John Chrysostom, St (c. 347-407)

One of the fathers of the early Christian Church. After an early academic career of great brilliance under Libanius, he was baptized c. 370 at the insistence of his mother and many Christian friends. For ten years he lived in retirement, studying theology, but his austere life damaged his health, and he returned to Antioch and was ordained. After a further ten years' strenuous work there, John became patriarch of Constantinople, and one the greatest preachers of the age. His eloquence, however, won him as many enemies as adherents. His festival in the eastern calendar is 13 November; in the western, 13 September, formerly 27 January. The prayer of St Chrysostom, in the English Book of Common Prayer, is from the liturgy named after him.

His sermons in St Sophia were directed both against the Arians and the licentiousness of the Imperial court and the idleness and vice of the innumerable monks in the city. The Arians, having no place of worship, met at night outside public buildings and sang hymns expounding their doctrines. To counteract this, John arranged nightly processional hymn singing, the first example of hymns combined with an act of worship. Riots and bloodshed ensued.

Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, summoned John to a synod at Chalcedon, away from the fury of the people of Constantinople, who were ardent supporters of their archbishop. John refused to appear and was removed to Nicaea in Bithynia. The populace was so indignant that he was hastily restored to his see. Two months later he was once again exiled, this time to Cucusus in Cilicia. There he wrote many of his greatest sermons and letters, and planned missions to the Persians and Goths. His enemies then had him moved to the far desert of Pityus, and on his way there he died, prompting fresh riots in Constantinople.