If the great hierarch was grieved by the sins and moral shortcomings of the people, then all the more did he grieve at the sight of moral decadence among those who claimed the dignity of the chosen members of the Church. If even some bishops, as has been said above, led a life befitting the secular rather than the clergy, then this was all the more noticeable among the lower clergy. It was given over to the world and to all its charms, and sometimes in such forms that could not but disturb the moral sense. Especially strong indignation aroused by the widespread at that time custom of cohabitation of clergy with virgins. This custom stemmed from a good purpose. Among the clergy of that time, the conviction began to spread that a celibate life was more suitable for pastors, giving them more freedom from worldly cares for pastoral work, and indeed many of the priests and other members of the clergy lived celibate, mainly in the monastic rank. In the form of worship, many took into their homes for the upbringing of poor orphans, who later also took the vow of virginity. Since there were still very few properly organized convents, these pupils, even when they came of age, continued to live with their tutors, and this custom gradually led to the fact that, in addition to educational purposes, virgins and virgins cohabited under the same roof, like brothers and sisters. In a strictly moral mood, such cohabitation could not seem particularly reprehensible, although it had already been the subject of discussion at councils and was forbidden as indecent; but it is easy to imagine into what an ugly phenomenon this custom could degenerate in the capital with its temptations and moral decay. And indeed, such cohabitation was an extremely obscene phenomenon, throwing a very unflattering light on all the clergy. It was necessary to eradicate it in order to raise the very dignity and influence of pastoral care, and the saint began to mercilessly persecute this unlawful cohabitation and wrote two large books against it, in which he depicted with extraordinary vividness both the custom itself and the obscenities into which he plunged cohabitants[24]. Evil had already taken deep root and it was difficult to eradicate it at once; But the saint spared no effort and he managed to cleanse his Church to a large extent of this abominable phenomenon. In order to give an example of true monastic life in the world, he was at the same time concerned about the elevation and improvement of convents. Monasteries had existed before him, but they were not so much a place of prayer and salvation as simply a refuge for those who were bored with the vanity of worldly life and sought a pleasant rest there, without breaking ties with the world. St. John subjected the monasteries to a radical transformation. He personally questioned all the nuns who lived there, and when he became convinced that some of them were there not for the salvation of their souls, but, following the example of their secular friends, continued to think more "about baths, incense and dress than about fasting and prayer," he advised them to return to the world, since monasteries should be exclusively a place of prayer. fasting and repentance. This strictness led to the fact that the monasteries were indeed cleansed of their unworthy members and filled with faces who sincerely longed to find peace for their souls from the surrounding worldly vanity and to devote themselves entirely to the service of God and neighbor. The joy of St. John was all the greater when truly holy, chosen souls began to enter the monasteries purified and transformed by him. At the voice of the saint, even noble and rich widows began to flock to them, who devoted their lives and all their fortune to the service of the feeble brethren.

The service was very difficult, and all the more honor to those pious women who, disregarding all difficulties, took upon themselves the service and valiantly carried it to the end of their lives. Many of the deaconesses were famous for their self-denial, and of them were especially famous in the time of Chrysostom: Nicareta, a very noble maiden from Nicomedia, who had devoted herself to the service of God from her very youth, Silvinas, the noble branch of the Moorish kings, Pentadia, the widow of the famous but unfortunate general Timasius, and especially the noble Olympias, who, having been widowed early, devoted her whole life and all her enormous fortune (to which the emperor Theodosius had unsuccessfully claimed) to the service Church. These pious deaconess wives constituted the main support of the great hierarch in his pastoral care for the spiritual and material well-being of his flock.

