I know my own soul, how feeble and puny it is: I know the magnitude of this ministry, and the great difficulty of the work; for more stormy billows vex the soul of the priest than the gales which disturb the sea.

After the death of Meletius John separated himself from the followers of Meletius without joining Paulinus the rival of Meletius for the bishopric of Antioch but after the death of Paulinus he was ordained a presbyter (that is a priest) in 386 by Evagrius the successor of Paulinus. He told visiting regional preachers to return to the churches they were meant to be serving—without any payout. There was also an earthquake the night of his arrest which Eudoxia took for a sign of God's anger prompting her to ask Arcadius for John's reinstatement.

The Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches honor him as a saint and count him among the Three Holy Hierarchs together with Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzus. John Chrysostom (c. John is known in Christianity chiefly as a preacher theologian and liturgist.