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!"

All these events took place before the eyes of the young John. Although even in adolescence he was distinguished by an unusual concentration for his age, avoided companionship, and loved to indulge in solitary meditation in the silence of his house, drawing from the reading of the Holy Scriptures and his deep spiritual being material for his education, yet he could not remain completely indifferent to what was happening outside his home, and since his pious mother undoubtedly lived through many anxious days during these persecutions against Christianity, then he, too, had to share her anxieties and fears. One can even think that he took an active part in the affairs of Christians. Reading his enthusiastic eulogy, pronounced later over the grave of the holy confessors of the faith in Christ, the valiant soldiers Justinus and Maximinus, one cannot but bear the impression that he himself once participated in the burial of these martyrs and himself, together with a multitude of other Christians, shed hot tears over their headless corpses. Julian's fury ended with his well-deserved death during the Persian campaign, when, mortally wounded, in a mad rage, he threw clods of mud with his caked blood to the sun, and in his dying breath exclaimed: "Thou hast conquered me, Galilean!" exempted churches from taxes, returned bishops from exile. His successor Valentinian acted in the same way, and although he made a great mistake in inviting Valens as his co-emperor, to whom the East had given him, on the whole he tried to heal the wounds inflicted on Christianity by the royal apostate, and indeed did not a little in this respect, prescribing for example the celebration of Sunday and forbidding various sorcery and night sacrifices, under the pretext of which the pagans committed all kinds of abominable things and supported enmity among the masses of the people against the Christianity.

By this quieter time John was already a young man. At the time of Valentinian's accession to the throne, John was already about 18 years old, and from him blossomed a young man, if not in body, then in soul. Anthusa's motherly heart was delighted at the sight of her son, who, as a treasure she had guarded for so many years from all harmful influences and dangers, now showed all the signs of great gifts. And the loving mother considered it her duty to give him the opportunity to settle down in the world in accordance with his position and gifts. In order to succeed in the field of life, he had to complete his education with some special course, and she, noticing in him a predisposition to oratory and profundity, gave him the opportunity to enter the school of the most famous teacher of eloquence at that time, Livania. He was a pagan sophist, one of Julian's closest accomplices. Like him, he stubbornly adhered to paganism and dreamed of its revival on new philosophical principles. He looked down on Christianity, and although he did not harbor bitter enmity towards it, he was not averse to laughing at his strange beliefs in a carpenter's son. Having once visited a Christian school in Antioch, which was under the guidance of a very pious and strict Christian teacher, Livanius ironically asked the latter: "And what is the carpenter's son doing now?" He, the teacher added, is now building funeral roads." Soon after this came the news of Julian's unexpected death, and the mocking rhetorician could not help pondering the answer he had received from the Christian teacher. In any case, he was not distinguished by any fanatical, blind hostility to Christianity, and therefore the passage of the course of higher eloquence with him was not dangerous even for Christian youths. For example, St. Basil the Great studied with him and even later maintained correspondence with him. Nor could Saint John fear any evil influences from him, who, having been brought up in the pious home of his mother, was now fully a soldier of Christ, who knew how to wield spiritual weapons to repel any attacks on his faith. And he, with his characteristic thirst for knowledge, gave himself up to higher science, and at once showed such talent and began to make such progress that he involuntarily delighted his teacher. The latter, partly not without alarm, saw how in his school grew up this extraordinary orator, who in time threatened to overshadow the teacher himself, and this made him all the more restless, since John was a Christian and was preparing to be a great herald and preacher of Christianity, while Livanius himself still hoped to resurrect the decaying corpse of paganism. There is no doubt that the old sophist would have been very anxious to persuade the young orator to his convictions, and this secret hope compelled him to pay special attention to his beloved pupil. But his hope was in vain. John at this time had almost outlined his life's path, having decided to devote himself to the service of his Lord Jesus Christ, and the old sophist, on his deathbed, with sincere sorrow answered to his attendants the question of whom he would like to appoint as his successor in the school: "John," he groaned, "if the Christians had not stolen him from us."

