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Dialogue on the Life of St John Chrysostom

Palladius, tr. Moore, 1921

5. The Early Career of Chrysostom

Chrysostom’s Birth and Early Years

This John was (yes, he has fallen asleep) by birth a man of Antioch, the son of honourable parents, his father ¹ holding the office of military commander in Syria; an elder sister was the only other child. He was gifted with unusual ability, and was carefully trained in letters,² for the ministry of the oracles ³ of God. At the age of eighteen, a boy in years, he revolted against the professors of verbosities; and a man in intellect, he delighted in divine learning. At that time the blessed Meletius the Confessor, an Armenian by race, was ruling the Church of Antioch; he noticed the bright lad, and was so much attracted by the beauty of his character, that he allowed him to be continually in his company. His prophetic eye foresaw the boy’s future. He was admitted to the mystery ⁴ of the washing of regeneration, and after three years of attendance ⁵ on the bishop, advanced to be reader.⁶

But as his conscience would not allow him to be satisfied with work in the city, for youth was hot within him, though his mind was sound, he turned to the neighbouring mountains; here he fell in with an old man named Syrus,⁷ living in self-discipline, whose hard life he resolved to share. With him he spent four years, battling with the rocks of pleasure. When he found it more easy to master these, not so much by toil as by reason,⁸ he retired to a cave by himself, in his eagerness to hide himself from the world, and there spent twenty-four months, for the greater part of which he denied himself sleep, while he studied the covenants ⁹ of Christ, the better to dispel ignorance. Two years spent without lying down by night or day deadened his gastric organs, and the functions of the kidneys were impaired by the cold.¹⁰ As he could not doctor himself, he returned to the haven of the Church.

And here we see the providence of the Saviour, in withdrawing him by his infirmity, for the good of the Church, from ascetic toils, and compelling him by this obstacle of ill-health to leave the caves.¹¹

Chrysostom as Deacon and Priest

Next, after serving the altar for five years, he was ordained deacon ¹² by Meletius. By this time his brilliant abilities as a teacher were famous, and the people found in intercourse with him sweet refreshment from the bitterness of life; Bishop Flavianus ¹³ therefore ordained him presbyter. For twelve years he was a shining light in the Church of Antioch, lending dignity to the priesthood there by the strictness of his life; some he salted with sobriety, some he illuminated by his teaching, some he refreshed with draughts of the spirit. Thus all was fair sailing under the steersmanship of Christ, when the blessed ¹⁴ Nectarius,¹⁵ bishop of the Church of Constantinople, fell asleep. Immediately a crowd of people who were not called for rushed forward to secure the supreme position—men who were not men, presbyters by office, yet unworthy of the priesthood; some battering at the doors of officials, others offering bribes, others again going on their knees to the populace. The orthodox laity were much disturbed by all this, and importuned the king with petitions for an experienced priest.

Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople

The most influential man of affairs was Eutropius ¹⁶ the eunuch, chief of the royal chamberlains. It was his wish to have John in charge of the city, as he had gained some experience of his high character when some business of the king took him to the further East; so he advised the king to send instructions to the governor ¹⁷ of Antioch, to send John quietly out of the city, without disturbing the Church. The governor, immediately on receipt of the letter, summoned him to present himself at the shrines of the martyrs,¹⁸ outside the city, near the gate known as Romanesia; where he put him in a public conveyance, and entrusted him to the care of the eunuch sent by Eutropius, and the magistrate’s guard. Thus he reached Constantinople, and was ordained bishop of the Church of that city.¹⁹

Theophilus’ Hostility

Now Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, as he observed his bearing,²⁰ and the irreproachable outspokenness of his language, was from the beginning bitterly opposed ²¹ to his ordination. For Theophilus is very clever at judging faces; the will and mind of a man are not easy to read.²²

Deac. One moment, father. I must raise a slight objection.

Bish. What is your difficulty?

Deac. If Theophilus is so sharp-sighted, how is it that he was unaware that if he expelled John from his see, he would disturb the whole world?

