some to read, others to write, others to
manual labor for the support of the poor. Four hours in each day were
devoted to prayer and singing. Their only food was bread and water,
except in case of sickness. They slept on straw couches, free from care
and anxiety. There was no need of bolts and bars. They held all things
in common, and the words of "mine and thine," which cause innumerable
strifes in the world, were unknown among the brethren. If one died, he
caused no lamentation, but thanksgiving, and was carried to the grave
amidst hymns of praise; for he was not dead, but "perfected," and
permitted to behold the face of Christ. For them to live was Christ, and
to die was gain.
Chrysostom was an admirer of active and useful
monasticism, and warns against the dangers of idle contemplation. He
shows that the words of our Lord, "One thing is needful"; "Take no
anxious thought for the morrow"; "Labor not for the meat that
perisheth," do not inculcate total abstinence from work, but only undue
anxiety about worldly things, and must be harmonized with the apostolic
exhortation to labor and to do good. He defends monastic seclusion on
account of the prevailing immorality in the cities, which made it almost
impossible to cultivate there a higher Christian life.
From the pulpit there emerged John, a preacher
whose oratorical excellence gained him a reputation throughout the
Christian world, a recognition which spurred him to even greater
expression that found favor with everyone but the Empress Eudoxia, whom
he saw fit to examine in some of his sermons.
When St. John was forty-nine years old, his
immense popularity earned him election to the Patriarchate of
Constantinople. From this prestigious post he launched a crusade against
excessiveness and extreme wealth, which the Empress Eudoxia construed as
a personal affront to her and her royal court. This also gave rise to
sinister forces that envied his tremendous influence. His enemies found
an instrument for his indictment, when they discovered that he had
harbored some pious monks who had been excommunicated by his archrival
Theophilos, Bishop of Alexandria, who falsely accused John of treason
and surreptitiously plotted his exile.
When it was discovered that the great St. John had been exiled by the
puppets of the state, there arose such a clamor of protest, promising a
real threat of civil disobedience, that not even the royal court dared
to confront the angry multitudes and St John was restored to his post.
At about this time he put a stop to a practice which was offensive to
him, although none of his predecessors outwardly considered it
disrespectful; this practice was applauding in church, which would be
considered extremely vulgar today, and the absence of which has added to
the solemnity of Church services.
This great ecumenical teacher and hierarch died
in the city of Comana in the year 407 on his way to a place of exile. He
had been condemned by the intrigues of the empress Eudoxia because of
his daring denunciation of the vices ruling over Constantinople. The
transfer of his venerable relics was made in the year 438, thirty years
after the death of the saint during the reign of Eudoxia's son emperor
Theodosius II (408-450).
St John Chrysostom had the warm love and deep
respect of the people, and grief over his untimely death lived on in the
hearts of Christians. St John's disciple, St. Proclus, Patriarch of
Constantinople (434-447), during services in the Church of Hagia Sophia,
preached a sermon praising St John. He said, "O John, your life was
filled with sorrow, but your death was glorious. Your grave is blessed
and reward is great, by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus ChriSt O
graced one, having conquered the bounds of time and place! Love has
conquered space, unforgetting memory has annihilated the limits, and
place does not hinder the miracles of the saint."
Those who were present in church, deeply
touched by the words of St Proclus, did not allow him even to finish his
sermon. With one accord they began to entreat the Patriarch to intercede
with the emperor, so that the relics of St John might be brought back to
Constantinople.
The emperor, overwhelmed by St Proclus, gave his consent and gave the
order to transfer the relics of St John. But those he sent were unable
to lift the holy relics until the emperor realized that he had sent men
to take the saint's relics from Comana with an edict, instead of with a
prayer. He wrote a letter to St John, humbly asking him to forgive his
audacity, and to return to Constantinople. After the message was read at
the grave of St John, they easily took up the relics, carried them onto
a ship and arrived at Constantinople.
The coffin with the relics was placed in the
Church of Holy Peace (Hagia Eirene). When Patriarch Proclus opened the
coffin, the body of St John was found to be incorrupt. The emperor
approached the coffin with tears, asking forgiveness for his mother, who
had banished St John. All day and night people did not leave the coffin.
In the morning the coffin was brought to the Church of the Holy
Apostles. The people cried out, "Father, take up your throne." Then
Patriarch Proclus and the clergy standing by the relics saw St John open
his mouth and say, "Peace be to all." Many of the sick were healed at
his tomb.
The celebration of the transfer of the relics
of St John Chrysostom was established in the ninth century.
St. John delivered a sermon in which he deplored the adulation of a
frenzied crowd at the unveiling of a public statue of the Empress
Eudoxia. His sermon was grossly exaggerated by his enemies, and by the
time it reached the ears of the Empress it resulted in his permanent
exile from his beloved city of Constantinople. The humiliation of
banishment did not deter the gallant, golden-mouthed St. John, who
continued to communicate with the Church and wrote his precious prose
until he died in the lonely reaches of Pontus in 407.
The treasure of treatises and letters which St. John left behind,
included the moving sermon that is heard at Easter Sunday services. The
loss of his sermons which were not set down on paper is incalculable.
Nevertheless, the immense store of his excellent literature reveals his
insight, straightforwardness, and rhetorical splendour, and commands a
position of the greatest respect and influence in Christian thought,
rivaling that of other Fathers of the Church. His liturgy, which we
respectfully chant on Sundays, is a living testimony of his greatness.
The slight, five-foot St. John stood tall in his defiance of state
authority, bowing only to God and never yielding the high principles of
Christianity to expediency or personal welfare. In the words of his
pupil, Cassia of Marseilles, "It would be a great thing to attain his
stature, but it would be difficult. Nevertheless, a following of him is
lovely and magnificent."
