John Chrysostom
Church father, Archbishop of Constantinople and Christian saint (c. 347–407)
b. c. 349 · d. 14 Sep 407
40th Archbishop of Constantinople (Ecumenical Patriarch)
Offices
John Chrysostom was a Church Father who served as Archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, and his ascetic sensibilities.
Related people
- Anthusa child of · traditional
- Pope Theophilus of Alexandria consecrated by · traditional
- Libanius disciple of · traditional
- Diodore of Tarsus disciple of · traditional
- Evagrius of Antioch ordained by · disputed
- Meletius of Antioch ordained by · documented
- Nectarius of Constantinople succeeded · inferred
- Heraklides consecrator of · traditional
- Proclus of Constantinople teacher of · traditional
- Palladius of Galatia teacher of · traditional
- Nicarete teacher of · traditional
- Nilus of Sinai teacher of · traditional
- John Cassian ordainer of · documented
- Arsacius of Tarsus preceded · traditional
Works
Events
Commemorated
Places
- Antioch ministry
- Constantinople ministry
- Cucusus exile
- Comana Pontica death
How we know
Recorded as a historical figure.
- Ecclesiastical History 4 claims — Diodore teaches at the asketerion in Antioch; John is made bishop of Constantinople; Synod of the Oak
- De Viris Illustribus (the continuation of Jerome) 1 claim — Cassian is ordained deacon by Chrysostom
- Ecclesiastical History 1 claim — Theodore leaves the ascetic life and John's letter brings him back
- Oriens Christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus 1 claim — Oriens Christianus I, col. 195 sqq. — Patriarchae Constantinopolitani
Documents
- On the Priesthood author
Written about
Sayings
- just as, if one's body were made of adamant, no iron, nor anything else, would have power to hurt it, even so when the soul is firmly compact by almsgiving… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Chrysostom answers each way a treasure can be lost — poverty, burglars, moths, envy, false accusation — and says almsgiving is the one form of wealth none of them reaches.
- The soul of a Bishop is for all the world like a vessel in a storm: lashed from every side, by friends, by foes, by one's own people, by strangers. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Preaching on the choosing of Matthias, Chrysostom stops to say what the office actually costs — and describes his own from the inside, ten months after being made archbishop of a…
- Let us then not consider how to leave our children rich, but how to leave them virtuous. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — From the homilies on Romans preached at Antioch, in a long attack on inherited wealth as a thing parents mistake for provision.
- Just as the night-time prayer of Paul and Silas opened the gates of the prison, so the night-time prayer of Christians opens the gates of heaven. Not in any book this project holds — A close paraphrase of the way Chrysostom really ends the homily, and not his sentence. He does draw exactly this contrast between the prison and heaven — which is why the…
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- For He is not so well pleased with being called Master, as Father, nor with having a slave as with having a son. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — On Romans 5: what God is said to prefer being called, which Chrysostom takes as the shortest statement of what the gospel changed.
- I do not think there are many among Bishops that will be saved, but many more that perish: and the reason is, that it is an affair that requires a great mind. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — In the same homily, and said from the throne: the higher the office, the more of it there is to fail at. It is the sentence of Chrysostom's that his enemies would have remembered…
- For nothing is more frigid than a teacher who shows his philosophy only in words: this is to act the part not of a teacher, but of a hypocrite. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The opening homily on Acts, arguing that Luke wrote a book of deeds rather than sayings because Christ taught that way first.
- For wherever the Holy Spirit is present, He makes men of gold out of men of clay. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — On Pentecost, explaining how the same men who ran from the courtyard came to stand in the street and preach.
- Thou dost not so much desire thy sins to be forgiven, as He desires to forgive thee thy sins. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — From the same homily as the passage on praying at night: Chrysostom's answer to a hearer who says he has offended God too far to come back.
- Since then we know this, let us practise humble-mindedness. For there is nothing so powerful as it, since it is stronger even than a rock and harder than… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Having compared a reckless man to a bubble and a fire of dry sticks, Chrysostom ends by making humility the fortification: the one position the devil's artillery cannot reach.
- Such are God's ways of ordering: the very things by which we are hurt, by these same are we benefited. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — On Paul setting the Pharisees and Sadducees against each other in the council: the danger he was in is what got him out of it.
- It is a great evil to be ignorant of the Scriptures: from the things we ought to get good from, we get evil. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The complaint Chrysostom returns to more than any other: not that his hearers read the Bible badly, but that they do not open it.
- Oh! how great is the devotion (philosophia) of this woman, that she should be even counted worthy of the appellation of apostle! Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Reading Paul's greeting to Andronicus and Junia, Chrysostom takes Junia for a woman and is astonished that a woman is called an apostle. It is the decisive ancient witness on a…
- Believe me, not fire so effectual to burn off rust, as night prayer to remove the rust of our sins. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Preaching on Peter freed from Herod's prison by the prayer of the church, Chrysostom makes night prayer a smith's fire and sin the rust it takes off.
- Not so you: none takes the Bible in hand: nay, everything rather than the Bible. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Preaching on the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah in his chariot, Chrysostom contrasts him with a congregation that owns the book and does not open it.
- Since a man is more dignified than a Church: for it was not for walls that Christ died, but for these temples. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Arguing that wounding a person's conscience is worse than damaging a church building, because the person is the older temple.
- Not what we say, but what we do, is what all men look to. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Paul on the stairs of the Antonia, about to address a crowd that wants him dead: Chrysostom notes that it is the bearing they watch, not the speech.
- Let us think over that night, the stocks, and the hymns of praise. This let us also do, and we shall open for ourselves—not a prison, but—heaven. If we pray… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Closing his homily on Paul and Silas singing at midnight in the Philippian jail, Chrysostom turns the earthquake into an argument for praying at night: their prayer opened a…
- Those are rulers, who bear rule over themselves. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Said of Agrippa and Festus entering the audience chamber in great pomp — Chrysostom's verdict on who in that room was actually in command.
- The Apostles were scourged, and they rejoiced: were bound, and they gave thanks: were stoned, and they preached. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Three reversals in one breath, compressing the whole book of Acts into a sentence.
- For it is not possible, I say not possible, ever to exhaust the mind of the Scriptures. It is a well which has no bottom. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Answering hearers who complained that he preached 'always the same things', Chrysostom argues that a text is not used up by being read: the more one dwells on it, the more of it…
- Nothing so becomes a Church as silence and good order. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — A preacher asking a congregation that applauded his sermons to stop.
- For we ought to smart not when we are punished, but when we sin. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Chrysostom's rule for reading a conscience: the pain that means something arrives with the act, not with its consequences.
- Thus too they that furnish a life to be wondered at, even though they hold their peace, yet glorify God, when others through them glorify Him. For He is not… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Arguing with Gentiles, Chrysostom says, point at people rather than at the sky: the heavens have declared God's glory for ages and persuaded few, while Paul preached a short time…
- And not in fine public monuments, nor yet somewhere out of sight, did He deposit His laws; not pillars of brass did He raise up, and engrave letters thereon… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Chrysostom contrasts the way empires publish their laws with the way Christ published his: not cut into brass, but written by the Spirit into twelve minds. The succession this…
- Where alms are, the devil dares not approach, nor any other evil thing. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Nine words closing a long argument that almsgiving is the one form of wealth nothing can reach.