John Chrysostom: Barrenness not Wife's Fault

I mean, you all doubtless understand that childlessness is intolerable to wives particularly for their husbands' sake: many people are so unreasonable in their attitude as to rebuke their wives when they do not have children, not realizing that having children has its origins on high, in God's providence, and it is not the nature of a wife or sexual intercourse or anything else that is solely responsible for it. Yet even though they at least accept that they are wrong to rebuke them, they often reproach and reject them, and find no satisfaction in relating to them.

- John Chrysostom (around A.D. 347 to around A.D. 407), Homilies on Hannah, Homily 1, in St. John Chrysostom, Old Testament Homilies, Volume 1, pp. 74-75 (2003), Robert C. Hill translator.