(c. 349–407), Doctor and Father of the early Church, born in Antioch, Syria (now Antakya, Turkey). He studied oratory under the Greek rhetorician Libanius (314–93) and began his career as an advocate. At the age of 18 he came under the influence of Meletius (fl. 358–381), bishop of Antioch, who directed him to a monastic school and baptized him soon afterward. After spending six years as a monk in the mountains near Antioch, John was ordained deacon in 381 by Meletius and ordained priest in 386 by Bishop Flavian I (320?–404), who succeeded Meletius. The eloquence, earnestness, and practical nature of his preaching gained him a reputation as the greatest orator of the early church. In 398 Arcadius (377?–408), emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, named John patriarch of Constantinople. His preaching against vices excited the hatred of Theophilus (r. 385–428), patriarch of Alexandria, and of Arcadius’s empress, Eudoxia (fl. 395–404), who banished him from the capital in 403. John was soon recalled, only to be banished again, in 404, to the desert areas of the Taurus Mts., where he attempted to convert the neighboring Persians and Goths to Christianity. John’s followers, called Johnites, refused to recognize his successors both during and after his lifetime; they submitted in 438, when Theodosius II (401–50), Eastern Roman emperor, brought the saint’s body back to Constantinople and solemnly buried it. The surname Chrysostom (Gr. chrysostomos, “golden-mouthed”) was first used in the 6th century. John Chrysostom’s many works include homilies, epistles, treatises, and liturgies. He is the patron saint of orators, and his feast day is observed on September 13.