St. John Chrysostom

Archbishop of ConstantinopleFeast November 13

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The greatest preacher of the Church, who spoke without notes for hours and whom the people called Chrysostom, 'Golden-Mouth', for the sweetness and force of his words.

Born: c. 349 (Antioch)
Reposed: September 14, 407
See: Constantinople
Feast: November 13 · January 27 · January 30

Born in Antioch around 349 to a noble family, John was reared by his widowed mother Anthusa, who refused remarriage in order to give her son a Christian upbringing. He studied rhetoric under the famous pagan teacher Libanius, who is said to have wished John would succeed him 'if the Christians had not stolen him.'

After his mother's repose he withdrew to the mountains outside Antioch to practice asceticism, spending two of those years in a cave learning the Scriptures by heart. The harshness of the regime broke his health, and he returned to the city, was ordained deacon, then presbyter, and for twelve years preached the homilies that fill fifteen volumes of his collected works.

It was at Antioch, in the Lent of 387, that he became the voice of a terrified city. When the people, crushed by a new tax, had thrown down and broken the statues of the emperor Theodosius and dreaded his vengeance, John preached the twenty-one Homilies on the Statues, holding the city together with the fear of God and the hope of mercy until imperial pardon came. The people never forgot it, and it was there that the name Golden-Mouth fastened to him.

In 397 he was seized, almost kidnapped, and brought to Constantinople to be made archbishop of the capital. He gave away the silver of the patriarchate, fed the poor, and from the pulpit rebuked the luxury of the court. The empress Eudoxia, whose vanity he had publicly named, twice procured his exile.

The second exile killed him. Sent on foot through the Armenian highlands in the winter of 407, he died at Comana in Pontus on September 14, his last words: 'Glory to God for all things.'

Thirty-one years later, in 438, his relics were brought home to Constantinople in triumph, and the emperor Theodosius II laid his face upon the coffin to beg forgiveness for the wrong his parents had done the saint. The Church numbers him with St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory the Theologian as one of the Three Hierarchs, and keeps him as the author of the Divine Liturgy most often served in Orthodox churches to this day.

In his own words

Let no one fear death, for the death of the Savior has set us free.
St. John Chrysostom, The Paschal Homily, The Sermon
For many of our conceptions about God, we are unable to express, as also many things we express, but have not strength to conceive of them.
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 2, Hebrews 1:3, NPNF I 14
Nothing is more frigid than a Christian, who cares not for the salvation of others.
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily 20, Acts 9:10, 12, NPNF I 11
Nothing is so important as thy brother's salvation.
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans, Homily 26, Romans 14:14, NPNF I 11
Nothing is worse than envy; to destroy another it destroys itself also.
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homily 55, John 8:48, 49, NPNF I 14
He that loves never can hate.
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, Homily 33, 1 Corinthians 13:4, NPNF I 12
Nothing is more blessed than that chain.
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Ephesians, Homily 8, Ephesians 4:1, 2, NPNF I 13
Almsgiving I mean, fits not only the rich, but also the needy.
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 1, Hebrews 1:1, 2, NPNF I 14
God has bestowed a power on priests greater than that of our natural parents.
St. John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood, Book III, §6, NPNF I 9
For neither of these did the Law avail, but grace was sufficient for both.
St. John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, Chapter I, Galatians 1, NPNF I 13

Holy St. John Chrysostom, pray to God for us.

In his own words

Books in print