It is impossible to cover the entire life of St John Chrysostom in a
few pages. However apart from providing a very brief outline of his
life, we have included a little more information about his life as a
monk and as Patriarch of Constantinople.
Chrysostom as Patriarch of Constantinople (AD 398-404)
After the death of Nectarius towards the end of the year 397,
Chrysostom was chosen, entirely without his own agency and even against
his remonstrance, archbishop of Constantinople. He was hurried away from
Antioch by a military escort, to avoid a commotion in the congregation
and to make resistance useless. He was consecrated Feb. 26, 398, by his
Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, who reluctantly yielded to the
command of the Emperor Arcadius.
Constantinople, built by Constantine the Great in 330, on the site of
Byzantium, assumed as the Eastern capital of the Roman empire the first
position among the Episcopal sees of the East, and became the centre of
court theology, court intrigues, and theological controversies.
Chrysostom soon gained by his eloquent sermons the admiration of the
people, of the weak Emperor Arcadius, and, at first, even of his wife
Eudoxia, with whom he afterwards waged a deadly war. He extended his
pastoral care to the Goths who were becoming numerous in Constantinople,
had a part of the Bible translated for them, often preached to them
himself through an interpreter, and sent missionaries to the Gothic and
Scythian tribes on the Danube. He continued to direct by correspondence
those missionary operations even during his exile. For a short time he
enjoyed the height of power and popularity.
But he also made enemies by his denunciations of the vices and
follies of the clergy and aristocracy. He emptied the Episcopal palace
of its costly plate and furniture and sold it for the benefit of the
poor and the hospitals. He introduced his strict ascetic habits and
reduced the luxurious household of his predecessors to the strictest
simplicity. He devoted his large income to benevolence. He refused
invitations to banquets, gave no dinner parties, and ate the simplest
fare in his solitary chamber. He denounced unsparingly luxurious habits
in eating and dressing, and enjoined upon the rich the duty of
almsgiving to an extent that tended to increase rather than diminish the
number of beggars who swarmed in the streets and around the churches and
public baths. He disciplined the vicious clergy and opposed the perilous
and immoral habit of unmarried priests of living under the same roof
with "spiritual sisters." This habit dated from an earlier age, and was
a reaction against celibacy. Cyprian had raised his protest against it,
and the Council of Nicea forbade unmarried priests to live with any
females except close relations.
Chrysostom's unpopularity was increased by his irritability and
obstinacy. The Empress Eudoxia was jealous of his influence over
Arcadius and angry at his uncompromising severity against sin and vice.
She became the chief instrument of his downfall.
The occasion was furnished by an unauthorised use of his Episcopal
power beyond the lines of his diocese, which was confined to the city.
At the request of the clergy of Ephesus and the neighbouring bishops, he
visited that city in January, 401, held a synod and deposed six bishops
convicted of shameful simony. During his absence of several months he
left the Episcopate of Constantinople in the hands of Severian, bishop
of Gabala, an unworthy and adroit flatterer, who basely betrayed his
trust and formed a cabal headed by the empress and her licentious court
ladies, for the ruin of Chrysostom.
On his return to Constantinople he used unguarded language in the
pulpit, and spoke on Elijah's relation to Jezebel in such a manner that
Eudoxia understood it as a personal insult. The clergy were anxious to
get rid of a bishop who was too severe for their lax morals.
The Repose of Saint John and the Transfer of His Relics
The saint died in the city of Comene on September 14th in the year
407 on his way to a place of exile, having been condemned by the
intrigues of the empress Eudoxia because of his daring denunciation of
the vices ruling over Constantinople. The last words on his lips were,
"Glory be to God for all things!" The transfer of his venerable relics
was made in the year 438: after 30 years following the death of the
saint during the reign of Eudoxia's son emperor Theodosius II (408-450).
Saint John Chrysostom had the warm love and deep respect of the
people, and grief over his untimely death lived on in the hearts of
Christians. Saint John's student, Saint Proclus, Patriarch of
Constantinople (434-447), making Divine-services in the Church of Saint
Sophia, preached a sermon which in glorifying Saint John he said: "O
John! Thy life was filled with difficulties, but thy death was glorious,
thy grave is blessed and reward abundant through the grace and mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ. O graced one, having conquered the bounds of time
and place! Love hath conquered space, unforgetting memory hath
annihilated the limits, and place doth not hinder the miracles of the
saint." Those who were present in church, deeply touched by the words of
Saint Proclus, did not allow him even to finish his sermon. With one
accord they began to entreat the Patriarch to intercede with the
emperor, so that the relics of Saint John might be transferred to
Constantinople. The emperor, overwhelmed by Saint Proclus, gave his
consent and made the order to transfer the relics of Saint John. But the
people dispatched by him were by no means able to life up the holy
relics -- not until that moment when the emperor realizing his oversight
that he had not sent the message to Saint John, humbly beseeching of him
forgiveness for himself and for his mother Eudoxia. The message was read
at the grave of Saint John and after this they easily lifted up the
relics, carried them onto a ship and arrived at Constantinople. The
reliquary coffin with the relics was placed in the Church of the holy
Martyr Irene. The Patriarch opened the coffin: the body of Saint John
had remained without decay. The emperor, having approached the coffin
with tears, asked forgiveness. All day and night people did not leave
the coffin. In the morning the reliquary coffin with its relics was
brought to the Church of the Holy Apostles. The people cried out:
"Receive back thy throne, father!" Then Patriarch Proclus and the clergy
standing at the relics saw Saint John open his mouth and pronounce:
"Peace be to all."
