#Letters from Exile

This article examines the friendship between Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Olympias the Deaconess, exploring the hierarch’s exile in 404, their correspondence during this period, and the remarkable life of Olympias, who was also a friend of Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint Gregory of Nyssa, to whom she dedicated her commentary on the Song of Songs. The letters sent from exile constitute at once a travel journal, a spiritual manual and a theology of longing, demonstrating that a pure friendship between a man and a woman is possible when both are saints.

This article analyses the theology of suffering in St John Chrysostom, presenting it as God’s loving pedagogy towards sinners and the righteous alike. Through references to the Homilies on the Statues, the correspondence with the deaconess Olympias, and the biblical examples of Job and Paul, it is shown that afflictions serve a punitive, purifying and stimulating purpose, forming part of the divine economy, which is full of wisdom and love.