St John

John was born at Antioch, in 347 by the usual reckoning; his father Secundus, an army officer, died while he was an infant, and his mother Anthusa, widowed young, raised him and his sister. His chief teacher was the rhetorician Libanius ^[3]. Other scholars have proposed different birth years (see below).

He was ordained deacon by Meletius in 380 or 381 and presbyter by Flavian in 386, and preached the famous Lenten Homilies on the Statues in 387 ^[4]. His Homilies on Romans were delivered at Antioch, probably before he became bishop of Constantinople; the editor of NPNF gives no year ^[8].

He was chosen for Constantinople in late 397 and consecrated on 26 February 398, by Theophilus of Alexandria ^[5]. A synod at the Oak deposed him in 403 ^[10]; after clashes with the court he was banished by an edict signed on 5 June 404 ^[6] and held at Cucusus from 404 until 407, then ordered further toward Pityus ^[7].

He died near Comana in Pontus on 14 September 407, in his sixtieth year, and his body was brought back to Constantinople on 27 January 438 ^[7] (OrthodoxWiki says 437 ^[11]). The Coptic Church keeps his repose on 17 Hatour ^[1].