Saint John Chrysostom, the great Christian orator of late antiquity whose extant literary corpus, apart from a handful of treatises, is comprised of hundreds of homilies, has left an enduring legacy of thought concerning the Christian faith, together with a mine of information about church, society and the Roman Empire in the fourth century. “Chrysostom”, a nickname meaning Golden Mouth, was appended some time in the sixth century to this native of Antioch who became the Bishop of Constantinople, the Imperial nerve centre of the Empire in the East, in February, 398, at the approximate age of fifty. His rhetorical expertise was lauded not only by enrapt congregations during his ministry, but by later generations who have been enriched by the clarity and authority of his teaching in his…
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Citation: Laird, Raymond James. "St John Chrysostom". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 June 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=872, accessed 26 April 2024.]
