When considering John's pastoral activity from this point of view, one involuntarily recalls the saying of the divine Chief Shepherd, Who, defining the ideal of relations between pastors and flock in the Church of God, said that "the good shepherd knows his sheep and the sheep know him and listen to his voice." In the history of the Christian Church, there have been many pastors who have striven to implement this model in their lives and activities, but the most remarkable example of its realization within the limits of human power is St. John Chrysostom. Here we see an amazing spectacle that the heart of the people, so to speak, lived an inseparable life with the heart of the pastor, who devoted himself entirely to the good of his flock. Such a strong bond was established between them, such boundless love, that apparently neither a pastor could exist without a people, nor a people without a pastor. It was enough for the pastor, under the influence of natural fatigue or illness, to suspend his conversations or to retire for a few days outside the city to rest and refresh himself in the wilderness, and the city became sad, as if it had been struck by some great misfortune. But it was enough for John to appear again, and the city came to life again, shouts of joy were heard everywhere, and it was as if a great feast was approaching. For his part, the pastor himself was agitated by the same feelings, who also could not live without his flock. "I have been absent only for one day," he said on his return from a short journey, "and it seemed to me that I had been away from you for a whole year, so sad and bored was I! By the tribulation you have experienced, you can judge mine also. When a child is torn from his mother's breast, or carried away, he turns and looks around, looking for her; so when I was torn from among you, as from my mother's breast, all my thoughts directed me to this sacred assembly"[8]. On another occasion, when he had to stay in his house for several days because of illness, he said after his recovery: "Today, being among you again, I feel the same as if I had returned from a long journey. When two friends cannot see each other, what good is it if they even live in the same city? Without leaving my home, I was as alienated as if a great distance separated me from you, because I could not converse with you... In the midst of my sufferings, what depressed me most was that I could not take part in this beloved assembly, and now that I have recovered, I prefer the pleasure of freely enjoying your love to my health. The thirst of fever is never greater than the desire to see our friends again when we have been deprived of them. As a feverish man thirsts for fresh water, so an absent friend thirsts for his friends"[9]. Under another circumstance, when John, overwhelmed by his tireless labors, went to rest and breathe in the mountain air of the wilderness, letters flew to him from his flock, who begged him to return as soon as possible, and he returned, although his health would still require rest and strength. Ascending to his pulpit, he said: "Is it true that you remembered me in my absence? As for me, I could not forget you for a moment. Captivated by bodily beauty, everywhere they go, they carry in their thoughts their favorite image; so we, captivated by the beauty of your souls, carried your image everywhere in our hearts. And just as painters reproduce the appearance of objects through the combination of colors, so we, imagining your zeal for our conversations, your love for preaching, your benevolence towards the preacher, and all the good that distinguishes you, made of your virtues, as of paints, the image of your souls; contemplation of it relieved us of the boredom of absence. Sitting or standing, at rest or in motion, in the house or out of it, everywhere and at all times we have been haunted by these thoughts; even our dreams were occupied with your love, and during the nights, as well as during the day, we fed on the sweetness of these memories, repeating the words of Solomon: "I am asleep, but my heart is awake"... (Song II.V, 2). I yielded to your insistence, I preferred to return without recovery, rather than experience your love, waiting for my recovery... That is why I arose and came to you."[10] Here is truly a good shepherd, ready to lay down his life for his sheep!

