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Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,
Throughout the Fall, I have been interspersing some homilies on the great Church Fathers into the Sunday Liturgy in a conscious campaign to "inspire" everyone to read at least one of their works before the end of the year. Thus, yesterday's homily was devoted to St. John Chrysostom (+407, commemorated on November 13) and his spiritual daughter/friend/confidant, St. Olympia (+408, commemorated on July 25).
We know a great deal about one of the most beloved of all saints, St. John "the Golden Mouthed" (the meaning of Chrysostom), but many of the faithful are hardly aware of this extraordinary woman, St. Olympia. I would like to again share a passage from her anonymously written Life that I read in the church yesterday. It is a splendid passage of praise that enumerates the saint's tireless "active love" on behalf of others that serves as an outline of genuine Christian virtue:
She lived faultlessly (anendeos) in unmeasured tears day and night "submitting to every ordinance of man for the sake of the Lord" (I Pet. 2:13), full of every reverence, bowing before the saints, venerating the bishops, honoring the presbyters, respecting the priests, welcoming the ascetics, being anxious for the virgins, supplying the widows, raising the orphans, shielding the elderly, looking after the weak, having compassion on sinners, guiding the lost, having pity on all, attending with all her heart to the poor, catechizing many unbelieving women and making provision for all their material necessities of life.
Thus, she left a reputation for goodness throughout her whole life which is ever to be remembered. Having called from slavery to freedom her myriad household servants, she proclaimed them to be of equal honor (isotimon) as her own nobility.
The Life of Olympia, 15
In other words, a life very much worth living! St. Olympia was born around the year 362 into a very noble and wealthy pagan family, but with her eventual conversion to Christianity she was closely connected to many of the most distinguished bishops of her era, including St. Basil the Great and his younger brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa, In fact, St. Gregory dedicated his famous Commentary on The Song of Songs to her.
In a letter to St. Olympia, in which St. Gregory accepted her prompting to write his commentary, he wrote the following:
I do not offer you anything that would benefit your conduct, for I am persuaded that your soul's eye is pure from every passionate, unclean thought, and that it looks without hindrance at God's grace by means of these divine words of the Song.
We also know that St. Olympia was ordained a deaconess by St. Nektarios, Archbishop of Constantinople. The deaconess had a prominent role in the fourth century Church, as summarized by the scholar Chyrsostomus Bauer:
For the service of women, ecclesiastical deaconesses were assigned. These were widows, or older single women, who were consecrated by the bishop, in a special ceremony involving the laying on of hands, and the donation of a stole or chalice for the liturgical service of the Church. It was their special duty to keep order among the women at divine service [i.e., at the Divine Liturgy]; they gave them the kiss of peace, and also had to admonish women who did not live as they should. They helped with the training of the women catechumens, anointed them at baptism, and also had the duty of bringing Holy Communion to sick women.
John Chrysostom and His Time, Vol. I, 155.
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St. Olympia remained fiercely loyal to St. John following his two exiles from the capital of Constantinople, once St. John ran foul of the Empress Eudoxia. As I mentioned and even read from yesterday, St. John composed seventeen letters to St. Olympia from various places of his exile. These are now collected and translated afresh in a fairly new publication Letters to St. Olympia (SVS Press, 2016).
These letters are wonderful compositions of a saintly pastor continuing to minister to his spiritual daughter while he is suffering the physical and psychological hardships of exile. The letters are also filled with some profound scriptural commentary by St. John as he reflects upon divine providence. Overall, they offer an intimate portrait of a saint who bore his cross with courage and integrity, awaiting his heavenly reward from the divine Bridegroom of the Church. The Introduction to the Letters, by Dr. David Ford (also the translator of the Letters), offers an excellent summary of the relevant background that helps bring the letters to life for the reader. The passages above can be found in this Introduction with a great deal more.
Highly recommended!
