Consolation to Stagirius

Book excerpt: John Chrysostom (d. 407) was first a priest in Antioch and later the short-lived archbishop of Constantinople. Although best known as a preacher, throughout his career he also wrote a number of letters and treatises, primarily to ascetic and clerical audiences. The Consolation to Stagirius is one of these treatises, written early in his career. Over three books, Chrysostom seeks to comfort his acquaintance, Stagirius, both for the suffering experienced at the hands of a demon ? manifesting in nightmares and seizures ? and for the melancholy he was experiencing due to estrangement with his father. The sources that Chrysostom draws on for this consolation are primarily biblical narratives: the lives of the scriptural saints. The first book comprises mainly arguments for God's providence over Stagirius' life and the lives of all the saints. Stagirius is to find comfort in the fact that God directs all things?including those that seem evil?for the benefit of those whom he loves. The second and third books are then extended narrations of the sufferings of the patriarchs and the prophets and, much more briefly, the apostles. Stagirius is to compare his sufferings to those who went before and to learn that suffering is no indication of a lack of God's providential care. This treatise thus contributes to our understanding of early Christian attitudes towards the problem of suffering and the means of God's providence in the lives of the saints.