Along with eloquence, John also studied philosophy under a certain philosopher Andragathius, who was also famous in Antioch. Philosophy at that time had long since lost its former classical character, and by it was meant mainly a superficial study of previous philosophical systems, and the lack of depth of thought was concealed by streams of vague and pompous eloquence. But the more eminent representatives of philosophy nevertheless knew how to give their science the character of a certain wisdom, and if they succeeded in penetrating into the laws of the spiritual life of man, then by doing so they did a service to their disciples, since they drew their attention from the diversity of external phenomena into the mysterious region of the spiritual world. Andragathius probably belonged to this kind of philosopher, and if John later showed an amazing ability to penetrate into the deepest recesses of the spiritual life of people, which shine in his sermons and treatises, then, in addition to his natural spiritual insight, he owed this not less to his teacher.

Having completed his education, John, fully armed with talents and knowledge, was ready to embark on the path of life. As a noble and brilliantly educated young man, a wide field opened up before him.

All the almost noble youth of that time began their public life as a lawyer, and it was practiced, for example, by Saints Basil the Great, Ambrose of Milan, Sulpicius Severus and other celebrities of that time. This occupation immediately led John into the stormy whirlwind of life, and he came face to face with that world of untruths, intrigues, insults and oppressions, enmity and lies, tears and malevolence, of which the everyday life of people is composed, and which he did not know in the peaceful home of his pious mother.

At the same time, his advocacy accustomed him to public oratory, and he immediately showed such brilliant success in this field that his old teacher Livanius involuntarily admired him. The young lawyer obviously had a brilliant future ahead of him: his oratory acquired him wide fame, which, while giving him abundant funds, at the same time opened the way to the highest state posts. From among the most gifted lawyers, who had made a name for themselves in the courts, the government invited persons to whom it represented the administration of the provinces, and John, following such a road, could gradually reach the highest offices - sub-prefect, prefect, patrician and consul, with which rank was associated the title "famous" - illustris. And the shown side of this life could not but captivate the young man, who had just looked out into the broad light of God, especially since all social pleasures and amusements were inseparable from this life. A man of society had to visit theaters and circuses and, willy-nilly, give himself over to those hobbies and passions with which society people tried to fill the emptiness of their lives. And it is true that John and his young friends and companions visited these places of amusement, but it was here that his unspoiled nature was most indignant at such emptiness. Both advocacy and these amusements showed him with irresistible clarity all the emptiness and falsehood of such a life, and he saw how far this real world, with its iniquities and malices, with its passions and vices, was from that divine ideal which was presented to him when, as he himself loved to say, having drunk his soul from the pure source of the Holy Scriptures, With an immaculate heart he entered the field of life. His soul could not endure this test, and he decided to break all connection with this worthless world of lies and unrighteousness, in order to devote himself entirely to the service of God and the pursuit of that spiritual perfection which had become the need of his soul.

This beneficial revolution was greatly facilitated by one of his closest friends and contemporaries, namely Basil[4]. John speaks enthusiastically of the friendship that bound him to him even in adolescence. "I had many friends," he says at the beginning of his book "On the Priesthood," sincere and faithful, who knew and strictly observed the laws of friendship; but of many, one surpassed all others in love for me. He was always my inseparable companion: we studied the same sciences and had the same teachers; were engaged in eloquence with the same eagerness and zeal, and had the same desires arising from the same occupations." But then a shadow of separation lay between the friends. When John gave himself up to secular social life, his friend Basil devoted himself to "true wisdom," i.e., he accepted monasticism. The example of a true friend could not fail to influence John, and although for some time he still indulged in worldly dreams and passions, the reverse side of worldly life that he saw struck him so much that he began to gradually free himself from the storm of life, again became close to Basil, who did not fail to exert on him all the good influence of which true friendship is capable, and - John decided to abandon this miserable, the vain world with its malice and endless tribulations, in order to devote oneself entirely to God and true wisdom.