But voluntarily submitting to this extremely strong love of his flock and indulging them in this respect even to the point of neglecting his health, John did not miss an opportunity to reproach his listeners for their frivolity and enthusiasm for the external beauties of speech, and not for its internal content, which demanded moral regeneration. When the listeners, delighted with the fascinating conversations of their favorite preacher, burst into thunderous applause, according to the custom of the time, John sternly said to them: "I do not desire your applause, nor this noise. All my desire is that you, having listened in silence to what I say to you, apply this instruction to life. These are the praises I would like... You are not in the theater, nor in front of the actors, here is a spiritual school, and you must prove your obedience by your deeds. Only then will I consider myself rewarded for my labors"[11]. Of course, many did not like such reproaches, and there were people who were not even ashamed to revile the preacher and disturb the conscience of his flock. In the struggle with these evil people, John must spend a lot of time and labor; but with boundless self-denial he forgave all such backbiting when they concerned him personally. On the other hand, his heart was struck with deep sorrow when, for one reason or another, his listeners grew cold to his conversations and were carried away by some new theatrical amusements. Such phenomena often occurred among this ardent, passionate, frivolous and mobile people, who quickly changed in their mood and in one day could spoil what had been built up over the years. However dear to them was the golden-tongued preacher, for whom they yearned when they had not seen or heard him for several days; But it was enough to arrange some unusual hippodrome in the theater with its fascinating races, and the Antiochians left the churches and rushed to watch the dashing races. Such inconstancy and frivolity grieved the great preacher to the extreme, and he repeatedly exclaimed with bitterness: "Am I really laboring in vain? Do I sow on a rock, or in the midst of thorns? I am afraid that my efforts will lead to nothing."[12] Even more upsetting was his irreverent behavior in church. "Can we say? The Church has become a theater! Women come here dressed with greater indecency and shamelessness than those who commit fornication there. They also attract shameless people here. If anyone wants to seduce a woman, I think no place seems to him more convenient than the church; And if someone needs to sell or buy, the church seems more convenient to him than the square. Here gossip is heard, here gossip is listened to more than anywhere else, and if you want to know the news, you will learn it here more than at a court of law, or in a doctor's office... Is it tolerable? Can we bear it? Every day I am weary and tormented because you may take away from this useful edification, and you go away with more harm than benefit"[13]. But an attack of indignation and anger immediately gave way to love and forgiveness, as soon as the preacher noticed the effect of his reproach. Unable to bear his own severity, he was already in a hurry to make amends for it and asked forgiveness from his frivolous spiritual children. "I feel," he said, "that I have used too cruel reproaches. I'm sorry. This is what happens to every sick soul. But I say this not from a hostile heart, but from the restlessness of a loving soul for you. Therefore, I weaken my severity"[14]. There were occasions when the inconstancy and windiness of the Antiochians drove Chrysostom even more out of patience and he threw thunders of righteous anger at them, but even among these peals of rebuke and reproach the dominant tone of love was always heard. The pastor severely reproached his flock because he loved them, and they humbly endured his well-deserved reproaches, because they themselves loved him. They were two friends, united by indissoluble bonds of love and devotion. John's earnest and deep, as well as his holy love for his flock, was in no way like the deceitful caresses of ambitious people and tribunes of the people, who with their flattery intoxicate the crowd in order to more easily submit it to the yoke of their autocracy. John was a stranger to any such caresses, he knew how to speak the bitter truth to the eyes of his listeners; but if he ever expressed love for them, it was from the depths of his sincere heart. What genuine sincerity are his following words: "I carry you in my heart, you occupy all my thoughts. Great is the people, but great is my love for them, and you will not be cramped in my soul. I have no other life but you and concern for your salvation."[15]

Being a true exponent of the spirit of Christ, St. John, as a pastor, cared mainly for those who labor and are burdened, whom the Savior Christ Himself called to Himself with boundless love. His loving heart was especially open to the younger brethren, and he, as a caring father, delved into all their needs, not only spiritual, but also material, worldly. When the situation of the poor inhabitants became especially difficult for some reason, Chrysostom boldly acted as an intercessor for them, and if the reason for the deterioration of their situation was greed or oppression on the part of the rich, then he, as a true guardian of the people, strongly reproached the latter, sparing no words to expose their greed and cruelty. At times, John's sermons were almost exclusively concerned with the situation of the poor inhabitants of the city, so that even reproaches were expressed to him for speaking only about the poor, as if others did not deserve his attention and edification. Chrysostom replied that the salvation of all, rich or poor, was dear to him; but he is especially concerned about the poor, because not only their souls, but also their bodies need the care of a pastor, which is why the Saviour at the Last Judgment will ask whether we have fed the hungry, whether we have clothed the naked. "Therefore I will not cease to repeat: give to the poor, and I will be a tireless accuser of those who do not give"[16]. And indeed, he never ceased to repeat this call, and was the true father of the poor and needy, that lover of poverty, whose love of poverty made him especially dear to the Orthodox Russian people, and to this day considers love of poverty and alms to be the main virtue of every true Christian.

