St. John Chrysostom
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40 free St. John Chrysostom trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
John Chrysostom was the most celebrated speaker of the early church, a hermit turned archbishop whose blunt sermons on wealth and vanity thrilled ordinary people and infuriated the powerful. His career took him from a cave in the Syrian hills to the pulpit of an imperial capital, and it ended on a forced march into exile. This quiz gathers the best fun facts about him: his nickname and how he earned it, his teachers and early austerities, the feud with the imperial court, the trial that brought him down, and the strange travels of his relics. It also follows his afterlife in worship, painting, music and even modern fiction. It suits students getting ready for a feast-day lesson, catechists, church history fans and anyone curious about the saints. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the story behind each fact as you play.
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Q 01John of Antioch, the 4th-century archbishop, is remembered by the Greek nickname Chrysostom, which translates as what?
Golden-mouthed
Golden-mouthed is the meaning, a tribute to his eloquence, yet the name is not found in his own lifetime. It is first recorded in 553, almost 150 years after he died.
Q 02Which composer was baptized Joannes Chrysostomus because he was born on 27 January, then a feast of John Chrysostom?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart got the saint's name by Catholic custom at his baptism in Salzburg, but never used it in everyday life. He once opened a joking letter with it, confessing to staying up past midnight.
Q 03John Chrysostom was banished for good in 404 after complaining about revels around a silver statue of which empress?
Eudoxia
Eudoxia had already helped depose him once, then had him recalled almost at once. Her statue went up beside his cathedral two months later, and the rowdy celebrations disturbed the services inside.
Q 04Riots over John Chrysostom's exile in 404 burned down the first version of which great church in Constantinople?
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia was his own cathedral, and the fire broke out just after soldiers led him out of the city. The domed building that stands today is the third church on the site.
Q 05A short sermon credited to John Chrysostom is read aloud in Orthodox churches at the midnight service of which feast?
Easter
Easter matins includes the homily, and by tradition nobody sits while it is read. It welcomes latecomers and early arrivals alike to the celebration, even those who skipped the fast.
Q 06Which sculptor made John Chrysostom one of four bronze giants holding up the Chair of Saint Peter in the Vatican?
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo Bernini put two Latin and two Greek teachers under the throne at St. Peter's. Chrysostom and Athanasius stand on the inside, bare-headed, while Ambrose and Augustine wear miters.
Q 07John Chrysostom grumbled that Christians who could not name the prophets knew all about which popular entertainment?
Horse racing
Horse racing drew his fire along with the theater. Ask churchgoers about the animals or their drivers, he said, and they answered more solemnly than trained orators.
Q 08In 1655 Tsar Alexei of Russia paid a Greek monastery to send which relic of John Chrysostom to Moscow?
His skull
His skull went to Moscow, and when the monks asked for it back Peter the Great refused and paid them a regular fee instead. The monastery now shows pilgrims a rival head, as do churches in Florence and Pisa.
Q 09Which German artist engraved the legendary penance of John Chrysostom around 1496, with the saint crawling on all fours?
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer drew on a late medieval legend, not the saint's real life: a hermit who sins with a princess, then lives like a beast for years until a baby declares him forgiven.
Q 10In 1908 Pope Pius X named John Chrysostom, a former hermit, the patron saint of which group?
Preachers
Preachers got him as their patron fifteen centuries after his death. About 600 of his sermons survive, and more of his writing has come down to us than of any other Greek church father.
Q 11Before entering the church, the young John Chrysostom studied rhetoric in Antioch and trained for which profession?
The law
The law was the natural path for a star pupil of rhetoric, but it did not hold him. As his faith deepened he turned away from the courts, was baptised and took up theology instead.
Q 12Which pagan orator taught John Chrysostom rhetoric and reportedly named him on his deathbed as his lost successor?
Libanius
Libanius is said to have sighed that John would have taken over his school if the Christians had not stolen him. The old teacher was a friend of Julian, the emperor who tried to revive paganism.
Q 13John Chrysostom's sermons of Lent 387 steadied Antioch after tax rioters pulled down statues of which Roman emperor?
Theodosius I
Q 21Orthodox Christians honor John Chrysostom as one of Three Holy Hierarchs with Gregory of Nazianzus and which bishop?
Basil the Great
Basil the Great completes the trio. In 11th-century Constantinople admirers of each argued over who ranked highest until, tradition says, the three appeared in a vision to declare themselves equal.
