ANOTHER MONICA
"John, surnamed Chrysostom, is the greatest pulpit orator and commentator of the Greek Church, and still deservedly enjoys the highest honor in the whole Christian world. No one of the Oriental Fathers has left a more spotless reputation; no one is so much read and so often quoted by modern preachers and commentators. An admiring posterity, since the close of the fifth century, has given him the surname Chrysostom (The Golden Mouth), which has entirely superseded his personal name John, and which best expresses the general estimate of his merits." So begins the account of Chrysostom's life in volume IX of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, in Schaff's glorious 38 volume Early Church Fathers set. And the account begins then with his mother Anthusa, "a rare woman." Rare woman - what an understatement! Like Augustine's mother Monica, Anthusa was a faithful and godly woman devoted to her family and to the godliness of her children, and like her also her son had an incalculable impact on the growth and development of the Christian Church ever after.
Anthusa, a Christian, was married in her teens to a military officer, not a Christian as far as we know, who died when Anthusa was twenty, leaving her alone with two children who had been born there in Antioch in Syria, a girl and a younger boy, John. She "refused all offers of marriage, and devoted herself exclusively to the education of her only son and his older sister." Her exemplary reputation was such that John's teacher, the pagan Libanius, later exclaimed, "What wonderful women there are among the Christians!" Anthusa made sure that John had a outstanding education, which included Greek classics and rhetoric under Libanius, who was so impressed with John's intellect that shortly before he died, when asked who he wished to succeed him as professor of classics, said, "John, if only the Christians had not stolen him from us." This is the fruit of Anthusa's sacrificial love for her children. Later, when John was baptized (at 23), he was determined to become a monk, but Anthusa pled with him not to leave her and such was his love for his mother that he obeyed. He turned his home into a monastery and lived a very ascetic life, but he didn't leave his mother and she had the comfort of her son in her old age.
We are not told what happened to John's sister, but she was well-educated too by her godly mother. This sister may have gone on to raise children of her own and it's not hard to imagine her raising them in a godly fashion as well. For every famous mother, there are ten thousand unknown mothers who serve the Kingdom by sacrificing, teaching, and praying daily for their children. But these mothers whom we do know - Monica, Anthusa, Nonna (mother of Gregory Nazianzen) - didn't know their sons would be great; they just did what they knew was right, not knowing what God would do with their children, and we reap the benefit.
In Augustine's Confessions, he tells us that his mother's last request was that he would remember her before the altar of the Lord. He then says her request is fulfilled whenever we read the Confessions and remember Monica, as indeed we continue to do 1600 years later. But this applies to the other mothers of the great men of the past - we ought to remember them likewise before the altar of the Lord. That means, of course, that we need to study our Church history.
Anthusa, a Christian, was married in her teens to a military officer, not a Christian as far as we know, who died when Anthusa was twenty, leaving her alone with two children who had been born there in Antioch in Syria, a girl and a younger boy, John. She "refused all offers of marriage, and devoted herself exclusively to the education of her only son and his older sister." Her exemplary reputation was such that John's teacher, the pagan Libanius, later exclaimed, "What wonderful women there are among the Christians!" Anthusa made sure that John had a outstanding education, which included Greek classics and rhetoric under Libanius, who was so impressed with John's intellect that shortly before he died, when asked who he wished to succeed him as professor of classics, said, "John, if only the Christians had not stolen him from us." This is the fruit of Anthusa's sacrificial love for her children. Later, when John was baptized (at 23), he was determined to become a monk, but Anthusa pled with him not to leave her and such was his love for his mother that he obeyed. He turned his home into a monastery and lived a very ascetic life, but he didn't leave his mother and she had the comfort of her son in her old age.
We are not told what happened to John's sister, but she was well-educated too by her godly mother. This sister may have gone on to raise children of her own and it's not hard to imagine her raising them in a godly fashion as well. For every famous mother, there are ten thousand unknown mothers who serve the Kingdom by sacrificing, teaching, and praying daily for their children. But these mothers whom we do know - Monica, Anthusa, Nonna (mother of Gregory Nazianzen) - didn't know their sons would be great; they just did what they knew was right, not knowing what God would do with their children, and we reap the benefit.
In Augustine's Confessions, he tells us that his mother's last request was that he would remember her before the altar of the Lord. He then says her request is fulfilled whenever we read the Confessions and remember Monica, as indeed we continue to do 1600 years later. But this applies to the other mothers of the great men of the past - we ought to remember them likewise before the altar of the Lord. That means, of course, that we need to study our Church history.
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