The mercy of St. John Chrysostom was also clearly manifested in his attitude towards the sins and vices of his people. Being himself a great and severe ascetic, he was an implacable enemy and denouncer of all sin, an implacable persecutor of all vices and passions, and waged a fierce struggle against them. Vigilantly watching all the movements both in the external and in the internal life of his flock, he menacingly castigated all deviations from holiness and Christian duty, and his denunciatory speeches at times sounded like the peals of heavenly thunders, and his listeners trembled, imagining the terrible torments that they had prepared for themselves by their deeds. But this enmity to sins and vices in St. John never turned into enmity towards sinners themselves. On the contrary, the more strongly he hurled the thunders of rebuke against sins, the more pity and love he was imbued with sinners themselves, seeing in them erring sheep requiring the loving care of a shepherd. Therefore, as soon as he noticed the effect of his threats, he softened his tone, instead of thunders, words of love and encouragement were heard from his lips, and the main subject of his conversation was the infinity of God's mercy, before which every human sin sinks like a drop in the ocean. His favorite text was the saying of the Saviour: "The Son of man came not to destroy the souls of men, but to save" (Luke 2:11). IX, 56), and developing its meaning, St. John tried to impress upon his listeners the idea that there is no such sinful fall from which man could not rise, and his reasoning made an even stronger impression because it was often confirmed by illustrative examples not only from the Bible, but also from modern life. "Have you not heard," he once said, "of that harlot who surpassed all lost women, and who afterwards surpassed all the saints in her piety? I am not speaking of the one in the Gospel, but of the one that was so famous about the time of my birth. Originating from the most depraved city of Phoenicia, she occupied the first place in the theater and her fame spread to Cilicia and Cappadocia. How many rich people it has ruined! How many young people have been seduced! She was even accused of sorcery, as if her beauty alone, without love charms and sorcery, was not enough for her passion to devour her victims. She even caught the Empress's brother in her nets. No one could stand against her omnipotence. And suddenly, I do not know how, or rather I know, that by a change of her will, having attained the grace of God, she broke free from the demonic deceptions that captivated her, and directed her path to heaven. She, whom no one could equal in shamelessness on the stage, became a model of chastity and, dressed in sackcloth, spent her life in repentance. In vain did the prefect, urged on by certain persons, want to force her to return to the theatrical stage, and even the soldiers sent for her could not take her from the refuge of the virgins who sheltered her. Admitted to the holy mysteries, purified by grace, she attained the highest virtue, never showed herself to her admirers, and shut herself up in a kind of prison, where she spent several years. So the first will be the last, and the last first. Let us hope that nothing will prevent us from becoming great and glorious"[17]. Such conversations could have a profoundly encouraging meaning for the most hardened sinners, saving them from despondency and despair and supporting them with hope in God's mercy. Truly, the following words of the Chrysostom pastor can serve as an anchor of salvation for all desperate sinners: "Are you a sinner? "Don't despair; I will not cease to supply you with medicines, for I know what a weapon against the devil is not to despair! If you are in sins, do not despair, and I will never cease to repeat: if you sin every day, then repent every day... You are old in sins, renew yourself with repentance! But is it possible, you ask, to attain salvation through repentance? Of course you can. - If I have spent my whole life in sins and bring repentance, will I be saved? - Of course you will be saved, for God's mercy is immeasurable and His goodness is ineffable. Evil, whatever it may be, is human evil, and therefore limited, and forgiving mercy is God's, and therefore endless. Imagine a spark falling into the sea: can it remain there or be visible? As a spark is before the sea, so is human evil before the goodness of God; And not even that much, but goodness is much greater. The sea, great as it is, has limits, and the goodness of God has no bounds"[18].

