John Crysostom

1. John Crysostom By Diego Wagner

2. Early life • Born in Antioch, Syria in about 347 AD, the leading intellectual center in the Eastern Roman Empire. • Tutored by the Pagan Libanius, a famous  rhetorician who had been a professor in both Athens and Constantinople. He received thorough training in Greek literature and rhetoric as well as in scripture and theology; the ideal preparation for a pastoral career. • Shifted his studies from the classical and profane( irreligious) to asceticism, and entered monastic seclusion after meeting the Bishop Meletius. • He withdrew himself from society to become a hermit in his youth, and he always praised the solitary life as the highest to which a Christian could aspire. • he first became a lector, then a deacon, and then a priest.

3. Chrysostom as Deacon and priest • Became a deacon in 381 AD by Meletius, who left to Constantinople to serve as president of the Second Ecumenical Council. • Ordained a priest in 386 AD by the bishop Flavian. • His skill as a preacher earned him the epithet, “golden-mouthed. ” • Through sermons, he dealt with all issues of the Church , civic as well as theological, which affected Christians of the time. • Some of these sermons, such as On the Incomprehensibility of God, Against Judaizing Christians, and Homilies on the Statues, became very famous. • Besides these three, there were hundreds of orations in praise of martyrs, sermons on the books of the bible, and discourses on various aspects of Christian life.

4. Don’t hate me cause I’m beautiful • Through these sermons we can see impatience with moral laity and corruption that created difficulties for John as Patriarch. • Even though he did not seek to be Patriarch, his fame left him little opportunity to refuse it after the death of Nectarius, his predecessor. • Soon, he became involved in Ecclesiastical conflicts and imperial intrigues from his honesty, high standards and direct speech, would not allow him to emerge unscathed. • He called his oeconomus, and ordered him to reduce the expenses of the episcopal household; he put an end to the frequent banquets, and lived a little less strictly than he had formerly lived as a priest and monk. •  he frequently preached against the unreasonable extravagances of the rich, and especially against the ridiculous finery in the matter of dress affected by women whose age should have put them beyond such vanities.

5. Preach brodda, preach! • composed his most famous book, "On the Priesthood,“ which contains an account of his early years and a defense of his flight from ordination by Bishop Meletius of Antioch, and then proceeds in later books to expound on his exalted understanding of the priesthood). • During the Lent of 387, the people of Antioch, excited by the levy of new taxes, had thrown down the statues of Emperor Theodosius. In fear of the emperor’s response, Chrysostom delivered a series of twenty or twenty-one  sermons, full of vigour, consolatory, exhortative, tranquilizing, until Flavian, the bishop, brought back from Constantinople the emperor's pardon. These came to be known as the Homilies on the Statues. • When the agitation of radical Arians threatened the stability of the Church in Antioch, he gave another series of sermons called the On theIncomprehensibility of God. • When the attraction of Christians to Jewish observances led to the participation in these observances, he gave 8 discourses known as Against Judaizing Christians, whose ugly language was later made to serve the interests of Medieval anti-Judaism. He went so far as to call Jews “God’s enemies.”

6. Problems in Istanbul is Constantinople now. • Some of the ministers abused their power under the Church. • Eutropius, a minister, deprived some wealthy persons of their property, and prosecuted others whom he suspected of being adversaries of rivals.  • Olympias, a widow and deaconess, committed an injustice in depriving a widow of her vineyard, which brought conflict between the Imperial court and the episcopal palace. • Also, Bishop Severianentered into an open enmity with Serapion, the archdeacon and oeconomus of the cathedral and the episcopal palace. • Made an enemy of Theophilius, the Patriarch of Alexandria, by defending Origenism when it had been outlawed in Egypt. • Criticized the empress, Eudocia, by criticizing her for her greed and injustice and even comparing her to Jezebel, a biblical queen known for her wickedness. Thus he was deposed, reinstated, and then deposed again and exiled in 404 AD.

7. After his exile • Chrysostom himself was conducted to Caucusus, a secluded and rugged place on the east frontier of Armenia, continually exposed to the invasions of the Isaurians. In the following year he had even to fly for some time to the castle of Arabissus to protect himself from these barbarians. • In the summer, 407, the order was given to carry him to Pithyus, a place at the extreme boundary of the empire, near the Caucasus. One of the two soldiers who had to lead him caused him all possible sufferings. He was forced to make long marches, was exposed to the rays of the sun, to the rains and the cold of the nights. His body, already weakened by several severe illnesses, finally broke down. On 14 September the party were at Comanan in Pontus. In the morning Chrysostom had asked to rest there on the account of his state of health. In vain; he was forced to continue his march. Very soon he felt so weak that they had to return to Comana. Some hours later Chrysostom died. His last words were: Doxa to theopantoneneken (Glory be to God for all things). • On January 27, 438, his body was translated to Constantinople.

8. Works Cited • http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08452b.htm