Struggling with the moral disorders of his church, St. John at the same time had to stand guard over Orthodoxy from the attacks of schism and heresy. In his time, the conscience of the people was not a little troubled by the Novatians, who transferred their teaching from the west to the east and found refuge in Constantinople. They insolently claimed that they only retained true doctrine and pure life, and considered themselves to be the only true church, as not tolerating unclean members. This impudent self-glorification deeply indignant the saint, and he refuted them with fiery indignation. "What pride," he said, "what madness! Do you, being people, make yourself appear sinless? Rather, it can be argued that the sea can be without waves; but just as the waves do not cease to move on the sea, so sins do not cease to act in us"[25]. John was even more concerned about another evil - Arianism. Although at that time it no longer had such force as in the time of Gregory the Theologian, when all the churches of the capital were in the hands of the Arians, nevertheless on the outskirts of the capital the Arians were still strong and did not miss an opportunity to declare their existence. They caused especially much confusion with their solemn religious processions, accompanied by the loud singing of blasphemous Arian hymns. Out of curiosity or ignorance, many Orthodox Christians also took part in these processions, thus becoming participants in Arian impiety. This could not but concern the great hierarch, and he, in order to distract the Orthodox from participating in the Arian gatherings, found it necessary to organize similar processions with sacred hymns for the Orthodox people. Even Empress Eudoxia took part in these Orthodox processions, who supplied the people with candles at her own expense. Unfortunately, these processions led to disorder. Meeting each other, the Orthodox and Arian processions could not but arouse mutual irritation, the Arians boldly threw stones at the Orthodox, so that in the ensuing confusion many people were wounded and even killed on both sides, and one of the courtiers of the empress, the eunuch Vryson, had his head pierced with a stone. This sad circumstance forced the government to ban such processions through the streets. But the saint, who attached high religious and moral significance to spiritual singing, as one of the best means for introducing Christianity into the life of Christians, began to organize divine services for this purpose more often, and he especially liked all-night vigils, similar to the Christian gatherings of the first centuries. "The night," he says, "is not made to spend it all in sleep and peace: artisans, merchants, and merchants serve as proof of this. The Church of God rises at midnight. Get up and contemplate the chorus of stars, this deep silence, this boundless silence. Bow down before the providence of your Lord. During the night, the soul is purer, lighter, it rises higher with less effort; the very darkness and this majestic silence dispose her to contemplation... What was the purpose of the Savior when He spent His nights on the mountain, if not to give us an example to follow? At night the fragrance of the plant is poured out, and your soul is more perceptive of the heavenly dew. What is burned by the sun during the day is refreshed and revived at night"[26]. Such edifications were a complete success, and the people became accustomed to the night liturgical vigils and came to love them. True, the population of the capital was pampered and could not endure particularly long services, and the most blessed saint did not fail to show paternal condescension to his feeble flock and composed a special Liturgy, which from that time became the best property of the entire Orthodox world and is still celebrated in the Orthodox Church, bearing the name of its great compiler[27].

Having arranged the external and internal life of the Church of Constantinople, Saint John then directed his efforts to the spread of the truth of the faith in Christ even among those who still sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. Although paganism was essentially broken and with the death of Julian the Apostate lost its last support, yet the spark of life still glowed in it and at times even flared up with a sinister flame. The followers of Julian, and the disciples of various pagan sophists in the family of Livania, were unwilling to part with their dream of the restoration of paganism, and to what extent this dream persisted is shown by the remarkable phenomenon that there was a widespread belief among the pagans, by virtue of which the old gods were soon to come to life and triumph over Christ. Pagan oracles spread among the people a supposedly ancient prophecy that all the successes of Christianity, as those resulting from the sorcerers of St. Peter, the chief seducer of the world, would have to end with the fourth century, and the year 400 would be marked by the shameful fall of Christianity and the complete triumph of paganism. The dark masses, inclined to everything mysterious, were not without excitement waiting for the end of the century. Fortunately, the sons of Theodosius were animated by religious zeal, and especially in the west, Honorius, by his energetic measures for the suppression and eradication of paganism, largely dispelled the absurd dreams of his adherents. In the East, paganism enjoyed greater freedom, and in Syria even the voluptuous and abominable festivals of Mayum, so named after a certain pagan temple near Gaza, continued to be celebrated without hindrance. These festivals, the legacy of the ancient vile cults of Baal and Astarte, have been banned more than once. They were forbidden by Constantine the Great, but Julian restored them again; Theodosius again imposed a prohibition, but his weak son Arcadius, fearing the murmuring of the Syrians, again permitted them, and these seductive celebrations again began to be performed with hideous frankness. St. John Chrysostom rebelled against them while still a presbyter in Antioch; but now, as archbishop of the capital, he did not hesitate to strike a decisive blow at this infamy, and under his undoubted influence the Mayum festivities were forbidden. This incident gave the archbishop a reason to pay attention to Phoenicia in general, which continued to be one of the main strongholds of paganism. It was sad to see that almost at the very foot of the famous thrones of Antioch and Alexandria, and moreover within the boundaries of the Promised Land, paganism, which had already been eradicated in other places, huddled chiefly. And the saint equipped a special mission for the eradication of paganism there and did not cease to be deeply interested in this matter until his very death.

