Sep 12, 2010 / 02:49 am
One of the most beloved saints of the Christian East, the renowned preacher and fourth-century Archbishop of Constantinople John Chrysostom, will be remembered and celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church on September 13, the day before the anniversary of his death in 407.
Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians, who regard the Byzantine archbishop as one of the most important of the early Church Fathers, commemorate him a month later on November 13, the date that he assumed the position of archbishop in the Eastern imperial capital.
Among Christians of the Byzantine tradition, St. John Chrysostom is best known for the liturgical rite traditionally ascribed to him. Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches still celebrate the “Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom” as their most common form of Eucharistic worship.
In the West, he is numbered among the 33 “Doctors of the Church,” and remembered especially for his extensive and profound teachings on the subject of the Holy Eucharist. Along with St. Joseph, he was named co-patron of the Second Vatican Council by Bl. John XXIII.