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Dialogue on the Life of St John Chrysostom

Palladius, tr. Moore, 1921

10. Chrysostom’s Departure, and Its Sequel

Prisons become Churches

Bish. So you are satisfied with this explanation. Do not, then, I beg, interrupt my words; they are begotten of sad events. As a general rule, it is events that beget more words than anything else.¹ Well, the wives of some eminent men were arrested, as well us the clergy and laity who were taken prisoners. From some of these they snatched their veils,² and tore their earrings, with the lobe of the ear, from others; seeing this, a very wealthy lady, the wife of one Eleutherus, threw off her veil of her own accord, and ran into the city, disguised in the dress of a female slave, to shield her modesty. For she was endowed with a beautiful face and comely figure. So the prisons of the magistrates were filled, but they were turned into churches; hymns were sung, and oblations of the mysteries celebrated in the prisons, while in the churches floggings and tortures and terrible oaths were brought to bear, to compel people to anathematize John, who had fought against the malice of the devil even to the death.

Final Appeal to the Emperor

The feast of Pentecost ³ passed, and five days afterwards Acacius, Antiochus, Severianus, and Cyrinus came to the king, and said: “Your majesty, as by God’s appointment you are not under our authority, but have authority over all, you can do whatever you will. Be not more mild than a priest, and more holy than a bishop; we said to you publicly, Upon our heads be the deposition of John. Do not then be unmerciful to all of us, in being merciful to one man.” They employed the same language, I might say the same actions, as the Jews, to persuade the king.

“Leave the Church”

So the king despatched Patricius the notary, with the following message to John: “Acacius, Antiochus, Severianus, and Cyrinus have taken your condemnation upon their own heads. Commend, therefore, your affairs to God, and leave the Church.” So Bishop John came down from the bishop’s house, with the bishops, and after giving them clear and definite instructions, said to all, “Come, and let us with prayer take leave of the angel ⁴ of the Church.” He rejoiced at what had happened, but grieved over the misfortune of the people.

Farewell to the Devout Women

At this moment one of the officials who loved God sent word to John: “A savage and brazen-laced man, named Lucius, is waiting with his commando in the public bath, ready to drag you out, and expel you from the city by force, if you refuse to go, or delay; and the people of the city are in a ferment. Do your best to get away unnoticed, to prevent the people from coming into conflict with the military, in trying to help you.” Then John with tears kissed some of the bishops (his emotion would not allow him to do so to all), and took his leave of them, saying to the rest, within the vestry,⁵ “Stay here for the present, and let me go and have a little rest.” But he went into the baptistery, and called Olympias, a lady who spent all her time in the church, and Pentadia, and Procle, the deaconesses,⁶ and Silvina, the widow of the blessed Nevridius,⁷ who adorned her widowhood by a beautiful life, and said to them, “Come here, my daughters, and listen to me. I see that the things concerning me have an end; ⁸ I have finished my course ⁹ and perhaps you will see my face no more.¹⁰ What I want to ask you is this: let no one dissever you from the good-will you have always borne to the Church; and whoever succeeds me, if he be brought forward for ordination not by his own wish, and without place-hunting, with the approval of all, bow your heads to him, as you have done to John. The Church cannot exist without a bishop. And so may you find mercy. Remember me in your prayers.”

Chrysostom’s Departure from the Church

The ladies burst into tears, and threw themselves at his feet. Then he made a sign to one of the reverend priests, and said, “Take them away, for fear of their raising a disturbance.” So they were kept under control for a while, and apparently acquiesced. And so he moved away to the eastern part of the church (there was nothing western ¹¹ about him!); but he had given orders for the mule which he generally rode to be waiting at the west end, where was the porch of the church, in front of the main door, so as to mislead the people, who were waiting for him there. With him went forth the angel, unable to bear the desolation of the Church, brought about by wicked principalities and powers, who had produced a sort of theatrical exhibition. Yes, there was a roar, like that one hears in a theatre; the ungodly hissed and booed, Jews and Greeks yelled at the top of their voices. And there were blows and body wounds, inflicted by the soldiers, as if they were dealing with criminals in a prison; while every faculty of the soul was tortured by the withdrawal of the teacher, and by the blasphemy against God. For in the place appointed for the remission of sins, there took place the shedding of blood.

