John Chrysostom was born in Antioch, Turkey and raised as a Christian by his widowed mother, his father a high-ranking military official. Chrysostom studied law under the rhetorician Libanius but gave up that profession to study theology. He was an ascetic monk until his health failed him, and he returned to Antioch.

Chrysostom was ordained a deacon in 381 CE and then a priest in 386 CE. Regarded as a brilliant speaker, Chrysostom's preachings were particularly appealing to common people. He frequently spoke out against the abuse of wealth and was most concerned with the spiritual and temporal welfare of the poor and oppressed.

In 398 Chrysostom became archbishop of Constantinople, a position he held for only a few years due to his teachings regarding personal property angering the rich and powerful. A synod of Syrian and Egyptian bishops was convened in 403 by the Alexandrian archbishop Theophilus, indicting Chrysostom on several frivolous charges. When he refused to appear before the synod, they condemned him, and the eastern Roman emporer Arcadius banished him from Constantinople. While Chrysostom appealed to the Roman bishop, Pope Innocent I, his appeals were ineffective.

Chrysostom was supposed to be removed to a remote place near the Black Sea, but he did not survive the journey. His relics were brought from Comana to Constantinople 31 years after his death.

[Information retrieved from Attwater, Donald, "St. John Chrysostom," Encyclopedia Britannica, January 1, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-John-Chrysostom.]