But the gaze of the saint spread even further and wider. With his deeply penetrating mind, he understood that although paganism continued to hold out in the wilds of Phoenicia, its days were numbered, as were the days of the ancient people who inhabited it. This population was becoming obsolete, and on the borders of the then known civilized world, masses of new barbarian peoples were already moving, to whom a further role in history belonged. Therefore, it was necessary to pay attention to these young peoples and bring them under the yoke of Christ. These peoples were barbarian, they did not yet know the benefits of a settled life, and their dwellings were mobile wagons, with which they either stopped in camps, or moved again in whole hordes, threatening the border regions and cities. Among this chaotic mass of barbarians roamed those forces from which a new world was to be formed, to replace the old Greco-Roman world. Others looked with horror at these savage hordes, seeing in them the terrible scourge of humanity; but St. John Chrysostom saw in them children of nature, who had to be made sons of God. His attention was especially drawn by the Scythians, those stern sons of the north, who lived mainly along the banks of the Danube and further to the northeast, within the boundaries of present-day Russia. These were semi-savage nomads, whom Chrysostom therefore calls "Amaxovians," i.e., living in wagons, and they really stood at the lowest level of social life, were barbarians of barbarians. But fierce in appearance and barbarian in life and customs, they were kind in heart, and when the gospel of Christ reached them, it touched their virgin hearts and they revealed a desire to accept Christianity. Learning of this, St. John quickly equipped a mission to them, especially since it was to be feared that Arianism, which had spread widely among the Gothic tribes, might touch the heart of this simple-minded people, untouched by artificiality. To his great joy, the mission was a blessed success, and thus, as Patriarch Photius testifies, St. John Chrysostom was the first to erect altars to the true God among these barbarians, who had formerly drunk human blood. The people, whose stern warriors almost never got off their horses, now began to bow down before the cross of the crucified Christ. If the assumption of historians that the Scythians were one of the ancestors of the Russian people is correct, then what happiness is it to believe that the first seeds of the faith of Christ the Russian people owed precisely to the great hierarch, their beloved Chrysostom, whose divinely inspired works forever became for them an inexhaustible source of spiritual edification and enlightenment. - The saint also paid pastoral attention to other non-Russians, for example. ready; many of them lived in Constantinople itself, which, like Rome, often had recourse to the military assistance of these semi-barbarians. Most of them were still pagans, and others were Arians, and Saint John was concerned about the salvation of both. Since the Goths did not know Greek, he found an opportunity to remove this obstacle to preaching. From among the Goths themselves, choosing more worthy persons, he ordained them to the dignity of priests and deacons, and setting aside for them a special church in the name of the Apostle Paul of the Gentiles, he commanded them to perform divine services for their fellow countrymen in their native language. The saint was so concerned about the conversion of this people to the path of truth, that he often himself was present at their divine services and even personally gave them instructions with the help of skillful translators.

