WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Cloud of Witnesses - Episode 1: St. John Chrysostom

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

Join Dominic and Marc as they walk through the life and teachings of St. John Chrysostom in this pilot episode. 

Welcome to this the inaugural episode of Cloud of Witnesses. I'm Dominic Toronto, alongside me as Mark Ayers, and we are both very excited to be here with you guys. A brief little overview of what the show is before we hop into our first saint. So Mark and I just had a fun idea for a podcast, and we thought it would be a fun idea to sort of go through each week of this school year, this semester, and pick a saint whose feast day was that week. we're not using any specific like one specific calendar. We just kind of looked at a bunch of different ones and decided to find some some fun saints that we, you know, admire their lives and their work. And we're hoping maybe to bring you some saints who you may not have heard about or if you have heard about them, you don't really know what they did or what they taught. And to just really put the lives of these holy people into the spotlight for those who may not know, including myself.

I know that in doing the research for the show I've learned a lot. Yeah, same. So, Mark, who do we have on deck this week? Well, this week, Dom, we are starting with the one and only John Chrysostom. All right. So the way this is going to work is Mark is going to tell you guys a little bit about his life. And then I am going to go and tell you about some of his writings. So let's kick this off from the beginning.

Mark, where was St. John Chrysostom born and raised? Well, he was born in Antioch and Roman Syria. in 347 AD. That would be modern-day Turkey. Scholars differ on whether or not his mother was a Christian, but his father, we know, was a high-ranking military officer who died soon after his birth.

He was raised by his mother, whose name was Anthusia, and whether or not she was a Christian, he was eventually baptized in 368, and he was tonsured as a reader. Could you give me a quick definition of what it means to be tauntured as a reader? I know the tradition has largely fallen out of use in the West,

but it is still used in the East. So can you just give me a quick little overview of what it means to be taunchered and what a reader is? Yeah, no, of course. So the practice of tonsure means shaving one's head as a sign of humility, usually almost always done in conjunction with some sort of induction into holy orders or the monastic life. In this case, it would be done to induct someone into being a reader. Now, in Eastern Christianity, there are three minor orders. If you're a Western Christian, you may know about being a priest or being ordained a deacon or a bishop.

Those are the major orders. These are minor orders. Subdeacon, reader, enchanter. They don't constitute the fullness of holy orders, but they nevertheless induct the layperson, who maintains their status as a layperson, into a higher faculty of the worship service, and it gives them a role to play in that service. So a reader would be a person who has specifically been in a person. inducted into this role and trained to do the readings at a mass.

Interesting. Okay. So what happens next? His mother had influence in the city and through her connections, John was able to become educated. He studied under the prominent rhetorician, Labinas, who was a teacher in the Sophos School. From Labinus, John became very skilled in rhetoric and he developed a love for the Greek language. and he used this education to become a lawyer. Okay, so I know his name Chrysostom is Greek. It's an epithet that means golden mouth or golden-tongued. Is this kind of like where that starts for him, this sort of journey?

I would imagine so. The epithet, Chrysostom comes into play a little bit later when he's doing his preaching and actually giving homilies and sermons. They're so eloquent and so well laid out that they begin to call. call him the golden mouth. Okay, yeah. But I imagine that that eloquence got its start during his legal training. Yeah, that makes sense. Rhetoric training. However, later on in his life, he began to really seriously consider his Christian faith and felt a deeper calling to it. And he actually left his career as a lawyer to study theology under Diodorus of Tarsus. This study actually inspired him to give up his

life in the city entirely and become an ascetic hermit living in the desert. Interesting. Okay. Where he stayed until his health gave way. Okay. Yeah, I didn't realize that he became a hermit later on. He did for some time. He did eventually return to Antioch after his health started to deteriorate as his life as a hermit. He was ordained a deacon in 381 and a priest in 386 at the age of 39. over the next 12 years, his profound preaching and sermons at the cathedral began to draw serious attention. In fact, in 387, he calmed an anti-imperial riot in Antioch by preaching more than 20 sermons throughout the weeks of Lent. They were so successful that not only did they quiet the populace and save them from imperial vengeance, but they also converted many pagans over to Christianity as well.

At this time, the people of Antioch were just completely rioting. it was actually specifically against Theodosius I first, the emperor at the time. They were tearing down statues of him. Oh, wow. Okay. And so normally this would be met with serious pushback, but due to John's incredible preaching, they were all subdued. John's primary concerns when preaching were the spiritual and temporal welfare of the needy and oppressed.

He often spoke out against the abuse of wealth, and he preached charity and almsgiving. In 389, John Chrysostin was called to Constantinople, the imperial capital, to become its archbishop. There he became very, very popular with the people, but he had friction with the ruling class due to his criticism of their greed. It got to such a point that in 403, a rival bishop in Alexandria, Theophilus, convened a synod that indicted John on numerous trumped-up charges, and he was ultimately banished by the Eastern Emperor and forced into exile in Armenia. He was able to maintain a correspondence with his supporters through letters, but while on another journey deeper into exile, he tragically passed away on the 14th of September 407.

