The Wisdom of Saints: St John Chrysostom

The Feast of John Chrysostom, Doctor, Bishop of Constantinople, 407

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant John, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St John Chrysostom is one of the most well-known of the early Church fathers and is considered one of the eight Great Fathers of the Church. Chrysostom is actually not his family name, but rather an epithet derived from Greek meaning Golden-mouthed or Golden-tongued. Chrysostom was well-known for his public speaking, but is also important in modern times because unlike some of the Church Fathers, he wrote prolifically and his writings survive to this day. Dozens of his homilies on the books of the Bible survive and continue to be analysed and referenced in modern times, along with his other treatises on Christianity and letters to other Christians.

St John Chrysostom was born to Christian parents in the city of Antioch in 344, then under the control of the Roman Empire, and one of the chief centres of the early Christian Church. His father, an officer in the Syrian army, died when Chrysostom was still young and Chrysostom and his elder sister were ultimately raised by his mother who was still only twenty years old at the time of her husband’s death. Chrysostom was tutored by Libanius, one of the most famous orators of his age, and a staunch Roman pagan. He was given a classical Greek education, though his mother instilled in him Christian piety.

In 367, when Chrysostom was in his early twenties, he met Bishop Meletius of Antioch, whose personal charm and charisma focused Chrysostom towards a life of piety. He became a lector for the Church in Antioch where he spent time in prayer and studying the Scriptures and in manual labour. His earliest surviving writing that survive are from this period. In 374, he was drawn to the ascetic life of the monastics living in the mountains outside of Antioch. There he lived a life of solitude, fasting over-zealously to the point that his health was ruined and he was forced to return to Antioch where he resumed his life as a lector.

In 381, just a few years before his death, Bishop Meletius ordained Chrysostom as a deacon. He fulfilled his priestly duties and a few years later was ordained a priest by Meletius’s successor, Bishop Flavian. It was during this period that he wrote one of his most famous works, On the Priesthood. In 398, he was made Bishop of Constantinople, in an era when there was considerable political turmoil in the Empire, much of it related to Christianity.

Chrysostom had numerous supporters and was by this point becoming relatively well-known, particularly as Bishop of Constantinople. His chief political opponent, however, was the Empress Eudoxia, consort of Emperor Arcadius. Her hatred of Chrysostom and her husband’s weak rule allowed her to force Chrysostom into exile at multiple points in his later history. He ultimately died in exile in 407.

As a Doctor of the Church, St John Chrysostom is well-respected as a theologian in both Eastern and Western Christianity. Perhaps even more influential is his liturgy. A revision of the liturgies of the church used in those days which is today known as the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom and is the standard liturgy used by the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches of the Byzantine Rite.

In his Treatise on the Priesthood, St John Chrysostom laid out over six books both the history of his early life leading up to his own ordination, and then in the later books his own thoughts on the priesthood itself.

St John Chrysostom’s treatise speaks at lengths to the responsibilities of the priesthood, both for shepherding the flock and the teaching of right doctrine—issues of paramount importance in Chrysostom’s day giving the continuing conflicts over the Arian controversy—and the administration of the sacraments.

In Book 3 of his treatise, he makes a number of observations that highlight both the beauty of his prose, and his deep and significant understanding of Christian faith:

Picture Elijah and the vast multitude standing around him, and the sacrifice laid upon the altar of stones, and all the rest of the people hushed into a deep silence while the prophet alone offers up prayer: then the sudden rush of fire from Heaven upon the sacrifice: -- these are marvellous things, charged with terror. Now then pass from this scene to the rites which are celebrated in the present day; they are not only marvellous to behold, but transcendent in terror. There stands the priest, not bringing down fire from Heaven, but the Holy Spirit: and he makes prolonged supplication, not that some flame sent down from on high may consume the offerings, but that grace descending on the sacrifice may thereby enlighten the souls of all, and render them more refulgent than silver purified by fire.

In this eloquent passage, Chrysostom draws parallels and distinctions between familiar stories and images of the Old Testament—which Jewish raised Christians would have been familiar with and which all Christians would have some passing familiarity with as well—and the modern role of the Christian priest.

After referencing the Gospels of St Matthew and St John, he speaks to the inherent dignity of the priesthood, owed on account of the authority bestowed on priests by God, saying:

if a king should bestow this honor upon any of his subjects, authorizing him to cast into prison whom he pleased and to release them again, he becomes an object of envy and respect to all men; but he who has received from God an authority as much greater as heaven is more precious than earth, and souls more precious than bodies, seems to some to have received so small an honor that they are actually able to imagine that one of those who have been entrusted with these things will despise the gift. Away with such madness! For transparent madness it is to despise so great a dignity, without which it is not possible to obtain either our own salvation, or the good things which have been promised to us. For if no one can enter into the kingdom of Heaven except he be regenerate through water and the Spirit, and he who does not eat the flesh of the Lord and drink His blood is excluded from eternal life, and if all these things are accomplished only by means of those holy hands, I mean the hands of the priest, how will any one, without these, be able to escape the fire of hell, or to win those crowns which are reserved for the victorious?

In this section, Chrysostom synthesizes the Gospel writings on the priesthood and their authority and speaks to a Catholic understanding of the sacraments, and in particular that of Holy Baptism and the Supper of our Lord as they relate to salvation.

The awesome dignity Chrysostom ascribes to the priesthood is commensurate in his mind with their sacramental importance. They have been charged with an authority, and thus responsibility, of immense weight in relation to the salvation of mankind, and that authority, charged by God through the Holy Spirit, should be recognized and respected. The priesthood to Chrysostom is no small thing.

Even in his early books, he could not help but justify his thoughts by Scripture. It is perhaps his eloquence which brought him to fame, and the sheer breadth of his writings that maintained it, particularly among Eastern Christians, but as Anglicans who view Christianity not through the lens of the ancient Eastern Patriarchs or the See of Rome, but through the Holy Scriptures, could how could Chrysostom not become a revered saint and teacher? With so many of his writings surviving to this day and translated into English, we all have much to learn from the golden-tongued saint!