Jean-Paul Laurens 19th century painting of John confronting the Empress Eudoxia. Very dramatic but nothing like this actually happened.
John Chrysostom (integratedcatholiclife.org)
John Chrysostom (from oca.org)
St John Chrysostom in a mosaic from the Hagia Sophia
John from an 11th-century soapstone (now in the Louvre)
A sculpture of John in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City
Part 2 – Building Orthodoxy (349-397)
We follow John’s early life and education and his decision to disappear into the wilderness during his 20s. He then returns to Antioch to become a Priest and develop into the Golden Mouth.
Part 3 – The Snake Pit (397-400)
John is called to become Bishop of Constantinople and finds out that the politics in the capital is ruthless and unforgiving.
Part 4 – A Byzantine Story (400-407)
After a series of top officials lose their lives to the whims of Arcadius’ court John becomes the latest target. Only his congregation stand between him and exile or worse.
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The History of Byzantium 
I found the episodes very entertaining and interesting and well worth the money.
Extra episodes like these seems like a great way to support the podcast and I’m looking forward to more Byzantine Stories in the future.
Just wanted to say great job with the episodes. It was particularly interesting to get some insight into the city of Antioch and its intellectual and economic life. I’d be curious about similar stories that shed light on the other cities of the empire (Alexandria, Carthage, Thessalonika), and also stories that illustrate how the areas on the border of the empire (Italy, say) slowly lost their “Byzantine” character.
But great start.
I absolutely loved this, excellent work Robin!
Hello! I purchased episode 77 and episode 2 of John Chrysostom’s story. Episode 77 loaded and I got it to download but I’m having trouble finding the Chrysostom episode. Help!
I’m astounded how interesting this first set of stories were. Scene setting in Antioch, esp the daily life/ grind of ordinary people. You brought out John the man – all of his strengths and all of his frailties. I’m looking forward to more – great value! Thanks.
🙂
Thank you very much, this was very well done. What are the books or articles that where helpful in researching for this series?
If you would like a full list I can provide it. If you want just one then the most helpful book was “Golden Mouth” by J Kelly
Love the podcast and I recently bought an annual subscription, however I’m having a problem with the purchased episodes. All the purchased episodes that I’ve listened to do not have a timer for the episode. They will randomly stop and when I restart them they start over from the beginning. It’s incredibly inconvenient because I have no way to tell where I left off. I listen on an iPhone 7 using iTunes. Is this a common issue with an easy fix? Is there another app that the podcast works better on? I’ve had no issues with any of the free episodes just the purchased ones. Please help Robin I really want to keep enjoying your work!
The Iphone generic podcast app should work better for you. Though the key with either is to download episodes rather than stream them.
Thank you for the swift response. I switched to the podcast app and began downloading the episodes and it solved all my problems.
This was a fun and interesting set of episodes, and I look forward to your future Byzantine Stories! It was fun to go back to the Eastern and Western Empires, and all those individuals and issues of those times, and think about how that’s played into the current state of the Byzantine narrative.
I think my only outstanding question that remains is: do we know what happened to Basil, John’s friend that he left when he became a monk? Did he remain in the church in Antioch? Did he and John ever meet up again?
It’s a great question. I don’t think we have an answer. But John was constantly writing to friends throughout his life so there’s no reason to think they couldn’t have stayed in touch.
Wow, thanks for getting back to me so quickly! That explains why Basil disappeared from the narrative at that point. I would definitely like to think that they kept in touch.