John Chrysostom, St.

John Chrysostom, St. (Yahweh is gracious, golden-mouthed) (c. 347–407) In Christian legend, one of the Four Greek Doctors of the Church. Invoked against epilepsy. Feast, 30 March.

Born in Antioch, he was ordained in 363 and soon was recognized for his eloquence, which obtained for him the name Chrysostom or Golden Mouth. In 403 at the Synod of the Oak, John’s enemies—and they were many since he was rather violent and provocative in his language—got him banished from his see. He was recalled, but then he angered the empress Eudoxia and was exiled to Armenia. He was to be moved from there to Pytius in Colchis but died at Comana. Gibbon in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire writes that “his relics, thirty years after his death, were transported from their obscure sepulcher to the royal city.

The Emperor Theodosius advanced to receive them as far as Chalcedon, and falling prostrate on the coffin, implored, in the name of his guilty parents, Arcadius and Eudosia, the forgiveness of the injured saint.”