Being a preacher of mercy and forgiveness, St. John Chrysostom was at the same time a pastor of peace. He was an enemy of all division and schism, and therefore his heart ached at the sight of the division that existed in Antioch itself among the Orthodox in his time. In his conversations he often returned to this subject and tried to understand the very root of the evil of division, which does not lie in religious zeal at all, but in selfishness and lust for power. "Nothing divides the Church so much," he said, "lust for power; nothing provokes the wrath of God so much as division in the church. Even if we were to do the most perfect deeds, when we break unity, we will be punished, as if we were tearing apart the body of the Lord... Even martyrdom does not atone for such a sin. Why do you bear martyrdom? Is it not for the glory of Jesus Christ? You're giving your life for Jesus Christ, and at the same time you're plundering the church that Jesus Christ died for." By such exhortations he did much to tame the passions of division in the Church, and at last had the good fortune to live to that sweet moment when the parties were finally reconciled and the division ceased.

In such living communion with his flock, St. John spent the best years of his life. It is to this time that all his most important works, both conversational and polemical, belong. In his incessant conversations he interpreted not only individual passages and texts, but also entire books of Holy Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments, and it is these interpretations that constitute his main glory as an exegete. His interpretations are distinguished by wonderful clarity, simplicity and vitality, so that they constitute the best example of interpretive work and an inexhaustible source of theological knowledge and religious and moral edification. His best interpretations are recognized as the discourses on the Gospel of St. Matthew and on the Epistles of St. Paul. Paul. Belonging to the Antiochian school of interpreters, which set as its task, in contrast to the Alexandrian school, a literal interpretation, devoid of any mystery, St. John Chrysostom in this respect attained the highest interpretive perfection. Being acquainted with the works of the Alexandrian interpreters, and having studied the most famous of them, Origen, he occupied precisely that middle position, which constitutes the ideal and essence of Orthodox exegesis. Following the sacred text step by step, he expounds its most natural meaning, first of all given to the mind, and first deduces from it the dogmatic teaching, and then indicates the virtues arising from it, looking at the latter as teaching in its practical application. And all this is set forth with wonderful simplicity, clearly and extremely distinctly. He has nothing that would be mere speculation, a simple passion for teaching, with its inevitable subtleties and petty researches. Everything in him flows directly from the fullness of the heart and is directed towards the elevation and sanctification of life. He did not write his interpretations and did not sit in his study, but addressed them in a lively conversation with the people in church. Hence the animation and vitality of each of his words, which penetrated deeply into the souls of his listeners - the fire that was truly capable of kindling the hearts of people.

In the course of his long pastoral activity in Antioch, St. John became so accustomed and became so close to his flock that all his thoughts were concentrated on only one thing, how best and more effectively to edify them, to protect them more faithfully from errors, and to more fully reveal to them the truth that faith in Jesus Christ is the source of all good. He no longer set himself anything higher than this goal, and hoped to end his life among them. True, there were times when, exhausted to the extreme by his labors and overwhelmed by the grief caused by the frivolity and follies of his people, he involuntarily cast wistful glances at the surrounding mountains, where he had once asceticized in holy solitude in the years of his youth, where it was so peaceful and joyful to live in the bosom of serene nature in solitude with God, and where many of the "earthly angels" really continued to lead such a life. as he liked to call hermits. Sometimes he even temporarily withdrew to these mountains to rest and refresh himself from the exhausting toils and noisy bustle of city life; But the pastor's working life had now taken possession of him to such an extent that he could not break with it forever, and therefore, after a short rest, he always returned to his beloved flock, who also yearned for their absent pastor, and from the depths of his sincere heart he said: "I see well that I cannot leave this place of residence and that I must remain here until the end of my days"[20]. But God's Providence judged otherwise. The great lamp of the Church, once brought out of the latent solitude in the wilderness and placed on the candlestick of the church in the midst of a crowded city, gave around itself such a strong and beneficial light that even this city was not enough for it. Its light was to shine upon the entire universe, and for this purpose the lamp had to be placed even higher, in the very center of the Orthodox Christian world. And it came true. In the year 397 the aged Archbishop of Constantinople Nectarios died, and thus the first cathedra of the Eastern Universal Church became widowed. It was to this glorious cathedra that God's Providence elevated St. John, in order to make of him not only a great hierarch, but also a great martyr for the truth.  

