Feast day: September 13

St. John Chrysostom

Bishop & Doctor of the Church · c. 347–407

Patron of Preachers, orators, Constantinople

'Golden-mouthed' Patriarch of Constantinople whose fearless sermons against luxury got him exiled by the empress — twice; he died on the forced march.

John was born about 349 at Antioch and, after studying rhetoric under the best teachers of the day, withdrew to live as a monk and hermit in the nearby mountains. The austerities there ruined his health and sent him back to the city, but they also formed the man; ordained a priest, he became the greatest preacher the Church has ever known, so eloquent that later ages gave him the name 'Chrysostom' — 'golden-mouthed.'

For years he preached at Antioch, expounding the Scriptures book by book in homilies of such power, clarity, and practical force that they were copied and treasured, and survive in greater number than the works of any other Greek Father. He spoke fearlessly about wealth and poverty, urging the rich that the goods they hoarded belonged to the hungry, and that Christ was to be honored not only at the altar but in the beggar at the door.

Against his will he was seized and made archbishop of Constantinople, the imperial capital, in 398. There his reforming zeal and his blunt sermons against luxury and vanity made powerful enemies, above all the empress Eudoxia, who took his denunciations of extravagance as aimed at herself. He was twice driven into exile.

Marched on foot in cruel conditions to a remote corner of the empire, he died in exile in 407, his last words, by tradition, 'Glory to God for all things.' Thirty years later his body was brought back in triumph to Constantinople. He is honored as a Father and Doctor of the Church and, in the East, as one of the three great Holy Hierarchs.

His preaching was so good that congregations applauded mid-sermon — and he scolded them for it, telling them to applaud with their lives instead.

“If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice.”
— St. John Chrysostom

Image: artist unknown (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/08452b.htm