St. John Chrysostom was born at Antioch. His father died when he was a baby and his good young mother did not want to marry again. She gave all her attention to bringing up her son and daughter in the holy love of God. She made many sacrifices so that John could have the best teachers. He was very intelligent and could have become a great man in the world. When he gave speeches everyone loved to listen to him. In fact, his name, Chrysostom, means “Golden-mouthed.” Yet, John wanted to give himself to God, He became a priest and later was made Bishop of the great city of Constantinople.
St. John was a wonderful bishop. Although he was always sickly, he accomplished a tremendous amount of good. He preached once or twice a every day, fed the poor, took care of orphans, corrected bad customs, and stopped bad plays from being given. He loved everyone, but he was not afraid to tell even the Empress when she did wrong.
Because he fought sin, St. John had enemies, the Empress was one. She had him sent away from Constantinople and on the trip he suffered greatly from fever, from lack of food and sleep. Yet, he was happy to suffer for Jesus and just before he died, he cried out, “Glory be to God!”
A terrible hailstorm fell on Constantinople at his death and four days later, the bad Empress died. Her son honored St. John’s body and showed how sorry he was for what his parents had done.
God sees us all the time. If we do everything well and for Him, then we do not have to be afraid of what others say or do against us.