Bish. There is nothing wonderful in this, my dear sir; even the demons recognized the advent of the Saviour, and yet were unaware that they would be made powerless by a single breath from those who believed in Him.

Deac. Where do we find that they recognized the Saviour’s presence?

Bish. When they cried, “We know Thee who Thou art, the holy one of God; why hast Thou come to torment us before the time?” ²³ You see that they knew, even then, that He is not only holy, but also judge. But apart from demons, unfortunate prostitutes recognize men of self-control from the bearing of their eyes, and avoid them, just as a diseased eye avoids the light of the sun, or the vulture sweet scent. How is it that “Godliness is an abomination to sinners,” if they cannot recognize godliness? So it was that Theophilus, not finding anything in John’s face corresponding to his own eye, or that which he desired to find, inferred his hostility, as a matter of unsupported conjecture.

Deac. You surprise me, father. But why did he oppose his ordination?

Bish. It was always his policy not to ordain good and sensible men, except by inadvertence, as he wished them all to be weak-minded persons, over whom he could dominate; he thought it better to dominate over weak-minded men than to hear the wisdom of the prudent. None the less, willing or unwilling, he had to yield to saving Providence.

Reforms of the Life of the Clergy

Thus John was ordained, and entered upon the care of affairs. At first, he tested his flock by playing to them upon the pipe of reason. But occasionally he exercised the staff of correction ²⁴ as well; he inveighed against the mode of life, white-washed under the name of “brotherly life,” which he called by its right name of “evil life,” in connection with the women known as “introduced.” ²⁵ He showed it to be worse, if a choice of evils had to be made, than that of brothel-keepers; for they live far from the surgery, and keep the disease to themselves, for those who desire it, while the “brothers” live within the workshop of salvation, and invite healthy people to come and catch the disease. This caused great indignation to those among the clergy who were without the love of God, and blazing with passion.

Reform of the Life of the Laity

He next took action against injustice, pulling down avarice, that metropolis of evils, to build an habitation of righteousness. This is characteristic of wise master-builders, first to pull down the habitation of falsehood, and then to lay the foundation of truth, as it is said in the prophet, “I have set thee over peoples and kingdoms, to root up and to plant, to dig down and to rebuild.” ²⁶ The first expressions refer to his work as husbandman, the second as a builder. Next, he disturbed the numerous purse-worshippers, and then attended to their manner of life, urging them to be content with their own earnings, and not to be always dangling after the savoury odours of the rich. To follow smoke as their torch-bearer meant handing themselves over to the fire of licence; this was the result of following the life of the flatterer and the parasite. Then, most of the gluttons were dug out of their holes, and the sharp people who bring false accusations shared the same fate.

Reform of Church Finance

Then he examined the account books of the Church treasurer, and found expenditure which was of no benefit to the Church; these grants he ordered to be stopped. This brought him to another financial question—the bishop’s expenditure. Here he found extraordinary extravagance, and ordered the large sums so spent to be transferred to the hospital. ²⁷ As the need of treatment was very great, he erected other hospitals, over which he appointed two devout priests, as well as doctors and cooks, and kindly workers from among his celibates to assist them; so that strangers coming to the city, and there falling ill, could obtain medical care, as a thing which was not only good in itself, but also for the glory of the Saviour.

Reform of the Order of Widows

Then he summoned the members of the order ²⁸ of widows, and made a searching investigation into cases of misconduct; some, whom he found too fond of carnal pursuits, he admonished either to adopt the practice of fasting, and to abstain from the bath ²⁹ and from over-dressing, or else to proceed without delay to a second marriage, that the law of the Lord might not be brought into disrepute.

Reform of Devotion

Next, he urged the people to join in the intercessions ³⁰ offered during the night,³¹ as the men had no leisure during the day, while their wives were to stay at home, and say their prayers by day. All this annoyed the less strenuous clergy, who made a practice of sleeping all night.

