TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS OF SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Unlike Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom was not a systematic theologian. His theological constructs, contained in his countless sermons, are always correct, but do not set parameters. Nevertheless, John’s spiritual authority in Orthodoxy is so great that even the Eucharistic prayer, which, with the exception of ten days for the liturgy of Basil the Great, is used exclusively in the Orthodox liturgy, is named after him.

1 On February 9, the Orthodox Church celebrates the translation of the relics of John Chrysostom. The saint lived for 60 years, and the years of his life are easy to remember: 347–407. He departed to the Lord on the Feast of the Exaltation. Chrysostom died on the way to exile exile several thousand kilometers from Constantinople. At that time, this was a huge, downright incredible distance. The powers that be did this deliberately.

2 Having left behind more works than any other Eastern Church Father, Chrysostom spent his last years in suffering and illness, having been deposed from his chair and stripped of his episcopal dignity. Before his death, Chrysostom received the Eucharist and said, “Glory to God for everything.” This prayer of thanksgiving was his favorite during his lifetime.

3 After Chrysostom’s deposition, the Roman Bishop Innocent excommunicated all the Eastern Primates from church communion. This did not take effect immediately. However, in 413 Antioch, in 417 Constantinople, and in 419 Alexandria restored John to the diptychs of liturgical commemoration (the Patriarchate of Jerusalem did not yet exist before the Council of Chalcedon in 451). During the episcopacy of Nestorius in 428, a church commemorative service was established in Constantinople in honor of Chrysostom.

4 Ten years later, in 438, Chrysostom’s relics were transferred from the place of exile where he died to Constantinople. They were laid to rest in the Church of the Holy Apostles, the traditional burial place of the emperors and bishops of New Rome, and therefore next to Emperor Arcadius and Eudoxia, who had destroyed his biography. Like most of the saints of the first three Christian centuries, Chrysostom suffered at the hands of the powerful of this world; in contrast to them, he was persecuted not by heretics but by Orthodox rulers and even most of the Eastern episcopate. It is the translation of the saint’s relics in 438 that the Church celebrates in February. Although formally John died a natural death, as we would say today, from stress and extreme exhaustion, some ancient liturgical menologies called him a martyr. And that is a very high praise.