Carrying the relics of St. John Chrysostom (349-407)

On January 27 the Orthodox Church celebrates the Carrying of the relics of St. John Chrysostom. He is one of three Saints - "ecumenical teachers", along with Basil of Caesarea and Gregory the Theologian, in the Orthodoxy. He left the largest by volume theological creativity in the Eastern Church. Chrysostom was canonized a saint in the year 438, when his holy relics were solemnly returned from Comana to Constantinople and laid in the church St. Apostles. He was born in 349 at Antioch in Greco-Syrian noble family. His father Secundus was a captain and his mother Anthoussa confessed Christian faith. Baptized in 369, he became an ascetic. In 381 he was ordained deacon and in 386 - presbyter. Since then his fame grew and was called "Chrysostom" because of his eloquence. In 398 the presbyter John was chosen for Archbishop of Constantinople. As Patriarch of Constantinople he was exiled three times. Empress Eudoxia exiled him on the Caucasus, in the Armenian city of Kukuzel, after that (year 406) in the far Pitiunt (today Pitsunda) on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea. He died in exile on September 14, 407 in the city of Pontic Comana. (Photo: http://www.pravoslavieto.com)