CHRYSOST OM, kris'os- t Gin k s't tan (front Gk. Xpecroccroaos, Chrysostonios, golden mouthed, from xpue6s, ebrysos, gold + .stonm, month; so named front the splendor of his eloquence). •onN, Saint (e.345-407). (Inc of the greatest Fathers of the early ('Birch. I le born in Ant in .n. 3•5 or 347. Ile came of a patri cian family. Ills father. Secumhts, died soon after Chrysostom's birth. ills mother, Antliti.a, was a pious woman, wholly devoted to her son, who grew up under her lot ing instructions into gentle, and serious youth, passing through none of those wild. dark struggles with sinful passion; which left an ineffaceable impress on the soul of Augustine. and gave a sombre color ing to his whole theology. Ile studied oratory ender Libanins, a heathen rhetorician, as he at first intended to IN' a jurist. and soon excelled his teacher; but, feeling called to give up worldly pursuits, he abandoned legal for biblical study. About 3JS he was baptized and was ordained a reader. He practiced the strictest asceticism while still living at home, and on his mother's death, about 375, he retired to the desert around Antioch. After six years the ascetic severity of Iris life and studies brought on an illness which forced him to return to Antioch, where he was ordained deacon by Bishop .Nleletius in 381, and presbyter by Bishop Flavianus in 3S6. The elo quence, earnestness, and practical tone of his preaching excited the attention of Jews, heathens. and heretics, and secured for him the reputation of the chief orator of the Eastern Church. In 395 the eunuch Eutropius, minister of the Emperor Areadius, who had been struck by the bold and brilliant preaching of Chrysostom, elevated him to the episcopate of Constantinople. Ch•ysostont immediately began to restrict the episcopal ex penditure in which his predecessors had indulged, and bestowed so large a portion of his revenues on hospitals and other charities that he gained the surname of 'John the Almoner: lie also endeavored to reform the lives of the clergy, and sent missionaries into Scythia. Persia, Pales tine, and other lands. llis faithful discharge of his duties, especially in reproof of vices, excited the enmity of the Patriarch of Alexandria, of The ophilus, and of the Empress Eudoxia, who suc ceeded in deposing and banishing him from the capital (403). Ile was soon recalled. to be banished again shortly afterwards (41)1). lie was taken during July and August to Nienat, now Isnik. in Asia Minor, the place where the famous Nicene Council was held. and there, to his great disappointment, he learned that hi; place of ban ishment was to be Cueusus, a little town in the Armenian highlands, now called Gozene. It was a weary journey. hut he finally arrived there. The Bishop of Cucusus received him kindly and the climate agreed with him. So his zeal was not abated. He labored for the conversion of the peoples in the neighborhood, and wrote the seven teen letters I or rather moral essays ? to pins, to whom he also addressed a treatise on the proposition. can hurt the man who will not hurt himself." The Emperor, enraged by the general sympathy expressed toward Chrysostom by all true gave orders that he be banished to the remote Pityus, on the north east coast of the Black Sea at the foot of the Caucasus, a most desolate spa, and involving a jcurney of hundred,. of mile, on foot. It was at
the very verge of the Eastern Roman Empire. The march was begun and for three mouths kept up, but when he reached the chapel of the martyr Basiliseus, about six miles from Comana, in l'ontus, he could go no farther, and there died. September I t, 407, blessing God with his dying lips. The news of his death excited much sor row among all pious Christians, for Chrysos tom was a man who drew the hearts of his fel Ir after him; a lovable, manly ( 'hrist ian, hating lies, worldliness, hypocrisy. and all man ner of untnithfulness. with that honest warmth of temper which all vigorous people relish. A sect sprang up after his death, or martyrdom as they eoneeived it, called Johannists, who refused to acknowledge hi; successors; nor did they re turn to the general communion till 138. when the Archbishop prevailed on the Emperor Theodosius IL to bring back the body of the saint to Constantinople, where it was solemnly in terred, the Emperor himself publicly imploring the pardon of heaven for the crime of his parents, Areadius and Eudoxia. The Greek Church cele brates the festival of Chrysostom on November 13; the Roman, on .hinuary 27. In his Homilies (•homas Aquinas said he would not give those on Saint 1\latthew in exchange for the whole city of Parisi Chrysostom displays superior powers of exegesis. In general, he rejects the allegorical system of interpretation. and adheres to the grammatical, basing his doctrines and sen timents on a rational apprehension of the letter of Scripture. lie is. however, far from being as bibliolater. Ile recognized the presenee of a hu man clement in the Bible as well as a divine; and instead of attempting. by forced and artitieial hypotheses, to reconcile what he thought irrecon cilable in Scripture statements, he frankly ad mitted the existence of contradictions, and shaped his theory of inspiration accordingly. But his greatest and noblest excellence lay in that power, springing from the fervor and holiness of his heart, by which the consciences of the proud, the worldly, and the profligate were awakened, and all were made to feel the reality of the Gospel message. The surname 'Clirysostotte was first applied some time after his death, and, as it is supposed, by the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680. Chrysostom's works are very numerous. and consist of. 1st, Homilies, on parts of Scrip tu•e and points of doctrine ; 2d, Commcnt a ries, on the whole Bible (part of which has perished) ; 3d. Epistles, addressed to various people; 4th, Treatises, on different subjects (such as Provi dence, the Priesthood, etc.) ; and 5th. Liturgies. Of these the most valuable, as well as the most studied, are the Homilies. which are held to be superior to everything else of the kind in ancient Ch rist inn literature.
The most correct Greek edition of Chrysostom's works is that by Henry Savil (S vols., Eton, 1613) ; and the most complete Greek and Latin edition is that by 31ontfaueon (13 vols., Paris, 1718-38; republished in 1834-40). There is an English translation in the first series of the Xic•ne and Post-Xiccne Pothers (London and New 1889-90). For his biography, consult: W. R. W. Stephens (3d ed., London, 1883) ; Bush (London. 1885) ; F. II, Chase ( London, ISS7) ; A. Pueeh (2d ed., Paris, 1900) ; G. Marshal (Paris, 1898).