The Church on Fire

Now after this scene of awful and inexplicable darkness, a flame ¹² appeared from the middle of the throne in which John usually sat, like a heart set in the midst of a body, to expound to the other organs the oracles of the Lord; and sought for the interpreter of the Word. Not finding him, it devoured the chamber used for the Church vessels. Then it spread like a tree, and crept through the rafters to the roof; and consuming the belly like a viper, it leapt upon the back of the church building. It seemed as though God was paying the reward of iniquity ¹³ appointed as its penalty, to admonish and warn those who will not be warned, except by the sight of such heaven-sent calamities; and more, leaving to posterity a memorial of the savage synod.¹⁴

The Strange Behaviour of the Flames

But what happened to the church was nothing wonderful, in comparison with the destruction of the building, commonly called the Senate, which lies opposite the church, many paces away to the south. The fire seemed to be possessed of reason; it passed over the heads of the people in the street between, like a man crossing a bridge, and first caught, not the part nearest to the church, so that we cannot ascribe the misfortune to the proximity of the two buildings, but the part on the side of the king’s palace. This clearly showed that the marvel was heaven-sent; for one could see crowds of people passing without harm upon their ordinary business between the mountains of fire. In the same way the flames, whirling and surging like the sea tossed by a fierce wind, seemed to advance in obedience to signal; they seized the buildings all round without mercy, but showed consideration for one little outhouse, that in which the bulk of the sacred vessels was stored. Not that they reverenced the gold, or the rest of the precious materials; it was to give no ground to his accusers for the false charge ¹⁵ against the good bishop, that he had appropriated part of the valuables.

So the fire, after doing all this mischief, gradually withdrew to the back parts of the city, following the track of the malice of the criminals; to expose the madness of Theophilus, who apparently had been scheming to use the treasures of the Church as a plea for John’s ejection. There was no loss of life from the fire, of man or beast, among the great crowd; but the filthiness of the men who were behaving so foully was purged by the violence of the flames, which in three hours of a single day, between twelve and three o’clock,¹⁶ destroyed the work of years.

Notes

More than the expression of abstract thoughts.
“Maphoria ”; at first the ordinary veils worn by women, then, with some distinguishing features, by professed virgins and deaconesses; later still, confined to these. Cassian says they were worn by monks. See p. 53, n.
The period between Easter and Whitsun. “For two months John did not go forth in public” (Socr. vi. 18).
“If the whole air is full of angels, how much more the church? Hear the deacons ever saying in the churches. Call upon the angel of peace” (Serm. in Ascens. i.). “The angels stand round the priest” (de Sac. vi. 4). Chrysostom’s sense of angelic presence abides in the “Liturgy of Constantinople ”: “Cause that holy angels may enter with our entrance” (“Prayer of the entrance”). In the Book of Daniel (cf. Deut, xxxii. 8, 9, LXX) nations have their guardian angels; Basil calls angels “the rulers of the Church.” Eusebius regards Ps. xlviii. 5 as addressed to “the guardian angels of the Church.” Matt. xvii. 10, Acts xii. 15 seem to imply guardian angels to individuals; “each of us has a guardian angel by his side” (Hom. in Hab. xiv.). The thought of a guardian angel for each Church is, no doubt, founded on Rev. ii., iii., which Origen (Hom. in Num. xx. 4) explains as “his angel, or the angel of his Church”; Chrysostom (Or. clxix, in. Syn. Arch.) says, “To each man an angel is assigned, in each church Christ has set angel guardians.”
“Hierateion”; where the priests robed, prepared the sacred vessels, etc. Palladius, both in this treatise and in L. H., uses the word also for “the body of clergy.”
Sozomen says that Olympias was ordained deaconess by Nectarius, though but a young widow, for her extraordinary devotion. The order, as we saw, sprang from that of widows (p. 46); the Council of Chalcedon made forty the minimum a.ge for their ordination. Their duties were to assist in the instruction of female catechumens, and at their baptism; to visit sick women, guard the doors, and to look after the women members of the congregation in Church. Nicarete, “the best of all the good women Sozomen ever knew,” refused to accept the dignity of a deaconess, and “to preside over the Church virgins.” The order seems to have come to an end about the eleventh century. But see The Ministry of Women (S.P.C.K., 1919).
Nephew of Theodosius the Emperor. Silvina and Olympias were naturally friends, as young widows of husbands bearing the same name (p. 86).
Luke xxii.. 37.
2 Tim. iv. 7.
Acts xx. 25.
The east is the symbol of light, the west of darkness and sin. Baptizands faced the west until they had renounced evil, after that the east.
“ On the same day, some of the Johnnites set the church on fire” (Socrates). The “Johnnites” attributed it to their enemies (Sozomen, who describes it as heaven-sent). Palladius regards it as the result of the angel of the Church going forth with Chrysostom.
Acts i. 18; 2 Pet. ii. 13, 15. The expression is strange; possibly the preposition has been changed, and “laying upon them” should be read for “paying.” The grammar of the sentence is very bad.
The church was that of St. Sophia, built by Constantine, A.D. 360. After this conflagration it was restored, but again burnt down, and finally rebuilt at vast expense by Justinian in 532.
One of the charges mentioned by Photius.
Sozomen says the fire advanced from late evening until morning.