The Cult of the Saints by John Chrysostom

The cult s original point of focus was the Christian martyrs those followers of the Jesus-movement who died in confession of their faith, either at the hands of other Jews or at the hands of the Roman administration.Mayer pinpoints several conceptual shifts that identified and shaped this cult: the imitation of Christ s own death the creedal declaration I am a Christian the sense of privilege bestowed upon martyrs the ritual purity of relics public veneration of the departed and places made holy by martyrs blood. However, in this volume,Wendy Mayer investigates the liturgical, topographical, and pastoral aspects that marked the martyr cult at Antioch and Constantinople in John s time. Until now, the majority of John s homilies on the saints and martyrs have been ignored. The cult of the saints is a phenomenon that expanded rapidly in the fourth century, and John Chrysostom s homilies are important witnesses to its growth. Translator Wendy Mayer introduces her important work with an investigation of 'the liturgical, topographical and pastoral aspects that marked the martyr cult at Antioch and Constantinople in John's time,' demonstrating that 'in some parts of the world, is observed in ways that differ little from those which were established at its very beginning.' 288 pp. John's works, along with other relevant letters and encomia on the suffering Christians of the earliest centuries, connect our current fidelity to tradition with a fresh understanding of how this tradition has been preserved. These thirteen homilies on martyrs' lives (Meletius, Eustathius, Ignatius, the Maccabees, Barlaam, and others) translated from St.

Despite its antiquity however, the veneration of the saints, their place in our corporate worship and the incorporation of their relics in the piety of the church is a topic misunderstood and therefore often neglected by modern scholarship.

Since ancient times, the Eastern Christian and Roman Catholic churches have preserved the tradition of offering the Lord's Eucharist on an altar sanctified by holy relics (one of the earliest testimonies being found in the second-century account of St.

The Cult of the Saints by John Chrysostom