Saint John Chrysostom summary

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St. John Chrysostom, detail of a 12th-century mosaic; in the Palatine Chapel, Palermo, Sicily, Italy.

Saint John Chrysostom, (born 347, Antioch, Syria—died Sept. 14, 407, Comana, Helenopontus; Western feast day September 13; Eastern feast day November 13), Early Church Father, biblical interpreter, and archbishop of Constantinople. He was raised as a Christian and lived as a hermit until his health gave way, after which he returned to Antioch and was ordained a priest. He earned a reputation as a great preacher (Chrysostom means “golden-mouthed”). Against his wishes, he was appointed archbishop of Constantinople in 398. He angered the wealthy with his concern for the poor and his criticisms of the misuse of riches. A synod convened in 403 by Theophilus of Alexandria condemned him on 29 charges and banished him to Armenia. He died en route to a more distant exile on the Black Sea. In 438 his relics were brought to Constantinople, and he was rehabilitated by the church.

Christianity Summary

Christianity, major religion stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century ce. It has become the largest of the world’s religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. It has a constituency of

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Archbishop, in the Christian church, a bishop who, in addition to his ordinary episcopal authority in his own diocese, usually has jurisdiction (but no superiority of order) over the other bishops of a province. The functions of an archbishop developed out of those of the metropolitan, a bishop

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Saint, holy person, believed to have a special relationship to the sacred as well as moral perfection or exceptional teaching abilities. The phenomenon is widespread in the religions of the world, both ancient and contemporary. Various types of religious personages have been recognized as saints,

patristic literature Summary

Patristic literature, body of literature that comprises those works, excluding the New Testament, written by Christians before the 8th century. Patristic literature is generally identified today with the entire Christian literature of the early Christian centuries, irrespective of its orthodoxy or