All these archpastoral labors of Saint John produced a highly beneficial effect. The capital began to come into good order in the church, religious and moral respects. The evil of disorder, however, penetrated so deeply that edification alone was not enough; the punishing blows of God's truth were necessary in order to bring the people devoted to the world and its charms to their senses. Such blows have indeed befallen Constantinople more than once. Especially terrible was the calamity caused by an earthquake that occurred in the first years of the saint's reign. In general, cities suffered a lot from earthquakes in the fourth century, and the chronicles of modern writers are full of news about them. But this earthquake was especially terrible, such as had never happened in Constantinople before. The soil stirred like the sea and the houses cracked and disintegrated, burying the unfortunate tenants under their ruins. In addition to this, the Bosphorus caused a flood, and the malefactors set fire to hide the traces of their robbery and predation. Everyone was seized with horror. The imperial family fled, and unimaginable disorder reigned. In the midst of this general confusion and horror, one archpastor of the Church remained unshaken, with his authority replacing the disappeared and confused authorities. He restored order in the troubled capital, encouraged those who were stricken with terror, and when the population gradually returned to the city and calmed down, he resumed his conversations, in which he depicted in fiery colors both the calamity itself and the impiety by which it had been inflicted. In order to encourage the people even more, St. John performed a solemn transfer of the relics of the holy martyrs to a church specially built for them on the opposite bank of the Bosphorus, nine miles from the capital. The transfer was made at night, and this solemn procession of a multitude of people with lighted candles, competing in their brightness with the heavenly bodies, and these enthusiastic hymns, heard in the silence of the night, produced a profoundly stunning and at the same time touching spectacle. The procession was attended by the Empress Eudoxia herself, to whom Chrysostom, in his enthusiastic sermon, paid a full tribute of honor, praising her religious zeal and piety. Subsequent events have shown that this piety was by no means deep and did not flow from the inner needs of a truly religious heart; but now St. John sincerely rejoiced at this outward manifestation of the queen's piety, whose example could have a beneficial effect on all the women of the capital.

As a zealot for the glory of the Church of God, St. John Zpatoust considered it his duty to strictly guard those rights and privileges that belonged to it. Only with such rights could the Holy Church successfully carry out its enlightening and salvific work in the world. Meanwhile, the civil government had already repeatedly claimed the violation or restriction of these rights and advantages, and moreover, most often for reasons not so much state as personal. One of the most important advantages of the church from the earliest times was considered to be its right of asylum. This right, which originated from the Church of the Old Testament, was extremely important in those times when, under the rule of arbitrariness and brute force, people could often find refuge from human violence only at the throne of God, in the church. And St. John, as an unswerving defender of the weak and oppressed, attached great importance to the right of asylum. Meanwhile, this right was increasingly subject to restrictions, and the main culprit for this was the omnipotent eunuch Eutropius at that time. Intoxicated by the omnipotence he had achieved, the haughty eunuch already boldly dreamed of seizing the very throne in time and mercilessly exterminating all those whom he could consider his opponents and enemies. Since many sought salvation from his fury in the church, Eutropius decided to put an end to this institution. In vain did St. John Chrysostom rise up against this encroachment on the sacred right of the Church to shelter the defenseless from the malicious fury of people; the eunuch, considering Saint John to be his protégé, who owed him his very elevation to the throne of the Church of Constantinople, insisted on his own, and the right of asylum was actually abolished. Soon, however, an event occurred that showed how fragile human greatness is and how necessary it is for people to have a protector in the person of the Church. Eutropius, by his intrigues and audacious escapades, incurred the disfavor of the emperor, and his position was shaken. And when he, forgetting himself to the extreme, insulted even the Empress Eudoxia, who, with tears in her eyes and with her weeping babies in her arms, came to the emperor, asking him for protection from the insults of the impudent courtier, his fate was sealed: he was deprived of all his posts and threatened with the death penalty. Hitherto