St. Mary’s Orthodox Cathedral 1701 Fifth Street NE

Minneapolis, MN 55413

compromise. compromise. Fr. Andrew Andrew Fr.

vindication of the saint - and the preaching and teaching of the church - in the face of social pressure and the temptation to to temptation the and pressure social of face the in - church the of teaching and preaching the and - saint the of vindication

popular demand after the first and second exile, he died during his third exile. The translation of his is in a sense t sense a in is relics his of translation The exile. third his during died he exile, second and first the after demand popular he he

corruption - soured his relations with the Empress and her circle. He was exiled three times, and although brought back by by back brought although and times, three exiled was He circle. her and Empress the with relations his soured - corruption

Antioch and among ordinary folks in - his strong moral teaching and condemnation of luxury, injustice and and injustice luxury, of condemnation and teaching moral strong his - Constantinople in folks ordinary among and

so that she could have him as her court preacher. However, the very characteristics that made his preaching popular in in popular preaching his made that characteristics very the However, preacher. court her as him have could she that so

est of the Empress in Constantinople, that she had him kidnapped, brought to the imperial city and consecrated bishop just just bishop consecrated and city imperial the to brought kidnapped, him had she that Constantinople, in Empress the of est

irony in this. While a priest in Antioch, St. John had become an extremely popular preacher. His fame so excited the inter- the excited so fame His preacher. popular extremely an become had John St. Antioch, in priest a While this. in irony

ople. Although a much loved patriarch, he had made some very powerful enemies in imperial circles. There was a certain certain a was There circles. imperial in enemies powerful very some made had he patriarch, loved much a Although ople.

The relics of St. were brought from his tomb in Georgia, where he had died in exile, back to Constantin- to back exile, in died had he where Georgia, in tomb his from brought were Chrysostom John St. of relics The

self is in the custody of the Russian parish nearby. nearby. parish Russian the of custody the in is self it shrine the and Cathedral the within shrine Orthodox

Nicholas in the chapel at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in are still a major magnet for pilgrimage. There is an an is There pilgrimage. for magnet major a still are Bari in Cathedral Catholic Roman the at chapel crypt the in Nicholas

translation of the relics of St. Nicholas to Bari (May 9, the so-called 'summer feast of St. Nicholas') and the relics of St. St. of relics the and Nicholas') St. of feast 'summer so-called the 9, (May Bari to Nicholas St. of relics the of translation

modern day Turkey) to Bari on the southern Adriatic shore of . Oddly enough, we celebrate this theft - the feast of the the of feast the - theft this celebrate we enough, Oddly Italy. of shore Adriatic southern the on Bari to Turkey) day modern

lations have been rather unseemly. For example, the relics of St. Nicholas were actually stolen and brought (from , in in Myra, (from brought and stolen actually were Nicholas St. of relics the example, For unseemly. rather been have lations

at least at pilgrimage sites - to the communities that have them. Not surprisingly, the circumstances of some of these trans- these of some of circumstances the surprisingly, Not them. have that communities the to - sites pilgrimage at least at

cs can bring a certain prestige - and no doubt income, even today, today, even income, doubt no and - prestige certain a bring can cs reli of possession the that said be also must It location.

There has often been pressure to bring the relics of popular saints from their resting place to a more central and accessible accessible and central more a to place resting their from saints popular of relics the bring to pressure been often has There

relics takes them very far away indeed. indeed. away far very them takes relics

his or her tomb - to another place - usually a in an important church or cathedral. Sometimes the translation of of translation the Sometimes cathedral. or church important an in reliquary a usually - place another to - tomb her or his

that saint. The word 'translation' in this context means the removal of the remains of a saint from one place - for example, example, for - place one from saint a of remains the of removal the means context this in 'translation' word The saint. that

During the course of the church year, we find on the calendar feasts that are called 'the translation of the relics" of this or this of relics" the of translation 'the called are that feasts calendar the on find we year, church the of course the During

C J S R T T 27: J HRYSOSTOM OHN T OF ELICS THE OF RANSLATION HE ANUARY

M W N O I T A T I D E Y L K E E