The three bishops, from left to right, are John Chrysostom, the ‘golden-mouthed’ preacher, 347-407, author of the liturgy, archbishop of Constantinople, prolific influential author and polemicist; Gregory the Theologian, also known as Saint Gregory Nazianzus, 329-390, archbishop of Constantinople, hugely influential theologian of the early church; Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great, 330–379, brother of Gregory of Nyssa; author of the liturgy, one of the foremost theologians shaping the theology of the church in its formative days. All there a shown standing beneath an image of the Mandylion

Regarded as great intellectual princes of the Church, Orthodoxy holds these fourth century bishops in the highest regard. They provided an immense intellectual contribution to the spiritual development of the Church in its formative period. They came from the most privileged aristocratic families of the late Roman Empire and were trained at university in the highest philosophical standards of Platonic, Stoic and Neoplatonic traditions much of which imbued their writings. Their status in Eastern Christianity is comparable to that of Jerome and Augustine in the West. The liturgy of St John is the most commonly used in Orthodox churches, with liturgy of Saint Basil reserved for certain occasions.