Saint John Damascene
Doctor of the Church
(676-780)
Saint John Damascene
Saint John was born in the late 7th century, and is the most remarkable of the Greek writers of the 8th century.
His father was a civil authority who was Christian amid the Saracens of
Damascus, whose caliph made him his minister. This enlightened man
found in the public square one day, amid a group of sad Christian
captives, a priest of Italian origin who had been condemned to slavery;
he ransomed him and assigned him to his young son to be his tutor. Young
John made extraordinary progress in grammar, dialectic, mathematics,
music, poetry, astronomy, but above all in theology, the discipline
imparting knowledge of God. John became famous for his encyclopedic
knowledge and theological method, later a source of inspiration to Saint
Thomas Aquinas.
When
his father died, the caliph made of him his principal counselor, his
Grand Vizier. Thus it was through Saint John Damascene that the advanced
sciences made their apparition among the Arab Moslems, who had burnt
the library of Alexandria in Egypt; it was not the Moslems who
instructed the Christians, as was believed for some time in Europe.
Saint John vigorously opposed the ferocious Iconoclast persecution
instigated by the Emperor of Constantinople, Leo the Isaurian. He
distinguished himself, with Saint Germain, Patriarch of Constantinople,
in the defense of the veneration of sacred images.
The
Emperor, irritated, himself conjured up a plot against him. A letter
was forged, signed with Saint John's name, and addressed to himself, the
Emperor of Constantinople, offering to deliver up the city of Damascus
to him. That letter was then transmitted by the Emperor to the Caliph of
Damascus, advising him as a good neighbor should do, that he had a
traitor for minister. Although Saint John vigorously defended himself
against the charge, he was condemned by the Caliph to have his right
hand cut off. The severed hand, by order of the Caliph, was attached to a
post in a public square. But Saint John obtained the hand afterwards,
and invoked the Blessed Virgin in a prayer which has been preserved; he
prayed to be able to continue to write the praises of Her Son and
Herself. The next morning when he awoke, he found his hand joined again
to the arm, leaving no trace of pain, but only a fine red line like a
bracelet, marking the site of the miracle.
The
Saint was reinstated afterwards to the favor of the local prince, but
he believed that heaven had made it clear he was destined to serve the
Church by his writings. He therefore distributed his property and
retired soon thereafter to the monastery of Saint Sabas near Jerusalem,
where he spent most of his remaining years in apologetic writings and
prayer. Occasionally he left to console the Christians of Syria and
Palestine and strengthen them, even going to Constantinople in the hope
of obtaining martyrdom there. However, he was able to return to his
monastery. There he died in peace at the age of 104, and was buried near
the door of the monastery church, in the year 780.
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