Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin (October 10, 1852 – August 22, 1904) was a Russian theologian, researcher and interpreter of the Holy Scriptures. This book briefly and in the pious traditions of the old biographies of the saints describes the life of the great Christian St. John Chrysostom.

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Introduction

St. John, who received the name of Chrysostom for his spiritual eloquence, belongs to the host of those great ecclesiastical luminaries who adorned the spiritual heaven of the holy universal Church in the fourth century after the Nativity of Christ. It was a remarkable century in all respects. St. The Church, having survived the terrible times of persecution, when all the forces of evil were arming themselves against her in order to crush her and wipe her off the face of the earth, finally triumphed over them, and on the throne of the Roman emperors sat her sons, who paid due tribute to the honor of their holy mother. But with the attainment of external domination in the world, the internal struggle with the obsolete forces of paganism had not yet ended. On the contrary, sensing the approach of its complete destruction, paganism exerted all its forces in order to secretly undermine Christianity, if not openly, and since the masses of the people were still stagnant in pagan error, the efforts of paganism did not remain fruitless. An extraordinary movement of minds took place among the nations, since they could no longer but understand the radiant truth of Christianity, but at the same time they were still entangled in the nets of pagan customs and customs, which penetrated with the poison of superstition, error, and corruption throughout their lives. Taking advantage of this undecided state, many false teachers found receptive soil among the people and successfully sowed the seeds of heresies and errors, which at times proudly raised their heads, threatening the very existence of Christ's truth. Thus one of the most dangerous heresies, namely the Arian heresy, at one time almost overran the whole East and gained dominance even in its very capital, Constantinople, so that the Orthodox had refuge in only one house church, and all other churches were desecrated by the blasphemous hymns of Arius. But the promise of the divine Founder and Head of the Church is not false, that "even the gates of hell shall not prevail against her." When the storm of heretical error reached its highest strength and threatened to engulf the ship of the Church, at her head appeared a whole series of great helmsmen, who, possessing extraordinary gifts, courageously led the ship entrusted to them amidst all the pitfalls and furious turmoil and forever strengthened it in a quiet harbor on the indestructible anchor of the truth of Orthodoxy. Among such helmsmen, four great men were especially famous, whose names shine like luminaries on the pages of the chronicles of the Holy Church. These were Saints Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, whose very names have forever become a symbol of spiritual greatness. Each of them, according to the power of his lofty gift, served the Holy Church, and all of them are revered to this day as holy universal teachers, who illumined the universe with the light of their Orthodox teaching. But even among them, St. John was especially wondrous in the richness and diversity of his spiritual gifts, whose teaching enlightened the universe, whose inspired word burned the hearts of people, and life, full of labors and trials, became an inexhaustible source of edification and strength for all the soldiers of Christ, struggling on the field of spiritual warfare against the dark forces of malice, darkness and error.

Childhood, Youth and Asceticism of St. John (347-380)

It is not known exactly in what year the great saint was born: writers differ in their opinions on this by ten years. According to a more probable assumption, John was born about the year 347 A.D., in Antioch. His parents were noble and rich people. His father Secundus held a high position of voivode in the imperial army, and his mother Anthusa was a very educated woman for her time and at the same time an exemplary wife and mother of the family. Both of them were Christians, and not only in name, as was often the case in those transitional times, but true and real Christians, devoted to the Holy Church: it is known that Sister Secunda, John's aunt, was even a deaconess in the Church of Antioch. It was in such a pious house that John was born. Secundus and Anthusa were still young people, and they had only two more babies - a girl of two years old and a newborn boy John - the joy and consolation of their parents. But no sooner had this pious family enjoyed their happiness than great sorrow befell them: in the flower of years and service hopes, its head, Secundus, died, leaving behind the young widow Anthusa with two babies. The grief of the young mother, who was only twenty years old, was boundless. True, she did not need the means of subsistence, since she had a considerable fortune; but her moral torments were heavier than material need. Young and inexperienced, she was bound to become the object of various searches on the part of many false friends, who were not averse to taking advantage of her wealth, and any other woman in her position could easily have become a victim, if not of infatuation, then of deception and seduction. But Anthusa was one of those great women who, fully aware of their true purpose and dignity, stood above all passions and worldly vanities. As a Christian, she looked upon her misfortune as a test from above, and, abandoning all thought of a second marriage, decided to forget herself and devote herself entirely to the motherly care of the orphaned children. And she carried out this decision with such steadfastness that it caused involuntary surprise in the pagans. The famous pagan rhetorician Livanius, later learning of her maternal self-denial, involuntarily and with surprise exclaimed: "Ah, what women Christians have!" Her little daughter soon died, and Anthusa was left alone with her son, who became the object of all her love and motherly cares and hopes.

