Commemorated November 13 (New Calendar) November 26 (Old Calendar)
The Church also keeps him on January 27 (New Calendar) February 9 (Old Calendar), the translation of his relics; on September 14 (New Calendar) September 27 (Old Calendar), the day of his repose; and on January 30 (New Calendar) February 12 (Old Calendar), with Saints Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian.
The Latin Church keeps him on September 13. Older Latin books also kept January 27.

Saint John was born in Antioch about the year 347, the son of Secundus and Anthusa. His father died while he was small. He left the schools, was baptized by Meletius, became a monk, then a priest, then archbishop of Constantinople. He would not flatter the rich. He was driven into exile and died on the road at Comana in Pontus on September 14, 407.

The words of Saint John

“If he does not repent and believe in Christ God, Whom he has blasphemed, he will not be healed.” (In Athens, when they begged him to heal Anthimius, who had spoken against Christ and been seized by an unclean spirit.)

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“Who am I, a sinner and the last of all men, that I should dare to take upon myself so great and terrible a service?” (When the Apostles John and Peter, in the vision Hesychius saw, gave him the scroll and the keys.)

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“Can it be borne? Can it be endured? I complain of you to yourselves.” (The opening of his word Against the Spectacles, on Pascha, after the city ran to the circus once the storm had passed.)

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“Tell your wife to change her cruel temper and cease to be harsh with her slaves, remembering that she is made of the same clay as they. Let her care for her soul, give alms to the poor, and not leave off prayer. Keep yourselves also clean on the fasts and the holy days, and God will grant your wife healing.” (To the husband of Christina, who brought her to the monastery gate.)

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“I think it is no secret to you that if I had wanted wealth, nothing would have stopped me from having it. I had noble, honored, and rich parents. I refused wealth of my own will. You say I took Theodoric’s goods to enrich myself. Know that Theodoric gave me nothing; and if he had offered, I would not have taken it. He gave his wealth to Christ, distributing alms to the poor. If you mean to take from Christ what Theodoric gave Him, what is that to us? You will insult not us, but Christ Himself.” (In the letter the empress read, when she accused him over a dead man’s goods.)

The words of others in the reading

“Child, I had little joy of life with your father. At his death, by God’s will, you were orphaned and I was widowed. No grief drove me to a second marriage or to bring another man into your father’s house. I kept his property whole for your life. Do not throw me into widowhood a second time. Wait until you have buried me beside your father’s bones. Then do as you will. For now stay with me a little, while I still live.” (Anthusa, in tears, when he wanted to leave for the monastery.)

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“I confess that there is no other God in heaven or on earth than the One John confesses.” (Anthimius, as the spirit left him.)

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“Great is the God of the Christians! He alone works wonders!” (The people in Athens who saw it.)

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“Take this scroll from my hand. I am John, who lay on the Lord’s breast at the Mystical Supper. The Lord grants you knowledge of all the depth of wisdom, that you may feed the people with the food of Christ’s teaching that does not perish, and shut the mouths of those who blaspheme God.” (The Apostle John, in the vision.)

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“Take these keys. I am Peter, to whom the keys of the Kingdom were given. The Lord gives you also the keys of the holy churches, that whom you bind may be bound, and whom you loose may be loosed.” (The Apostle Peter, in the same vision.)

Who stood with them

Secundus was his father, a military officer; he died while John was small. Anthusa was his mother. She was about twenty when she was widowed and would not marry again. Libanius and Andragathius taught him rhetoric and philosophy. Basil of Antioch, his friend from childhood, first put on the monastic habit and called him to it. Meletius of Antioch baptized him and made him a reader. Hesychius, an old monk, saw the vision of the two Apostles. Proclus served him and later watched at the door while he wrote. The empress who sought his hurt is kept in this reading. He died at Comana. The Church later brought his relics home.

He would not let a widow be robbed, and he would not buy a throne with silence.

We ask his prayers when a mouth is told to praise the powerful, and when exile looks like the end of a life’s work.

Pray for us

Troparion, Tone 8

“Grace shining forth from your mouth like a beacon has illumined the inhabited earth; it has disclosed to the world treasures which wealth cannot buy; and has set forth for us the height of humility. Instructing us by your words, O Father John Chrysostom, intercede with the Word, Christ God, that our souls may be saved.”

Kontakion, Tone 2

“You received divine grace from Heaven, and by your lips you teach all men to worship the one God in Trinity, O most blessed Venerable John Chrysostom. We praise you, as is meet, for you are a guide, making divine things clear.”

The hymns of January 30 are those of the Three Hierarchs. January 27 keeps the bringing of his relics from Comana.

Troparion — Tone 1

“Let us who love their words come together, honoring with hymns, the three greatest luminaries of the Three-Sunned divinity: / Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, together with the renowned John Chrysostom, of golden speech. / They have illumined the entire world with the rays of divine doctrines; / they are sweetly-flowing rivers of wisdom, / who with divine knowledge have watered all of creation with clear streams; / for they always intercede with the Trinity for us.”

Kontakion — Tone 2

“O Lord, You have received the Holy and God-proclaiming heralds, the crown of Your Teachers, / for the enjoyment of Your good things and for repose; / for You have accepted their sufferings and labors above every sacrifice, / for You alone glorify Your Saints.”

Saint John, pray for us.

Sources

St. Demetrius of Rostov, Lives of the Saints, November 13. https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Dmitrij_Rostovskij/zhitija-svjatykh/998

Orthodox Church in America, Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople. https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2026/11/13/103292-saint-john-chrysostom-archbishop-of-constantinople

Orthodox Church in America, Synaxis of the Ecumenical Teachers and Hierarchs. https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2026/01/30/100350-synaxis-of-the-ecumenical-teachers-and-hierarchs-basil-the-great

Orthodox Encyclopedia, Иоанн Златоуст. Часть I. https://www.pravenc.ru/text/540881.html

Orthodox Encyclopedia, Иоанн Златоуст. https://www.pravenc.ru/text/543861.html

Orthodox Encyclopedia, calendar: 26 ноября (13 ноября). https://pravenc.ru/calendar/2026/11/26.html

Orthodox Encyclopedia, calendar: 9 февраля (27 января). https://pravenc.ru/calendar/2026/02/09.html

Orthodox Encyclopedia, calendar: 12 февраля (30 января). https://pravenc.ru/calendar/2026/02/12.html

Orthodox Encyclopedia, calendar: 27 сентября (14 сентября). https://pravenc.ru/calendar/2026/09/27.html

Also in the Latin books

Catholic Encyclopedia, St. John Chrysostom. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08452b.htm

Vatican News, St. John Chrysostom, 13 September. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/saints/09/13/st–john-chrysostom–bishop-and-doctor-of-the-church.html

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Updated 9/19/2026