an all-powerful courtier, Eutropius now turned out to be the most pitiful and helpless man. On the contrary, everyone rejoiced at the fall of the haughty eunuch, and the news of his fall quickly spread throughout the city. Taking advantage of his helplessness, many were ready to avenge all the injustices and violence he had inflicted even before legal justice was done, and he was in a desperate situation. Then, suppressing his pride, Eutropius turned to his only defense, the Holy Church, and in spite of the abolition of the right of refuge at his own insistence, he sought salvation at the throne of God, and he was not mistaken. There he was met by the great saint, who had so recently been grieved by this very Eutropius, and gave him refuge, from which no power could take him. The Empress, burning with vengeance, gave orders to immediately arrest the eunuch who had insulted her and subject him to the punishment he deserved; but when the messengers came to the church with the aim of fulfilling this command, in spite of their demand, as well as the cries of the enraged crowd, who also demanded the head of the hated Eutropius, Saint John fearlessly and with the consciousness of his own authority refused to fulfill this demand. "You will kill Eutropius," he said in response to the cries and demands of the soldiers and the crowd, "not before you have killed me." Then he himself went to the emperor and there interceded for pardon to the ill-fated proud man, whose fate was a striking proof of the precariousness of human greatness and the formidability of God's justice. All this took place at night, and in the morning St. John Chrysostom, having saved the unfortunate courtier from the death that threatened him, delivered before a multitude of people the famous sermon "on Eutropius the Eunuch"[29], in which all human vanity was depicted in fiery colors. Eutropius was exiled, and although he was subsequently executed, at the very moment of his fall he was saved from the punishment of the law and the fury of the people precisely by the all-forgiving generosity of Chrysostom.

This extraordinary event in all its splendor showed the spiritual authority possessed by the great hierarch of Constantinople. The fame of his name and pastoral zeal spread far beyond the boundaries of his diocese, and many even from other dioceses began to turn to him for spiritual help. As a result of the constant turmoil, church life in many dioceses, especially in Asia Minor, was subjected to extreme disorder. At the head of the churches stood for the most part unworthy pastors, and the sees were occupied by persons who sought to bribe them - apparently for chains that were far from pastoral. When complaints about these flagrant abuses reached John, he, having arranged the affairs of his own church, decided to improve the neighboring churches as well. For this purpose, in the year 401, he himself set out for Asia Minor, and, having become convinced on the spot of the extreme disorder of church affairs, he took strict measures, and several bishops, convicted of obvious simony and unworthiness, were deposed. Over the course of three months the saint occupied himself with the improvement of the churches of Asia Minor, and only having already achieved the desired fruits, he returned to his capital, where the devoted people had long awaited him, thirsting for edification and instruction from their golden-tongued teacher. Meanwhile, during his absence, disappointing events took place in the capital itself. Taking advantage of the absence of the archbishop, the Arians raised their heads, their audacity being all the stronger because they were led by the famous Gothic general Gaina. Sensing how much the empire depended on his military prowess, he began to make extremely immoderate demands of the emperor, and among other things demanded that one of the churches in the capital itself be given to the Arians. The emperor, knowing the indomitable temper of the barbarian, feared to refuse him, but he was rescued from the difficulty by Saint John, who boldly opposed the arrogant Goth, convinced him of the injustice of his demand, and so influenced him with his arguments that he abandoned his intention for a time. Soon, however, his treacherous nature could not stand it, and he, rebelling against the imperial power, began to carry out robberies and devastation, threatening Constantinople itself. The king was discouraged and did not know what to do. None of his courtiers dared to go to Gaina for negotiations and exhortations. Then Chrysostom again set out, and, disregarding any personal danger, fearlessly set out for the camp of the rebel. Everyone feared for the life of the saint, but the spiritual force turned out to be more powerful than the military. Recognizing the famous Archbishop of Constantinople in the person of the royal envoy, Gaina humbled himself and even showed him unusual honors. Soon Gaina ended his rebellious life and the empire got rid of one of its most dangerous enemies.