St. John Chrysostom on the Throne of Constantinople (398-404)

When St. John was finishing his pastoral work in Antioch, an important change took place in the political state of the world. In the year 396, the emperor Theodosius died, who took with him to the grave the last reflections of the greatness of the Roman Empire. He was left with two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, and in order not to arouse hostility between them, but chiefly not to consider either of them capable of taking upon himself the whole burden of governing a vast empire, which was obviously inclined to decline, divided the empire among them, leaving to Honorius the west, and to Arcadius the eastern half of it. Both of them were still young men, and not generously endowed by nature enough to carry out the difficult service entrusted to them with dignity and success. It is not surprising, therefore, that the real rulers of the state were not they, but the entourage around them, among whom the first place was occupied by the famous commander Stilicho in the west, and the no less famous courtier eunuch Eutropius in the east. The latter, having emerged from the state of slavery, thanks to various accidents and especially to his natural intelligence, was able to earn the favor of the late Emperor Theodosius, who before his death entrusted him with important commissions, and after his death, of course, became the main guardian of the young Arcadius and the real ruler of the state. This eunuch was the instrument through which God's Providence brought St. John to the cathedra of Constantinople. When, after the death of Archbishop Nektarios, the question of his successor arose, it was not easy to resolve it. The position was very important, and therefore not a few claims were made to it. Arkady did not know what to do and whom to prefer. Then Eutropius rescued him from the difficulty. As a man not alien to religiosity, he was interested in church affairs, and during his stay in Antioch he did not fail to listen to the famous Antiochian preacher. John made a strong impression on him by his sermons, and now Eutropius suggested to the emperor how good it would be for the church of the capital city of his empire to have such a famous pastor at the head of it. Arcadius agreed, and immediately the governor of the east, Asterius, was given a secret commission to take and bring John to the capital. The order was unexpected both for John and for the people of Antioch, and it was not easy to carry it out. The Antiochians would never have consented to voluntarily part with their beloved shepherd, and any violence would have led to rebellion. For this reason an order was given to take John by cunning, which was done by Asterius, who, having summoned John outside the city, as if for the joint veneration of the relics of the holy martyrs, gave orders to take him into a chariot, which rushed to Constantinople. The humble pastor, having learned of the real purpose of his summons to the countryside, was of course grieved, casting a farewell glance at his native Antioch, where he had labored so much for the good of his beloved people; but obedient to God's Providence he was completely reconciled to this circumstance and calmly approached the reigning city. The emperor graciously greeted the famous pastor and, in order to give more solemnity and splendor to his consecration, summoned for this purpose many bishops, who, headed by Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria, ordained John on February 26, 398 to the dignity of archbishop of Constantinople.

