The man who would become the greatest preacher in the Eastern church spent six years in near-total silence.
From Brilliant Orator to Seeker
John was born around 347 AD in Antioch, a city where Christians were first called by that name. His widowed mother, Anthusa, raised him as a devout Christian, but his education came from Libanius, the most famous pagan rhetorician of the age. John became a brilliant orator with a promising legal career ahead of him.
But something in John's heart pulled him away from worldly success. After his conversion and baptism, he abandoned the law and began to seek God with the same intensity he had once devoted to rhetoric. Libanius reportedly lamented on his deathbed that John would have been his successor "if the Christians had not taken him from us."
Desert Hermit Years of Silence
Around 375 AD, John withdrew to the mountains above Antioch to live as a hermit. For four years, he studied under an elderly monk. Then, seeking still greater solitude, he spent two more years alone in a cave, sleeping standing up, memorizing vast portions of Scripture, and subjecting his body to such severe asceticism that his health was permanently damaged.
God Transforms Silence into Eloquence
These years of silence and prayer forged the eloquence that would earn John the name "Chrysostom"—Greek for "Golden Mouth." When poor health forced him to return to Antioch, he was ordained a priest and began to preach.
The effect was electric. During Lent in 387, when Antioch faced imperial punishment for a riot, John preached more than twenty homilies that transformed the terror-stricken city. His words brought comfort to the fearful and conviction to the complacent. Many pagans converted to Christianity through his preaching.
The Golden Mouth's Lasting Legacy
John's fame spread until he was made Bishop of Constantinople in 398 AD. His golden mouth continued to speak boldly—sometimes too boldly for the powerful. He denounced the empress Eudoxia's vanity and was twice exiled for his courage.
He died in exile in 407 AD, his final words being "Glory be to God for all things."
The voice that had been refined in desert silence spoke words that still echo in the liturgies of Eastern Christianity.
