Studia Theologica No. II (XVIII) / 2024
Saint John Chrysostom and Deaconess Olympias, the embodiment of true friendship
Maria Anastasiu 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.