There was so much disdain for him in the capital at the time that he wasn't able to be buried in Constantinople until 31 years later, where his relics were brought back and received by the Emperor Theodosius 2nd. His reputation, despite the efforts of his enemies, was superb, and he was very quickly recognized. recognized as a saint for his praiseworthy life of teaching and ministry. Wow, that's awesome. What a, what a guy. I know. And those two dates are important there. September, the September date when he died, that's actually still the date that the Eastern Orthodox celebrate St. John Chrysostom, whereas the translation of his relics, which is January 27th, is the date that most Western Christians celebrate his feast day, which I think is really cool. You know, despite the, you know, the change and the difference in the two traditions and celebrating him, you know, at different times,

still sort of the unity in celebrating him as a great saint of the church. Well, now we're going to take a little bit of a different tack here. We're going to look a little bit more at, you know, stuff that he wrote, give a little more of like a theological summary of St. John Chrysostom. A lot of his stuff that he wrote were like homilies and commentaries. He didn't write a lot of like prose sort of just like on a specific topic. Sure, like maybe confessions of Augustine or something like that. Exactly, yeah. He did write a couple, so like on the priesthood is something that he wrote that wasn't

necessarily a commentary. He's considered a doctor of the church and the Roman Catholic Church. He's also considered one of what are called the Three Holy Hierarchs in the Eastern Orthodox Church and is venerated in every communion that celebrate the saints. And those, the Three Holy Hierarchs, can you just explain a little bit of who those are, why they're important? Yeah, so the Three Holy Hierarchs are. St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory, the the theologian, are also St. Gregory Nazianzus, and St. John Chrysostim.

These are three saints, specifically of the Eastern tradition that we call the Greek fathers. And the Eastern Orthodox hold these three specific saints in high esteem. They're seen as being almost like foundational to Eastern Orthodox theology. The epithet, the theologian, given to St. Gregory, is like the high. highest epithet that someone can get. That's also as only, I think, applied to like St. John who wrote the Gospel of John.

Oh, wow. So these three saints are considered very, very high highly by the Eastern Orthodox. He was also influential in the development of the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. He didn't fully write it. Scholars think that most of it was sort of shaping and editing and putting together

compiling very sections of previous and past liturgies, but it's still used by many Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics to this day. Today, I want to focus on two of his works. We're going to talk about on the priesthood, and then we're also going to talk about his commentary on St. John's Gospel. So on the priesthood is one of his few, sort of more like topical works. This is written as a dialogue between him and someone called Basil. It's got six chapters, six books. And it starts off by him sort of telling a story about how he,

funny enough, tried to avoid being ordained as a priest. Really? Yeah. He thought that he, to a certain extent, wasn't worthy to be considered as someone who should be a priest in God's holy church. He believed that priests, you know, more so than the average Christian are specifically to avoid aspects that lead to pride. Interesting, interesting. So did, are you saying that he thought that if a priest, you know, was falling into those sins,

that he couldn't be ordained or that his ministry would be invalid? Not necessarily. So this is a heresy called Donatism, which sort of had its heyday between 3-11 and 4-11. And this was a heresy that taught that if an individual priest or bishop or deacon sinned, then any sort of set. And, sacraments that they presided over were invalid. And the sins of the clergy invalidated their ministry. So he wrote the priesthood between 381 and 385. So he's kind of writing during the Donatist heresy. But he was definitely not a Donatist. For him, the priesthood is a heavenly ordinance that's instituted by the Holy Ghost. So when a priest celebrates the master of a Eucharist or a bishop ordains deacons or priests,

it is the Holy Ghost working there. It is not the priest working there. Gotcha. Yeah. So that's, you know, St. Augustine, again, wrote a lot about the Donatists. But St. John Chrysostom, as far as I'm aware, didn't write any specific works against the Donatists.

But given his theology of how the priesthood is and, you know, how it works, what it is how it works, it's clear that he would not have sided with the Donatists. You are listening to Cloud of Witnesses on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. He actually writes in book four, sorry, book, book three section four, about sort of the, the heaviness and how important this role of the priest is. He says, wherefore the consecrated priest ought to be as pure as if he were standing in the heavens themselves in the midst of those powers, i.e. the angels. Fearful indeed, and of most awful import, were the things which were used before the

dispensation of grace, as the bells, the pomegranates, the stones, on the breastplates, and on the effod, the girdle, the miter, the long robe, the plate of gold, the holy of holies, the deep silence within. But if anyone should examine the things which belong to the dispensation of grace, you will find that small as they are, yet are they fearful and full of awe, and that what was spoken concerning the law is true in this case. Also that what has been made glorious has no glory in this respect by reason of the glory which excels, quoting second Corinthians 310. For when you see the Lord sacrificed and laid upon the altar and the priest standing and praying over the victim and all the worshippers and purpled with that precious blood,

can you then think that you are still among men and standing upon the earth? That's powerful. Yeah. For him, like the priest is someone who is, he's standing over the victim. He's standing over Christ sacrificing, you know, not in a, you know, not in a, you know, not in a, a way that would sort of contradict the book of Hebrews saying that Christ's sacrifices, you know, complete in and of itself. But in sort of participating on Christ's one sacrifice, he is sort of standing with the rest of his congregation in the presence of God dispensing grace. Again, he also says this is in section, book three, section four again. He says, would you also learn from another miracle the exceeding sanctity of this office?

