Saint John Chrysostom

John was born in Antioch in Syria between 344 and 354. He earned his nickname in the pulpit: Chrysostom, golden mouth, and that’s what people have called him for sixteen hundred years. He studied rhetoric with the greatest pagan teacher of the day, Libanius, who, when asked who should succeed him, replied: it would have been John, if the Christians hadn’t stolen him from us. For years he lived as a monk in the caves outside the city, and he came out with his health ruined for good. In Antioch he preached for twelve years, and his homilies filled the basilica. He was extremely down-to-earth: he talked about prices, about usury, about slaves, about how people treated the poor at their front door. He said that the first altar to honor is the poor person out in the street. In 397 he was made patriarch of Constantinople against his will. And that’s where the trouble began. He cut the expenses of the bishop’s household, sold the furnishings to build hospitals, and publicly attacked the luxury of the court — including that of the Empress Eudoxia, which cost him everything. He was deposed, exiled, recalled, exiled again, to places farther and farther away. He died while being moved on foot, at Comana in Pontus, on September 14, 407. The last words attributed to him are: “Glory to God for all things.” He is a doctor of the Church, and the liturgy that bears his name is the one the Orthodox still celebrate today. If your name is John, today is your name day.