![St. John Chrysostom Color mosaic of earl Church father St. John Chrysostom.](https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/sites/default/files/styles/tall_rectangle_custom_user_small_2x/public/images/contributor/chrysostom_360x450.jpg?itok=3L_iFnbn×tamp=1410557278)
St. John Chrysostom
(347 - 407)
The son of a military officer, St. John Chrysostom studied with a pagan rhetorician before becoming a hermitic monk. Subsequent to his successful twelve-year career as a preacher, where he earned his Greek surname, meaning “golden-mouthed,” he was appointed against his will archdeacon of Constantinople in 398. His castigations of the wealthy in part resulted in his banishment to a small hamlet in Armenia in 404. He died three years later.