John’s Birth and Education

John was a native of Antioch in Coele-Syria, the son of Secundus and Anthusa, from a noble family of that country. He studied rhetoric under Libanius the sophist, and philosophy under Andragathius the philosopher. He was on the point of entering the practice of civil law. But as he considered the restless and unjust life of those who give themselves to work in the law courts, he turned instead to a quieter way of life. In this he followed the example of Evagrius, who had been educated under the same teachers and had some time before withdrawn into a private life. So he laid aside the dress of a lawyer and gave his mind to reading the sacred Scriptures, going to church very faithfully. He also persuaded Theodore and Maximus, who had been his fellow students under Libanius the sophist, to leave a profession whose chief aim was money and to take up a simpler life. Of these two, Theodore later became bishop of Mopsuestia in Cilicia, and Maximus bishop of Seleucia in Isauria. [a]

At that time, eagerly seeking perfection, they took up the ascetic life under the guidance of Diodorus and Carterius, who were then in charge of a monastery. The first of these was later raised to be bishop of Tarsus. He wrote many treatises, in which he kept to the plain, literal sense of Scripture and avoided the mystical sense. But enough about these men. Now John was at that time on the closest terms with Basil, who had then been made a deacon by Meletius, and was afterward ordained bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Then Zeno the bishop, on his return from Jerusalem, appointed John a reader in the church at Antioch. While he served as a reader he wrote the book Against the Jews. Not long afterward Meletius made him a deacon, and he then produced his work On the Priesthood, the books Against Stagirius, and also those On the Incomprehensible Nature of God and On the Women Who Lived with Clergymen.

Afterward Meletius died at Constantinople, where he had gone for the ordination of Gregory of Nazianzus. After his death John separated himself from the Meletians, without entering into communion with Paulinus, and spent three whole years in retirement. Later, when Paulinus was dead, he was ordained a presbyter by Evagrius, the successor of Paulinus. That is a brief outline of John’s career before he was called to be a bishop.

It is said that because of his zeal for self-control he was stern and severe, and one of his early friends has said “that in his youth he showed a tendency to irritability rather than to modesty.” Because his life was upright, he had no anxiety about the future, and his simplicity of character made him open and frank. Yet the freedom of speech he allowed himself offended a great many people. In public teaching he had great power to reform the conduct of his hearers. But in private conversation those who did not know him often thought him proud and overbearing.