Picture Elijah and the vast multitude standing around him, and the sacrifice laid upon the altar of stones, and all the rest of the people hushed in a deep silence while the prophet alone offers up prayer. Then the sudden rush of fire from heaven upon the sacrifice. These are marvelous things, charged with terror, now then pass from this scene to the rites which are celebrated in the present day. They are not only marvelous to behold, but transcendent in terror.

There stands the priest, not bringing down fire from heaven, but the Holy Spirit, and he makes prolonged supplication, not that some flame sent down from on high may consume the offerings, but that grace descending on the sacrifice may thereby enlighten the souls of all, and render them more refulgent than silver purified by fire. Who can despise this most awful mystery, unless he is stark, mad, and senseless? Or do you not know that no human soul could have endured that fire and the sacrifice, but all will have been utterly consumed had not the assistance of God's grace been great. That's crazy. I mean, you also learn a lot from his sort of theology of what the Eucharist is. It's, he calls it a sacrifice. It's a dispensation of grace. So for him, the priest is

someone who, in sort of the person of Christ, you know, in persona Christi is the phrase that is often used in Roman Catholic circles, he is there to make sure that the promises of Christ are given to all. And then my favorite commentary, so St. John is my favorite gospel, and reading his commentary on St. John is great. He has three separate homilies on John 1-1. Really? So just the first verse. Three separate homilies. Three separate homilies. Wait, just the first verse. Just the first verse. Just the first verse. Goodness. Yeah. I mean, well, that's one of the most. sort of theologically dense, you know, single verses and all. Yeah, of course. So it makes sense. His third homily, he sort of, he emphasizes, he asked the question sort of, why does the gospel

of John start this way, whereas, you know, St. Mark's gospel starts with right away. He's just in his ministry. The Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke have a little bit more of the birth narrative. Yeah, why do you have like a little bit of a recapitulation of Genesis almost? Yeah, and that's, that's the question, that's a great question. That's a question that he asks. And for and his answer is that St. John is trying to emphasize the deity of Christ. So that's a big theme in the gospel

of St. John. But he also makes sure to say that St. John, the gospel writer, does not neglect his manhood. He goes on homily 25 point the second section links being reborn to water baptism.

This is one of my favorite passages in all of his homilies. He writes, So he's asking the question, like, what is the use of water in baptism? Sure, like, why not just say the words and why do you need the water? Yeah. So this is what he says. That the need of water is absolute and indispensable, you may learn in this way. On one occasion, when the spirit had flown down before the water was applied,

the apostle did not stay at this point, but as though the water were necessary and not superfluous. Observe what he says. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we, quoting Acts 1047? What then is the use of the water? This too, I will tell you hereafter, when I reveal to you the hidden mystery. There are also other points of mystical teaching connected with the matter, but for the present, I will mention to you one out of many. What is this one? And baptism are fulfilled the pledges of our covenant with God, burial and death, resurrection and life. and these take place all at once. For when we immerse our heads in the water,

the old man is buried as in a tomb below and holy sunk forever. Then as we raise them again, the new man rises in its stead. Some very Pauline language there. Yeah, extremely. Of baptism being us participating and dying with Christ in his death as well.

And in that second section, he says, when I reveal to you the hidden mystery, the Greek word for mystery is the same word that we translate. sacrament. So that's actually, you know, there's a little double meaning there. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah. And then some homilies on, his homilies on John 6, sort of the bread of life discourse. That's in homily's 46 and 47. He really emphasizes the necessity of taking these as like real promises and real sort of exhortations by Christ. So his homily on John 6, so we have the

bread of life discourse where Jesus is saying, you know, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood in order to have any life in you. This whole, you know, this is one of my favorite passages of scripture. But his, but St. John Chrysostom's commentary, he says, you know, he says something very interesting. He says, he, that is Christ, brings forward the resurrection to solve the question, i.e. how shall we, you know, not taste death if we eat of his flesh and blood? And to show that, the man who eat shall not die at the last. He continued. handles the subject of the quote, mysteries, again, the same word for the sacraments, showing the necessity of the action, and that it must by all means be done.

So here, again, we have, you know, this very strict sacramental reading of this passage that I, you know, think is just absolutely gorgeous. Yeah, no, it's great. It's really, it's so, so fleshed out, and he puts so much time into each individual passage. Yeah. Yeah, if you read, if you read any, of his commentaries, that's sort of the way that he operates. He spends a ton of time. And he's so literate in scripture that he's able to tie each section back to a bunch of

other sections of scripture, which, you know, in reading these, you learn, you know, a lot of scripture more than you would think. So, Mark, that is going to do it for us on this first episode of Cloud of Witnesses. Do you have anything to say before we sign off? Well, we hope you enjoyed the episode. We'll hope that you'll tune in. next week. Come learn more about the Saints with us. Absolutely. All right.

Thank you. I'll see you then.