Q 22Bones of John Chrysostom that the Vatican handed back in 2004 now rest in the Church of St. George in which city?
Istanbul
Istanbul is the modern name of the city he served as archbishop, so the relics came home eight centuries after they were carried off to Rome in 1204.
Q 23Most of John Chrysostom's relics were looted from Constantinople in 1204 and taken to Rome by the army of which crusade?
The Fourth
Theodosius I could have punished the whole city for the insult. While the bishop hurried to court to plead, John spoke to the terrified crowds some twenty times, until an imperial pardon came back.
Q 14The synod that deposed John Chrysostom in 403 met at a villa outside Constantinople and is named after which tree?
Oak
Oak is the tree: the Synod of the Oak drew up about thirty charges against him, among them that he had called a fellow bishop an idiot and a demon. He refused to appear before a court of his enemies.
Q 15Theophilus, the patriarch who presided over the trial that deposed John Chrysostom in 403, was bishop of which city?
Alexandria
Alexandria's patriarch had been summoned to the capital as the accused, to answer monks he had persecuted. He arrived with 29 of his own bishops and plenty of gifts, and put the judge on trial instead.
Q 16Four Egyptian monks who fled to John Chrysostom for shelter, helping to trigger his downfall, went by which nickname?
The Tall Brothers
The Tall Brothers earned the name through their height and commanding looks. Taking them in let John's enemies charge him with sharing their taste for the contested theologian Origen.
Q 17Archbishop John Chrysostom ended his household's banquets and spent the savings in his first year on building what?
A hospital
A hospital rose from the money he saved by cutting the bishop's lavish entertaining. The common people loved him for it, while wealthy citizens and many of his own clergy resented the new austerity.
Q 18John Chrysostom reportedly sealed his exile by comparing the empress to which biblical woman in a sermon?
Herodias
Herodias, he is reported to have said, was raging and dancing again and wanted John's head on a platter. The jab cast the archbishop himself as the doomed prophet, and the court took it that way.
Q 19John Chrysostom died on a forced march into exile in 407, reportedly saying glory be to God for what?
All things
All things, even the march that killed him: guards had driven the sick bishop through sun, rain and cold nights toward the far edge of the empire. He was buried where he fell.
Q 20Antioch, the city in Roman Syria where John Chrysostom was born about 347, lies in which modern country?
Turkey
Turkey holds the site today, as the city of Antakya. John was so popular there that when he was promoted he had to be slipped out of town in secret, for fear his departure would cause unrest.
The Fourth Crusade turned on Christian Constantinople and stripped its churches of treasures and relics. John's body had rested there since 438, when it was brought back from the town where he died.
Q 24The right hand of John Chrysostom is kept at Philotheou Monastery, which stands in which part of Greece?
Mount Athos
Mount Athos keeps the hand in a house founded at the end of the 10th century, on a peninsula run by its monks. Smaller relics of the saint are scattered around the world.
Q 25Which Russian composer set the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom for unaccompanied choir in 1910, after an American tour?
Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff wrote it in a burst at his summer estate and called the work a rare pleasure. Church authorities objected to its modern spirit and would not approve it for services, so it fell into obscurity.
Q 26The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is the most often celebrated Eucharist service of which Christian rite?
Byzantine
Byzantine churches, Orthodox and Greek Catholic alike, use it through most of the year, while a longer liturgy is kept for just ten days. Experts still debate how much of the text John himself shaped.
Q 27John Chrysostom left sermons on every New Testament letter credited to which apostle, plus seven more in his praise?
Paul
Paul was his favorite subject, and the commentary on Romans is counted among his three finest, with those on the Psalms and on Matthew's Gospel.
Q 28Churchgoers in Constantinople often broke into John Chrysostom's sermons with which reaction more usual at a theater?
Applause
Applause was the custom for star speakers of the day, and the people of the capital gave it freely to a new bishop who scolded the rich for their extravagance.
Q 29In 1568 Pope Pius V gave John Chrysostom which formal Catholic title, also held by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas?
Doctor of the Church
Doctor of the Church is a title kept for saints of eminent learning and holiness. The four great Latin teachers got the title in 1298, while John and three fellow Greeks waited another 270 years.
Q 30In which James Joyce novel does Stephen Dedalus think the single word Chrysostomos while watching Buck Mulligan?
Ulysses
Ulysses has the name flash through Stephen's mind as the glib Mulligan whistles and shows off his dental work. Joyce leaves readers to work out why the saint's nickname suits a smooth talker.