Then he put his hand to the sword of correction against the rich, lancing the abscesses of their souls, and teaching them humility and courtesy towards others. In this he followed the apostolic precept to Timothy, “Charge them who are rich in this world not to be high-minded, nor to trust in uncertain riches.” ³²

Results of these Reforms

As the result of these reforms, the Church put forth daily more abundant blossoms; the tone ³³ of the whole city was changed to piety, men delighting their souls with soberness and psalmody. But the devil, who hates all that is good, could not tolerate the escape of those whom he held in dominion, now taken from his grasp by the word of the Lord through the teaching of John; so much so, that the horse-racing and theatre-going fraternity left the courts of the devil, and hastened to the fold ³⁴ of the Saviour, in their love for the pipe of the shepherd who loves his sheep.

Notes

Secundus, “Magister militum et equitum,” who died shortly after his son’s birth, leaving his wife Anthusa a widow at the age of twenty.
He was taught rhetoric by Libanius, a famous sophist, not only a pagan, but a resolute opponent of the Faith; philosophy by Andragathius. “If I desired the smoothness of Isocrates, the massiveness of Demosthenes, the sublimity of Plato, I must remember St. Paul’s words (2 Cor. xi. 6). “All these things I put aside, with all outward adornments” (de Sacerd. IV. vi. 37). But these things were part of himself, and his literary remains show that he could not “put them aside.” “What wives these Christians have,” Libanius said, in reference to Anthusa. He would have wished Chrysostom to succeed him as head of his school, “had not the Christians stolen him.” Symeon and the Vita Anonyma say, with some detail, that he went to Athens to study. This, and the miracles they attribute to him later, may be put aside by Savile’s consideration, that it is strange that writers, centuries later, should know things which his contemporaries did not.
Rom. iii. 2; 1 Pet. iv. 11.
Or, “Sacrament” (p. 57, n.). The postponement of his baptism was probably due, not, as often was the case, to the fear of sinning afterwards, but to the disturbed state of the Church of Antioch, where dissensions between the orthodox and the Arians were almost continuous. Anthusa would hesitate to present her son to one of whose orthodoxy there was any doubt.
The word in 1 Cor. ix. 13. Such attendants were later organized into the order of Acolytes, “followers,” next to that of sub-deacons in the Latin Church; their duties being to light the candles, and attend with the wine for the Eucharist. Some think that they accompanied the bishop wherever ho went. Theophilus apparently took one such with him to Constantinople (see p. 68), where he is called “young servant,” like Elisha’s “minister” in 2 Kings vi. 14.
Chrysostom’s teachers were Carterius and Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, who held a kind of “Scripture study school,” called by Sozomen “asceterion,” for young men. Chrysostom persuaded two other of Libanius’ students, Theodorus and Maximus, afterwards Bishops of Mopsuestia and Seleucia respectively, to renounce the world, and in the case of Maximus, to break off his engagement to a lady he dearly loved, and devote themselves to Christian service. For “reader” cf. p. 7.
George says, “Hesychius, a Syrian.”
“I was in the full vigour of my age, and needed, not discourse, but bodily hardships.”—Pall., L. H., i. 4. Chr. tells us in his De Sacerdotio, that Anthusa desired, by consideration of her widowhood and her sufferings for his sake, to restrain his enthusiasm for the ascetic life; it was probably after her death that he entered upon it (a.D. 374-5), as George and Vit. Anon. say.
The Old and New Testaments—more correctly “Covenants.”
He never recovered his health; see pp. 98, 125: “I have a cobweb body” (Ep. iv.).
He never lost his admiration for the ascetic life. “Monks in monasteries live a life suitable to heaven, and no worse than that of angels, free from quarrels and anxieties.” But his sound common sense showed him that there was not one standard for the monk, another for the citizen. “I do not prescribe that a man should take to the mountains or the desert, but that he be good, and sweetly reasonable, and sober, while dwelling in the midst of the city.” “All the precepts of the law are common to us and the monks, except in regard to marriage” (in Matt. vii.).
In 381, at the age of thirty-six; he wrote his treatises On the Priesthood and On Virginity during his diaconate.