Now John was no longer a simple pastor-preacher of a provincial city. He was the archbishop of the capital, the patriarch of the reigning city, and sat on the throne of the second Rome. His position was very high, but at the same time difficult. The Church of Constantinople, founded according to the tradition of St. Ap. Andrew, survived many vicissitudes, and from the time of the elevation of Byzantium to the rank of the capital of the Eastern Empire, it acquired a great significance of primary importance in the East. In fact, it was the center of the ecclesiastical, religious and spiritual life of the entire East. But in consequence of this very situation, it was most strongly overwhelmed by various trends. In the capital they found shelter and support for all kinds of false teachings, which were quickly instilled among the frivolous, devoted to the pleasures of the population, and whose adherents knew how to find access even to the imperial court. As a consequence of this, there were times when false teaching, especially Arianism, brazenly celebrated its victory in the capital, threatening to completely oust Orthodoxy. Such was the case not long ago, under Gregory the Theologian, who, having arrived in Constantinople, saw with sorrow that all the most important fourteen churches of the capital were in the hands of the Arians, and Orthodoxy huddled in only one house church, which, under his beneficent pastorship, became the source of the restoration or resurrection of Orthodoxy. But although Orthodoxy was restored, the influence of false teaching was so great that even this great archbishop-theologian found it difficult to shepherd such a dissolute flock both spiritually and morally, and therefore soon after his elevation to the rank of archbishop he renounced this high rank. His successor was Nectarios - from among the secular court dignitaries. This hierarch was distinguished by piety, but he was too weak for the metropolitan cathedra, and although his reign was even and calm, yet everyone clearly felt that another pastor was needed on the throne of the capital, who would have enough courage not only to beg, but also to forbid, and in general to show the firmness of the church authority when circumstances demanded it. Nectarios did not have such courage, and therefore after him the capital's church remained in a rather disordered state. The people, wholly devoted to pleasures and passions, did not respect their pastors, and the latter, not excluding the bishops, also led a completely worldly life. All this deeply struck and grieved John. If he saw in Antioch so many shortcomings and vices, with which he waged an irreconcilable struggle, then there they were the shortcomings of the unreasonable flock, which needed the admonition of the pastors; and here the pastors themselves demanded no less admonition and punishment. And St. John could immediately understand what a difficult and responsible place Providence had placed him in. Even in his youth he was aware of all the loftiness and burden of episcopal service, and for this reason he evaded it, hiding from his friend Basil. Now, against his will, finding himself in the pulpit of the first church, he could be even more convinced of this. But now he no longer shied away from the burden of his ministry. On the contrary, having been placed in such a high and difficult place, he, as a true pastor of the Church, decided to show himself worthy of his calling, and courageously entered upon the exercise of his laborious ministry.

His first act was to show himself to his new flock as a pastor-teacher. This was expected of him most of all by the people, who knew of his brilliant eloquence and anticipated the great pleasure of listening to the famous preacher. And indeed, the first talks of St. John in Constantinople gathered an innumerable multitude of people, and the archpastor could rejoice at such zeal of his flock to hear the word of God. With divinely inspired power, golden words of edification and interpretation of the word of God poured from his lips, the listeners fell into indescribable rapture, and the vaults of the church resounded with noisy, often frantic applause and all kinds of signs of approval. Such signs of approval he had condemned even in Antioch, seeing in them a manifestation of human vanity; he could not sympathize with them even now. But his grief became all the greater as he became convinced that these noisy approvals were here even less a sign of the penetration of words of edification into the souls of his listeners than among the people of Antioch, and on the contrary they were only a proof of the extreme vanity of his new flock, which did not distinguish between the church and the theater. The listeners evidently liked the brilliance of the preacher's eloquence, not the power of the edification of his words. For this reason he resolved to come out even more energetically than in Antioch against such licentiousness, and in his conversations he repeatedly begged his hearers to abandon this habit and listen to the edification in quiet silence and contrition of heart. "Listen to me calmly," he said repeatedly, "I beg you to do so, and if you will, let us make it a rule today that no one in the audience should allow himself to interrupt the preacher. Do as I ask you, and you will find here a source of good and a school of wisdom. When even the pagan philosophers reasoned before their disciples, the latter listened to them without interrupting them with applause. The apostles also preached, and nowhere do we read that they were interrupted by noisy applause. Jesus Christ was talking to the people on the mountain, and when He spoke, there were no cries. There is nothing more appropriate for the church than silence and modesty. Noise and cries are appropriate for the theater, baths, public squares, and social ceremonies. The exposition of our dogmas requires calmness, concentration, this quiet harbor for protection from storms. Think about it, I beg you, I