From the Prologue of Ochrid
John was born in Antioch in the year 354 to his father Secundus, a commander, and his mother Anthusa. Studying Greek philosophy, John was disgusted by Greek paganism and embraced the Christian Faith as the only and complete truth. John was baptized by Meletius, Patriarch of Antioch, and after him his parents also received baptism. After the death of his parents, John became a monk and began to struggle ascetically with rigor. Then he wrote the book "On the Priesthood," and then the holy Apostles John and Peter appeared to him, prophesying to him great service, great grace, but also great suffering. When he was to be ordained as a priest, an angel of God appeared simultaneously both to Patriarch Flavian (after Meletius) and to John himself. And when the patriarch was ordaining him, all saw a white radiant dove above John's head. Celebrated for his wisdom, asceticism, and power of speech, John was chosen at the wish of Emperor Arcadius as Patriarch of Constantinople. For six years he governed the Church as patriarch with incomparable zeal and wisdom. He sent missionaries to the pagan Celts and Scythians; he suppressed simony in the Church by deposing many bishops who were simonists; he expanded the Church's merciful activity; he composed the particular order of the Holy Liturgy; he shamed the heretics; he denounced Empress Eudoxia; he expounded Holy Scripture with his golden mind and tongue, and left to the Church many precious books of his homilies. The people celebrated him, the envious hated him, the empress sent him twice into exile. He spent three years in exile, and ended his life on the Day of the Cross, September 14, 407, in the town of Comana in Armenia. Before his death the holy Apostles John and Peter appeared to him again, as did Saint Martyr Basiliscus (May 22), in whose church he received his last communion. "Glory to God for all things!" were his last words, and with those words the soul of the golden-mouthed patriarch was carried into Paradise. Of Chrysostom's relics, his head reposes in the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow, and his body in the Vatican in Rome.
