Eudoxia, Empress of Constantinople, hated St. John Chrysostom, because he always spoke to her of her faults, which she did not try to correct.
One day, being very angry, she said to him: “I am going to banish you from this city, and send you into the most distant parts of my empire. In this way I will put an end to these reproaches.”
Painting of St. John Chrysostom confronting Aelia Eudoxia, Empress of Constantinople by Jean-Paul Laurens.
St. John answered: “Do you imagine that by these words you will make me afraid? Oh no! The God Whom I serve is everywhere; His immensity fills Heaven and earth. Send me into any part of the world you please: I will find God there, as much as in this city; and I care not where I am, since God is always with me.”
Rev. D. Chisholm, The Catechism in Examples (London: R & T Washbourne, Ltd., 1919), 90.
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 343