beg you... Establish such a rule, and you will do everything only for the glory of God"[21]. But the bad habit was so strong in the population of the capital that it was difficult to overcome it, and St. John, not confining himself to teaching, decided to show before this dissolute flock an example of severity on himself. The more dissolute the flock, the stricter the pastor must be, and St. John, zealous for the salvation of the souls entrusted to his care, gave himself over to pastoral activity to the point of complete self-denial and forgetfulness of himself. The very position of the Archbishop of Constantinople demanded of him a wide public, rich hospitality and constant participation in feasts at the invitation of the nobility. Such a life, of course, took up a lot of time that could have been spent on pastoral service, and therefore St. John found it necessary to immediately put himself in a different position and, refusing all invitations, led the life of a hermit, who did not attach any importance to his own needs, took the most scanty food and moreover always in private, and began to use all the savings left from his income for works of mercy and charity. The doors of his house were always open, not for those idle ambitious people who only comforted their vanity by inviting the archbishop to their feasts or encroaching on his hospitality, but for those who were toiling and burdened who really needed both spiritual and physical help. Being a friend and guardian of the poor in Antioch, St. John remained so on the throne of Constantinople. The capital, resplendent with the rich splendor of its chambers and palaces, in reality contained even more glaring misery than Antioch, and the archpastor wanted to help these distressed members of his flock. The archbishop's cathedra possessed very considerable funds, and St. John, having increased them even more by his extremely modest life, began to turn them to charitable institutions. Before him, there were only four God-pleasing institutions for the entire population of the capital, which, moreover, were poorly maintained and out of order. St. John, impelled by his pastoral care, having put in order and improved the former institutions, began to establish new ones, and around the Church of God, as the fruits of Christian love for mankind, all kinds of God-pleasing institutions began to quickly arise, where all the sick and infirm, all the outcasts, doomed by human hardness of heart to misery and destruction, could find shelter and refuge. And all the activity of St. John was directed mainly to the maintenance of these God-pleasing institutions. In his conversations, he constantly appealed to his listeners with an appeal for donations for charity, and from his golden-tongued lips came divinely inspired speeches, in which alms were praised as the greatest virtue, as one that more than any other opens access to heaven and its heavenly joys. His words did not remain fruitless. Charity was greatly revived in Constantinople, and there were not a few such rich people, especially widows, who, donating all their wealth to works of charity, themselves entered God-pleasing institutions, and served the sick and infirm brethren. Such success greatly rejoiced the great pastor, and he even dreamed of that glorious time when all misery would cease in his flock and all would live in that happy fraternal communion in which the first Christians lived in Jerusalem.

But charity was only one aspect of the pastoral activity of St. John Chrysostom. Even more than bodily needs, spiritual and moral needs demanded of the archpastor care, without the satisfaction of which charity itself could not bring proper benefit. Both Antioch and still more Constantinople were a city in which the population was extremely mixed. Although Christians prevailed in numbers, paganism still made itself felt in everyday life, manifesting itself in all kinds of superstitions. Side by side with the Gentiles lived the Jews, who continued to wage an underground struggle, if not openly, against the Church, and finally, there were constant disturbances in the Church itself, caused by various heresies and schisms. All this mixture of tribes and beliefs made the pastor's activity extremely difficult, and to this were added other, purely social ulcers. The imperial court was far from being the embodiment of the virtues which, according to tradition, were accustomed to expect from it in the provinces. Instead of being a model of both family and social virtues, he was rather the source of all moral corruption, which had an infectious effect on the entire surrounding society. The insane luxury of the court forced the surrounding dignitaries to imitate it, who therefore indulged in the most shameless predation, which weighed heavily on the people. John, wholly devoted to the care of the poor, was deeply indignant at such foolishness and loudly cried out against it in his conversations. "Such insane luxury," he said, "is unseemly for Christians. Why, tell me, do you wear silk garments, ride gold-britted horses and decorated hinnies? The hinny is decorated at the bottom; gold also lies on its covering; dumb hinnies wear jewelry with a golden bridle; dumb hinnies are adorned, but the poor, tormented by hunger, stand at your doors, and Christ is tormented by hunger! Oh, utter madness! What justification, what forgiveness will you receive, Christ stands before your doors in the form of a poor man, and you do not move?" [23] At last, both rich and poor were all infected with a passion for theaters and public entertainments, and it came to such a point that in the event of any extraordinary performances, the churches were empty, and the theaters were overflowing with madly jubilant crowds. The saint bitterly mourned such an infatuation, severely rebuked the foolish, and found great consolation for himself in the fact that his conversations often made a tremendous impression, so that the people repented before him of their insane passions.