Meletius died in 381, during the Council of Constantinople, leaving a rival bishop, Paulinus. It was said that six of the leading clergy of Antioch had agreed, that on the death of either of these, they would recognize the survivor as sole bishop. Yet Flavian, one of the six, was consecrated, and the schism continued. Socr., vi. 3, says that “on the death of Meletius, Chrysostom left his party, nor did he communicate with Paulinus, but lived in retirement for three years; on Paulinus’ death he was ordained priest by Evagrius, Paulinus’ successor ”—-whose episcopate was very brief, Flavian’s title being hereafter recognized. Sozomen does not name the bishop who ordained him, but Socrates is in error.
i. e. “the late.”
A man of senatorial rank, chosen as Bishop of Constantinople by the Emperor, being only a catechumen, and consecrated “while still wearing the white vestments of a neophyte” (Soz. vii. 8); though such a departure from Apostolic rule (1 Tim. v. 22) was forbidden by the second Canon of Nicaea. Cyprian, Ambrose, and Eusebius of Caesarea were other exceptions to the rule. Nectarius was more of a courtier than a bishop, and his social relations with the great ones of the city established a precedent which caused Chrysostom’s strictness to be severely criticized (p. 99).
When Theodosius died (395) he committed Honorius to the charge of the famous general Stilicho, who had married his sister, and Arcadius to Rufinus, a man of low birth who had raised himself by his wits, and urged the Emperor Arcadius in like manner to marry his daughter. Arcadius agreed; but Eutropius, the equally self-made rival of Rufinus, plotted with Stilicho to ruin him, and on the very day appointed for the marriage, the Imperial wedding gifts were taken to the house, not of Rufinus, but of Eudoxia, a lady who hated Eutropius, as he had brought about her guardian’s death. Stilicho’s soldiers killed Rufinus, and Eutropius seized his property. But he made himself equally unpopular by his pride and ambition, and his sale of State offices; Gainas (p. 122) demanded his death, and Eudoxia supported the request, which was granted. Eutropius had shortly before secured the passing of a law, abolishing the right of asylum in churches; now he fled to the altar of the church, imploring protection. Chrysostom refused to surrender him, even when summoned before the Emperor, and preached two sermons on the vanity of human things, the first while the ex-minister lay prostrate at the altar in abject terror. By these he aroused much ill-will from Eutropius’ friends, and from the upper classes generally, through his harsh treatment, as was alleged, of a man in misfortune, his condemnation of riches, and his insistence upon the power of the Church. Eutropius was banished to Cyprus, where he was presently killed; the law forbidding asylum was annulled.
“Comes,” “companion,” our “count ”; a companion of or attendant upon a magistrate; later, a person in the suite of an emperor, so an official in charge of a department. “The Emperor had as many comites as he had duties.” So there was a “comes” of the Imperial purse, stables, etc.; “comes” of Britain, Egypt, the East, etc.; until the title took the place of “dux” for the military governor of a province or district.
“As if to inquire about something” (Sozomen). The governor was Asterius. Churches were very frequently built over a martyr’s grave, as the souls of them that were slain were seen “beneath the altar” (Rev. vi. 9). … There was such a shrine at Palladius’ own city of Helenopolis (Euseb. Vit. Const. iv. 61). Cf. pp. 62, 80, 95.
This was upon a resolution of both clergy and laity, who either knew him personally, or had heard of his fame. The people were anxious to have one whom they knew to be ready to denounce wrong doings; not so the rich, and those in power (Soz. viii. 2). Possibly Eutropius proposed him, hoping to secure for the Emperor the support of such a capable man. The day of the ordination was February 26, 398.
προσχὼν αὐτοῦ τῇ καταστάσει. The meaning is doubtful. Our author uses the word for “observing” in this sense on p. 77; in the liturgies it is the “Let us attend” before the reading of scripture. Palladius twice uses it so in L. H. But it also means “was foremost” or simply “was present.” Again, the word for “bearing,” so used just below, is frequent in Church writings for “consecration” (originally “appointment” of civil officers); p. 133. Hence some interpret “was chief consecrator”; though this makes the grammar of the next sentence awkward. It is likely that Theophilus, as bishop of such an important see, should be chief consecrator, but it is doubtful if that is here stated. Socrates says simply, “he ordained him.” Theophilus was anxious to secure the consecration of Isidore, whom he had employed on a certain discreditable mission some years before, upon which he wished to buy his silence. But the matter was known to many of the bishops assembled in Constantinople, and Eutropius showed him some documents, giving him his choice between ordaining Chrysostom, and taking his trial on the charges they contained (it must be said that Theophilus’ subsequent treatment of Isidore does not support this account, given by Socrates).
