John Chrysostom

Greek-speaking Church Father and Archbishop of Constantinople (398–404 CE) — the greatest Christian preacher of antiquity — whose homilies on the Gospels and epistles are extraordinary literary works, and whose denunciations of the wealth of the Empress Eudoxia led to his exile and death.

Demonstrated that Christian preaching could be a supreme literary art — his homilies on Matthew and John are the most sustained close reading of New Testament texts in the patristic period — and made the public denunciation of unjust wealth a central Christian obligation.