The church from Cerăt has the titular saint of Saint John Chrysostom.
Saint John Chrysostom was born in Antiohia, the year of his birth being situated between 344 and 354. He was baptized at the age of 20 and he studied philosophy, under the guidance of Andragatiu, and the rhetoric with Libaniu. He was ordained deacon by the Archbishop Meletie (381), and priest by Flavian, the descendant of Meletie (386). After the death of Nectarie, the patriarch of Constantinople, Saint John was chosen patriarch of Constantinople, being ordained by the patriarch Teofil of Alexandria, on the 28th of February 398. John reforms the citadel and the clergy, which were under a big state of decay. Therefore, he suppressed the luxury of the Episcopal residence, introducing the modest living. His critiques aimed against the corruption brought him many enemies. His most important enemy was Teofil from Alexandria.
The animosities are intensified after John Chrysostom received the Lungi Brothers, accused of origenism and chased away from Egypt by the patriarch Teofil, whom he accommodates, without entering in the community with them. We evoke the fact that although the Lungi Brothers addressed John a complaint against Teofil, he doesn’t take into consideration. The Empress Eudoxia, convokes John at an assembly at Stejar, in order to exculpate herself of the brought accuses. John isn’t present at the assembly and for this fact he is dismissed in the year 403. The emperor ratifies the decision of the assembly and sends John in exile in Bitinia. This exile didn’t last for a long period of time, because he is recalled on his position. After coming back, John criticizes once again the rampancy and the loudness produced around a silver statue which portrays Eudoxia and which was near the cathedral in which he serviced. From the command of the empress Eudoxia, Saint John was dismissed and exiled in Cucuz, from Armenia. His opponents intervene near the emperor and he is sent at Pityum, a small city from the western border of the Black Sea. He doesn’t resist the journey and dies on the 14th of September 407, at Comana in Pont. His relics were brought to Constantinople and seated in the Church of the Saints Archangels in 438, by the patriarch Proclu of Constantinople. In the year 1204, during the IVth Crusade, the relics of Saint John together with the relics of Saint Grigorie from Nazianz, were taken by the Venetians and sent to Rome, where they were situated on Saint Peter Cathedral. After 800 years, the Roman – Catholic Church returned the relics to the two Archbishops from Constantinople, to the Orthodox Church. On the 27th of November 2004, Pope John Paul the IInd, offered the relics of the two saints to the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I.
In the year 1997, Silvano Piovanelli, the Cardinal of Florence, gave to the Romanian Orthodox Church a piece of the relics of Saint John Chrysostom, which is currently in the Chapel of the Cathedral of Redemption of the People.