A variant reading for an unusual word meaning “lost his spirit,” “fainted”; this will mean either “he was deeply mortified at his ordination,” or “he consented with a bad grace to ordain him,” or perhaps, as Socrates says, “he was frightened [by Eutropius] into ordaining him.”
The text is corrupt. I would suggest “he is very clever at reading the invisible will and mind of a man from his visible countenance.”
Mark i. 24; Matt. viii. 29.
“Being naturally disposed, to correction” (Soz.).
i. e. as housekeepers. As the clergy were not allowed to marry after ordination, they had to have women to keep house for them; some of these were young, some even women of the Church under vows of virginity, claiming to live with them as sisters in devotion. The Nicene Council (Can. III.) forbade the introduction of any woman but a mother, a sister, an aunt, or other person, above suspicion; a rule frequently enforced by later councils. Chrysostom issued two treatises against the practice; their date is uncertain, but this narrative suggests that they appeared now. He admits that there has been no great amount of actual wrongdoing, but points out that scandal must inevitably arise, and makes it clear that these women were in many cases leading the lives of smart society ladies.
Jer. i. 10. Chrysostom’s writings are full of denunciations of wealth, and exhortations to charity. “Of all the fathers of the fourth century, he is the panegyrist par excellence of almsgiving” (Puech).
According to Suetonius, it was the custom at Rome to carry sick folks to the temple of Aesculapius, on an island in the Tiber, to die there, so as to save the trouble of attending to them. Jerome tells us that the first hospital was founded by a Christian matron, Fabiola. Chrysostom followed the lead of Basil, who had erected a very large hospital at Caesarea, in charge of a “local bishop.”
1 Tim. v. 3 shows that from the first there was a “catalogue” of Church widows; probably those needing relief (Acts vi. 1). Presently it became clear that their care needed the work of women, as well as that of the deacons, and some of the elder widows were put in charge of the rest. In some parts of the Church only widows who had borne children, who were of considerable age, and who had been but once married, were admitted as deaconesses. Olympias is a noted exception (p. 150). Thus it appears that the order of deaconesses (p. 86) sprang from the order of widows.
The public baths in a. great city were enormous buildings, where much time was wasted in bodily pleasure, gossip nourished, and immorality lurked. It was better for those who had to set a high standard of life, to accept physical rather than moral uncleanness. Cf. p. 115.
“ Litanies.” The Apostolical Constitutions (viii. 6) give us an early form, the deacon “bidding” the prayer, or naming the subjects of intercession, while the people answer, “Lord, have mercy.” Cf. p. 137.
Pliny mentions the night services of the Christians, when they “sang praises to Christ as God.” Chrysostom recommends them in his Hom. in Ps. cxix. (“ At midnight I will rise,” etc.) and cxxxii. “At night our prayers are more pure, our minds lighter, our leisure more abundant ”; hence “the poor abide in Church from midnight until dawn in prayer, and holy vigils are linked together, by day and by night” (Hom. in Is. iv.). The services consisted chiefly of psalms, of which twelve were in time fixed upon as the normal use. At this time the Arians in Constantinople had been organizing street processions, with singing of litanies, by night; Chrysostom arranged for rival processions, for which the Empress supplied silver candlesticks. The two parties naturally came to blows.
1 Tim. vi. 17.
Lit. “colour.”
“Some of those present yesterday have since then sat in the theatres, and gazed at the procession of the devil” (Or. xc.). The circus was a fruitful source of iniquity, frequently condemned by Chrysostom (c. Anom. vii. 1; de Laz. vii. 1). During his first year at Constantinople, he preached a sermon “Against the games and the theatres,” after a tumultuous race-meeting held on Good Friday, in which many Christians had joined.