Belonging to high society and being herself an educated woman, Anthusa did not fail to give her son the best education for that time. Withdrawing from all the amusements of the world and concentrating herself entirely in her small family, she herself was able to teach her son the first rudiments of education, and this was the greatest blessing for John. From the lips of his loving mother he received his first lessons in reading and writing, and the first words which he learned to compose and read were undoubtedly the words of the Holy Scriptures, which were the favorite reading of Anthusa, who found in him consolation in her premature widowhood. These first lessons were imprinted on John's soul for the rest of his life, and if later he himself constantly, so to speak, breathed and was nourished by the word of God, and made the interpretation of it the main task of his whole life, then he undoubtedly received this love for him under the influence of his pious mother. Thus the boy's childhood passed and adolescence began. His position required further education; Anthusa made every effort to do this, and, sparing no expense, provided all the facilities for her son's education and self-education. It is not known how and where John actually received his further education, whether at home with the help of hired teachers, or in some Christian school. Antioch was famous for its schools and was a kind of Syrian Athens. There were many heathen schools of all kinds, famous for their teachers, who shone with pompous eloquence and obscure philosophy, and beside them were Christian schools, where the word of God was chiefly taught and interpreted, though general knowledge was not neglected, so far as it could be gleaned from the best representatives of the classical world. In one way or another, John received a book education, but it was only a part of his upbringing, which God's Providence, preparing his chosen one for his future great destiny, conducted in another way, allowing him to visually comprehend all the futility of moribund paganism and the greatness and holiness of Christianity. At this very time, when John was 14-15 years old and when, consequently, his soul had just opened itself to the conscious perception of the events and phenomena surrounding him, paganism made a last desperate attempt to overcome Christianity. His representative was the Emperor Julian the Apostate. Having taken possession of the imperial throne, he threw off the mask of hypocritical piety and became an open enemy of Christianity, hatred for which had long been hidden in his soul. Everywhere he began to raise the decaying paganism and at the same time to humiliate and suppress Christianity. As Antioch was one of the chief strongholds of Christianity, which there first appeared under its own name, and had glorious teachers and valiant confessors, Julian did not fail to turn his attention to this seat of the religion he hated, and took all measures to suppress and exterminate it. At the same time, however, he was too far-sighted to act like the former persecuting emperors.

On his way to Antioch, Julian did not fail to visit its suburb of Daphne, where there was a temple of Apollo, famous in its time. Once this temple with its surrounding sacred grove was a place of constant pagan celebrations and prayers, but now Julian was struck by its emptiness. There was not even anything to offer a sacrifice from, and the priest who met him had to kill his own goose on the occasion of this unexpected celebration. This picture deeply struck Julian, and all the more so since the nearby Christian church, in which the relics of St. Babyla, venerated by Christians, were kept, was resounding with sacred hymns and was filled with worshipers. Julian could not endure it and then ordered the Christian church to be closed and the relics removed from it. This unjust order, however, did not suppress the spirit of Christians. They performed the solemn transfer of the relics, and when this majestic procession was performed, which resounded the environs and streets of Antioch with the singing of the verses of the psalm: "Let them be put to shame who worship idols, who boast in their idols," Julian could clearly see the multitude of Christians and their enthusiastic devotion to their faith. Then, betraying his philosophical calm and hypocritical religious tolerance, he ordered the arrest of many Christians, throwing them in prison, and even ordering some to be tortured. Meanwhile, heavenly wrath broke out over the pagan temple of idols. The temple of Apollo, which Julian had taken such care of, was struck by lightning and burned to ashes. Julian's fury was boundless, and he, suspecting Christians of arson, ordered the closure of the main Christian church in Antioch, whereby his aged presbyter St. Theodoret, who refused to hand over to the pagan authorities the most sacred utensils of the temple, was given over to a martyr's death. A certain noble widow Publia was beaten only because when Julian passed by the gate of her house, the singing of the psalm was heard from it: "May God arise, and His enemies be scattered!"

Giving vent to his fury, however, Julian at the same time understood that Christianity could not be suppressed by such cruelties, which only raised the courage and spirit of Christians. Therefore, he acted in other ways, namely in a literary way.

When one of the prefects drew his attention to the cruelty committed in the provinces against Christians, he indignantly exclaimed: "What misfortune is it if ten Galileans fall at the hands of one pagan!"