But zealously speaking out everywhere for the truth and overcoming evil, Saint John thereby prepared for himself a multitude of sorrows, which, according to the immutable word of Christ the Savior, constitute an inevitable earthly reward for all His true disciples and followers. As was natural to be expected, his strict measures to eradicate ecclesiastical and moral-social disorders and evils must have aroused irritation and hostility against him on the part of those who were especially affected by these measures. And first of all, those bishops were dissatisfied, of course, who, as illegally occupying their sees, were deprived of them. With the utmost bitterness of which only people convicted of untruth and abuse are capable, they began to conduct hostile agitation against the Archbishop of Constantinople, accusing him of unlawful invasion of other dioceses and of various cruelties. They were joined by other bishops, who simply envied Chrysostom and his enormous influence on the people.

Severian, with the help of his friends, even managed to penetrate into the court and found favor with the empress, who liked the sweet-flattering speeches of this bishop more than the denunciations of Chrysostom. Upon his return to the capital, St. John immediately understood all the baseness and treachery of this bishop and wanted to remove him from the capital, but Eudoxia begged him not to do this, and thus one of the most dangerous enemies of the great hierarch remained at the very altar. Other bishops did not like John either, mainly because, contrary to established custom, he did not entertain them during their stay in the capital with sumptuous dinners, but wholly occupied with important matters of ecclesiastical and religious well-being, he greeted them simply and, as it seemed to them, dryly and haughtily. One of the bishops, namely Akakii of Verei, was so displeased with such a reception that he directly threatened the saint with vengeance. If the bishops were dissatisfied, then all the less could there be quite a clergy in the capital. Accustomed under the former archbishop to complete unconstrained life, it began to be decisively indignant when St. John, who himself had passed through all the degrees of sacred church service and had the highest understanding of the duties of pastors, began to remind him of the duty of service and to eradicate among him various disorders and abuses, in the form of the shameful custom of cohabitation with virgins. Discontent among the clergy turned into complete indignation, when the archdeacon, devoted to Chrysostom, straightforward, but not restrained in his expressions, Serapion, knowing the clergy of the capital and seeing their opposition to the saint, said to him at a church meeting: "Vladyka, you cannot correct them, if you do not drive them all away with one staff." This expression was quickly taken up by the discontented, who began to zealously spread throughout the city various blasphemies and backbiting against the saint, accusing him of cruelty and hatred of mankind. The clergy were especially displeased with the order of St. John Chrysostom that benefactors, especially rich widows in the family of Olympias, should not squander their estates too much, distributing them to clergymen inclined to abuse them. This order was directed against one of the most egregious evils, and it undoubtedly caused material damage to those who were accustomed to derive a considerable income from it. The discontented did not fail to interpret this order to mean that the archbishop, out of greed, wanted to direct all the donations exclusively to himself. Many monks were also dissatisfied, not those true ascetics, of course, who, having renounced the world, built up their salvation in the wilderness, weeping over their own sins and those of their neighbors, but those hypocrites who, under the guise of monasticism, wanted only to achieve their far from angelic goals more conveniently and lived idly in the cities and in the capital itself. Such false monks reviled the archbishop in every possible way, calling him heavy and proud, cruel and arrogant. Backbiting did not take long to degenerate into slander, and the discontented began to spread throughout the city all sorts of absurdities insulting the archbishop, asserting that if he dined constantly alone and never accepted invitations to dinner from others, as the former archbishops of Constantinople had done, it was all due to his unsociability and various vices. A hundred-mouthed rumor did not disdain to spread this slander either, although everyone knew that St. John withdrew from public feasts simply because of the weakness of his stomach, which had once been upset by severe asceticism in the wilderness. If the clergy treated the saint in this way, then all the more so, of course, must have been echoed by the noble, depraved classes of the capital's population, who were most of all subjected to denunciations by the saint, who did not cease to thunder against them from the church cathedra with the mercilessness of an incorruptible judge. They even accused him of stirring up the lower classes of the people against the upper, the poor against the rich, and in any case they did not like the archbishop at all, who, instead of feasting with the rich, preferred the company of the poor and sick, the toiling and the burdened. But most of all the ladies of the highest metropolitan society were dissatisfied with him, whose exquisite attire found in John an implacable accuser, and these were the most dangerous enemies. With a purely feminine ability, they exaggerated and inflated every word of St. John that was disagreeable to them, and when he denounced them, for example.

