Chrysostom, St. John

Chrysostom, St. John 

Born circa 344–354 in Antioch; died Sept. 14, 407, near Comana in Pontus. Patriarch of Constantinople from 398; prominent ideological figure of the Eastern Church.

John Chrysostom was educated in Antioch at the school of Libanius, the pagan rhetorician. He was a brilliant orator (hence his surname, Chrysostom, “the golden-mouthed,” given him in the sixth century), and he wrote many sermons, panegyrics, psalms, and biblical commentaries. His sermons contain vivid pictures of the social and religious life of the time. He actively opposed the military hold of the Goths on Constantinople and accordingly opposed Arianism; in 400 he helped drive the Goths out of the city. Although he did not call for social reform (par-ticulary the abolition of slavery) and indirectly urged the strengthening of the ruling class and the church, his attack on the vices of privileged society—the sumptuousness of the imperial court and the corruption of the higher clergy—elicited the strong disapproval of the Constantinople government. He was deposed in 403, later returned to the patriarchal see, and was again deposed in 404 and exiled to Cucusus in Lesser Armenia. He was canonized by the Christian church. The Orthodox Church incorrectly ascribes its liturgy to him (the so-called Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).

WORKS

Opera omnia, vols. 1–13. Paris, 1858–60. (Patrologiae cursus completus, ser. graeca, vols. 47–64. Edited by J. P. Migne.
In Russian translation:
Tvoreniia sv. ottsa nashego Ioanna Zlatousta …, vols. 1–12. St. Petersburg, 1895–1906.

REFERENCES

Kurbatov, G. L. “Klassovaia sushchnost’ ucheniia Ioanna Zlatousta.” Ezhegodnik muzeia istorii religii i ateizma, 1958, issue 2.
Baur, C. Der heilige Johannes Chrysostomus and seine Zeit, vols. 1–2. Munich, 1929–30.