In a new series we present extracts from the book Generations of Priests by Thomas McGovern, which illustrates the richness of the Catholic priesthood by reference to the lives of ten men who, at different stages in history, committed themselves fully to follow Christ as labourers in his vineyard.

John Chrysostom was born at Antioch in Syria about 345AD, of a noble and well-to-do Christian family. In 375, after the death of his mother, he was able to indulge his strong desire to live an ascetic life of fasting and prayer in the caves outside Antioch. However, he carried this to such an extreme that after two years his health was so impaired that he had to return to Antioch to recover his strength.

In 386 Chrysostom was ordained a priest, and it is from that year that his importance to Church history begins. Chrysostom's lifetime saw the development of monasticism in the East. He came to prominence when Christianity was emerging from the great crisis of Arianism, and when the barbarians were beginning to make settlements within the confines of the Roman Empire. It was, to say the least, a period of challenge and change.

John was a man of great apostolic zeal who was fearless in proclaiming the Gospel. He was a real pastor of souls and, above all, a great preacher. His contemporaries, and subsequent authorities, regarded him as the greatest orator of the Greek Church. He was declared a doctor of the Church by St Pius V in 1568, and patron of preachers by St Pius X. His literary output exceeded all the writers of the Greek Church - in the West only Augustine compares with him.

Preach

As is to be expected in a man of Chrysostom's talents and experience, he gives particular importance to the ability in priests to preach well. The people flocked to hear John preach, both Christians and pagans.

Chrysostom had a great love and reverence for the Scriptures because in them he sees God speaking to us in human language. Dei verbum (no.13), the Vatican II constitution on Divine Revelation, repeats the words of Chrysostom about the condescension of divine wisdom in the inspired text so ''that we may come to know the ineffable loving-kindness of God and see for ourselves how far he has gone in adapting his language with thoughtful concern for our nature''.

One of the recurring themes in the preaching of Chrysostom is his concern for the poor. From the opposite perspective he speaks very harshly against greed, love of money, and constantly recommends alms-giving because of its salutary effects for the soul. In this context he points again and again to the importance of the Christian virtue of poverty for all.

The eternal truths are never far from the mind of Chrysostom in his preaching, and thus the rewards of Heaven and the pains of damnation are frequently referred to as an incitement to virtue and the avoidance of sin. Although the homilies are addressed to a fourth century congregation, they have a perennial character and relevance.

Every aspect of human morality is dealt with: bearing wrongs patiently, the evil of adultery, avoiding bad companionship, imitating the gentleness of Christ, the good influence of the mother in the home. We learn much too about the social and cultural history of the times through his comments on the theatre, dance, horse-racing, the extravagance of women on self-adornment and the conditions in prisons. There is no facet of human life on which he did not discourse.

John's homilies varied considerably in length, some requiring as long as an hour for delivery; even the shorter ones would probably be considered excessive by a modern audience. The very fact that he frequently refers to the inattentiveness or the obvious boredom of his listeners suggests that no less effort was required then to capture the attention of the congregation. He frequently notes with regret, as he looks down on a thin congregation, that attendance at the theatre is preferred to listening to sermons in church. (Pic: Orthodox Christians venerate the relics of St John Chrysostom in Turkey)

Reputation

The popularity of John's preaching was due to his outstanding command of language and, doubtless, in part due to his reputation as a castigator of the rich and the privileged. However, its effectiveness was due primarily to Chrysostom's personal holiness, to the fact that he was obviously a man of God.

Chrysostom was acutely conscious of the condition of the more deprived members of society. In his sermons he often promoted the corporal works of mercy. In particular, in reference to the judgment (Mt 25:36 and 43), he speaks about the salutary effects of visiting prisons where, in fourth-century Antioch, conditions were atrocious. Men were bound with fetters, unkempt and clad in rags; some had their flesh torn by lashes, others were wasting away through hunger.

He goes on to point out that there are a lot of people walking free whose lifestyle merits imprisonment, such as those who carry on fraudulent business of different kinds, and that consequently we shouldn't overlook our own faults and sit in judgment on others, because it ''is difficult to find a man who is innocent of unjust dealing''. Has John a lesson here for our own times?

The theatre was a frequent topic of stricture in the homilies of Chrysostom. The Antiochenes had a passion for games, horse racing, and the theatre.

As Chrysostom saw it, the theatre was essentially a pagan pursuit, inimical to Christian values and a constant danger to morals. The pagan performances, he says, are really festivals of evil spirits, not human shows.

John was not just a great preacher. After his appointment as archbishop of Constantinople in 397 he also showed himself to be an effective administrator of the Church. After his succession to the see of Constantinople he introduced a radical reform of the clergy which won him their undying enmity.

In 404, Chrysostom was banished from Constantinople because of speaking out against the empress Eudoxia. He was exiled to Caucusus in the remotest corner of Armenia. Here he remained for three years. He died in exile in 407.

Extract from Generations of Priests by Thomas McGovern (Four Courts Press), a priest of the Opus Dei prelature.