Such slanders and slanders could not but gradually cool the Empress herself towards Saint John, especially since she herself - with her extreme licentiousness, greed and vanity - could not but feel that indeed the Archbishop's speeches sometimes very closely denounced herself, since she was in reality the source and contagious example of that pernicious passion for insane luxury with all its sad consequences. from which the entire high society of Constantinople suffered.

And so, little by little, clouds of malice, hatred and slander accumulated around the great saint, which sooner or later were to break out over his sacred head. John knew about this, but in his kindness, fully trusting in God's Providence, he did not pay any attention to the intrigues of his enemies. Meanwhile, they did not slumber, and among them, unfortunately, there was such an influential hierarch as Theophilus of Alexandria. By his position he was one of the most influential and wealthy hierarchs in all Christendom, but he was extremely proud and ambitious, and cast envious glances at the throne of the capital. When, after the death of Nektarios, the throne of Constantinople became vacant, he was no stranger to the desire to occupy it himself; but since this was unseemly, he wanted at least to occupy him with one of his henchmen or subordinates, in order to dispose of the capital through him. Therefore, he rebelled against the election of St. John and did not even want to participate in his consecration. Only when he had already been forced to do so by the government did he agree to the consecration of John, but from that time he became his sworn enemy, and from Alexandria he watched with malicious attentiveness what was happening in Constantinople. Of course, he did not like the brilliant successes of St. John in the matter of governing the church and its well-being; but he was very pleased when he noticed that discontent against John began to rise more and more strongly in the capital, and his relations with the court were deteriorating. With his cunning and shrewd mind, he knew that this relationship was bound to lead to disaster sooner or later, and he looked forward to it, confident that it would not be without his intervention. In fact, things soon developed in such a way that Theophilus had an opportunity to pour out all his hidden malice on his innocent rival. The reason for this was the unfortunate fate of certain pious monks of the Nitrian wilderness, which from the time of the foundation of monasticism was constantly a favorite place of hermitage, and in it lived a multitude of monks, asceticizing in prayer and labor. Among these monks, especially famous for their piety and even erudition were four brothers, who because of their extraordinary stature were called "long brothers". At first, Theophilus himself treated them with respect and even forced two of them to accept the priesthood to serve in Alexandria itself. But when the brethren, with pure hermit frankness, told him that they could not serve in a city defiled by the vices of the archbishop himself, Theophilus flew into a rage, burst out against them with torrents of abuse and began to accuse them of adhering to the harmful teachings of Origen. These scholars, widespread at that time, really demanded great vigilance on the part of the archpastors, and many zealots of Orthodoxy vigorously fought against them, such as St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, who deliberately traveled to Palestine to suppress this heresy there. But Theophilus was not at all such a strict zealot, he himself had previously adhered to Origen, and if now he began to persecute Origenism, it was only because this persecution gave him one extra weapon in his hands for dealing with all his opponents and enemies, of whom he had acquired not a few by his lawless life. Not content with this reprisal against the "long brothers," he even convened a council of his protégés and assistant bishops, and at it the "long brothers" were condemned as heretics and sorcerers, who had infected the entire desert with their heresy. Not only to exterminate, so to speak, the bold nest of the heresy hated by him, he gave orders to destroy the Nitrian sketes, and during this defeat many monks were subjected to cruel beatings and mutilations, and the buildings were destroyed and burned. The long brothers barely escaped by fleeing to inaccessible places of the desert, where, together with other survivors from destruction, they could only see with tears the smoke smoking over the ruins of their native monasteries. Finding themselves after this in an extremely helpless position, the ruined monks did not know what to do. They could not remain under the rule of Theophilus any longer, and therefore they went in a party first to Jerusalem, and then reached the capital, thinking there to find protection for themselves with the great archbishop of Constantinople, who was famous for his mercy to all the oppressed and persecuted, and through him with the emperor himself. St. John Chrysostom did indeed receive them with his characteristic kindness and promised to intercede for them before Theophilus, but at the same time, observing the canonical canon, which forbade one bishop to intrude into the jurisdiction of another, he acted cautiously, especially since the depot concerned the accusation of Origen's heresy. Before taking the side of the persecuted monks, it was necessary to clarify this aspect of the matter. Therefore he wrote a fraternal letter to Theophilus, in which he asked him to somehow settle the matter with the distressed monks. The haughty Theophilus considered even this letter an insult to himself and replied to it "cruelly." Meanwhile, the "long brothers," seeing the indecisiveness of St. John, themselves appealed to the emperor with a complaint against the Patriarch of Alexandria, and in their complaint they set forth a whole series of terrible accusations against Theophilus, as a man of the highest degree cruel and criminal. Things were taking a very unpleasant turn for him. He was threatened with trial, and if St. John had agreed to become the head of this court, then Theophilus would not have escaped the punishment of justice. But he, fearing troubles and schism in the church, evaded this trial, although a formal demand had already been sent to Theophilus to appear for an answer. The Patriarch of Alexandria quickly understood the state of affairs and, having previously hated St. John with all his heart, now decided to pour out his malice on him and overthrow him, in order to put in his place one of his henchmen protégés, forever eliminating the very possibility of a repetition of such offensive demands for a judicial response. And he quickly made a plan of action. If John took under his protection the "long brothers," these accursed heretics, the followers of the condemned Origen, then he himself is an Origenist, and as a follower of a heretic he is not worthy to occupy the throne of the capital! And so this intriguer, "who knew how to cunningly compose lies," began to act in this direction with amazing dexterity. With the help of his agents, strengthening the ranks of John's enemies in the capital, he even managed to set up against him such a famous and universally respected saint as St. Epiphanius of Cyprus. Knowing all the Orthodox zeal of this saint, who tirelessly struggled with the errors of Origen, Theophilus insidiously impressed upon him that Orthodoxy was in terrible danger, since the pernicious heresy of Origen had penetrated into the very heart of the Church and sat on the throne of Constantinople – in the person of Archbishop John! The simple-hearted elder-saint was horrified and, in spite of his advanced age, considered it his duty to go to Constantinople in order to eradicate heresy.

Received with extraordinary honors at court by the Empress, Epiphanius settled in a private house and, without communicating with John, decided at once, during a solemn service in the cathedral church of the archbishop, to perform a great excommunication over all the adherents of Origen, including secretly over John himself. Seeing all this, St. John grieved in his soul and tried in every way to calm the elder, explaining to him how imprudent it was to perform such a great deed as excommunication, without subjecting him to a thorough conciliar examination of the very validity of the accusation. Epiphanius really hesitated, especially since from very many he began to hear completely different opinions about John, as a man of deep faith, great virtue and blameless life, and wondered what all this meant. Then the empress herself appeared on the scene and again turned Epiphanius against the unpleasant John. Already dissatisfied with the archbishop for his merciless denunciations of the secular emptiness, depravity, and avarice of the upper classes of the capital, she was at that time especially irritated with him on the occasion of a failed attempt to rob a defenseless widow.

This conversation made a great impression on the people, who did not fail to interpret it to mean that Jezebel meant none other than Queen Eudoxia, and when the informers did not fail to bring it to the attention of the Empress, her fury knew no bounds. She decided to destroy the hated John. Summoning Epiphanius to her, she began to persuade him by flattery and threats that he should take some measures to condemn John as a heretic and therefore unworthy to occupy the archbishop's throne. When Epiphanius began to object to her that one should not give vent to his anger and that it was necessary to investigate the matter beforehand, Eudoxia, beside herself with rage and irritation, even began to threaten that if he prevented the expulsion of John, then she herself would renounce Christianity, open all the pagan temples, seduce many and cause all kinds of disasters to the church. Epiphanius was amazed at such malice of the queen and, fearing that she would really cause trouble, he considered it best to evade this matter, and without further investigation of the subject he went to his diocese, on the way to which he died.