Posted on 12/05/2002 5:52:00 PM PST by Lady In Blue
MONDAY
Pourer of gold - Defender of the orthodox Catholic treasure of the Faith
The seventeenth Doctor in this chronological series on the Doctors of the Church was the most remarkable of the Greek writers of the 8th century. He stood up strongly to false doctrines. He led the defenders of the orthodox Catholic faith against the iconoclast movement of the Byzantine regime. He was known as the last of the Greek Fathers and one whom greatly inspired the Angelic Doctor several centuries later. He was Saint John of Damascene. In the year 676, as Mohammedanism was making its mark in the Holy Land, Saint John Damascene was born into a wealthy Christian-Arab family. His mother was Catholic, his father Mansur a Moslem. His father was also a civil authority who converted to Christianity 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. The monk was named Cosmas, a slave bought by John's father during a Moslem raid in Sicily. Mansur ransomed Cosmas 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. In the early 700's Leo the Isaurian released a decree condemning the veneration of images. John knew it was a direct assault on Catholicism and he refuted all the Emperor had decreed which naturally drew the wrath of the Byzantine rulers who wanted to silence him, but they were prevented because John was under the Caliph's protection and rule. The Emperor, irritated, himself conjured up a plot against John. 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. Even though Leo's successor, the Emperor Constantine Copronymus denounced John at a false synod he convened in Constantinople, the Patriarch John V still ordained John in 726. St. John Damascene spent most of his remaining years in apologetic writings and prayer at the Monastery of St. Sabas. 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. Known as both a poet and theologian, John wrote his famous The Fount of Knowledge, translated into Latin with the title De Fide Orthodoxa. It had the most profound effect on theology for centuries. Teaming up with the Patriarch John V and Pope Gregory II, St. John defended the faith and the right to use images and icons of Our Lord, Our Lady and the saints with the beautiful rationale, "It is not the material that we honor but what it represents: the honor paid to images goes to the one who is represented by the image." He wrote countless works including poems still used in the Greek liturgy. The Greeks called him "Chrysoorhoas" which meant "pouring forth gold" since his words were a treasure so profound to those who heard them. John's peaceful death at the monastery at St. Sabas, at the ripe age of 104, on December 4, 779 marked the end of the Greek Fathers of the Church. He was buried near the door of the monastery church in 780. 1111 years later, on the same December date in 1890, Pope Leo XIII proclaimed John Damascene a Doctor of the Church adding his feast to the Roman Calendar for March 27th.
For the chronological list of the Doctors of the Church to date, see www.DailyCatholic.org/2002doc.htm Archives.
Note: [editor's bold, brackets and italicized for emphasis] Some of the sources taken from: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 5; The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by C. G. Herbermann with numerous collaborators (Appleton Company: New York, 1908).
Novemer 25, 2002
volume 13, no. 143
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Saint John Damascene
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MONDAY November 25, 2002 volume 13, no. 143 33 Doctors of the Church www.DailyCatholic.org
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by St. John of Damascus
PART II
[55] I CRAVE your indulgence, my readers (despotai mou), and ask you to receive the true statement of one who is an unprofitable servant, the least of all, in the Church of God. I have not been moved to speak by motives of vainglory, God is my witness, but by zeal for the truth. In this alone is my hope of salvation, and with it I trust and pray to go out to meet Christ our Lord, asking that it may be an expiation for my sins. The man who received five talents from his lord, brought other five which he had gained, and the man with two, other two. The man who received one, and buried it, gave it back without interest, and being pronounced a wicked servant, was banished into external darkness. (Mt. 25.20ff) Lest I should suffer in the same way, I obey God's commands, and with the talent of eloquence, which is His gift, I put before the wise among you a treasure table, so [56] that when the Lord comes He may find me rich in souls, a faithful servant, whom He may take into that ineffable joy of His, which is my desire. Give me listening ears and willing hearts. Receive my treatise, and ponder well the force of the arguments. This is the second part of my work on images. Certain children of the Church have urged me to do it because the first part was not sufficiently clear to all. Be indulgent with me on this account, for my obedience. The wicked serpent of old, Beloved, I mean the devil--is wont to wage war in many ways against man, who is made after God's image, and to work his destruction through opposition. In the very beginning he inspired man with the hope and desire of becoming a god, and through that desire he dragged man down to share the death of the brute creation. He has enticed man also by shameful and brutal pleasures. What a contrast between becoming a god and feeling brutal lust. And again, he led man into infidelity, as the royal (qeopatwr) David says: "The fool said in his heart there is no God." (Ps. 14.1) At one time he has brought man to worship too many gods, at another not even [57] the true God, sometimes demons, and again, the heavens and the earth, the sun and moon and stars, and the rest of creation, wild beasts and reptiles. It is as bad to refuse due honour where honour is due, as to give it where it is not due. Again, he has taught some to call the uncreated god evil, and has deceived others by making them recognise God, who is good by nature, as the author of evil. Some he has deceived by the misconception of one nature and one substance of the Godhead; some he has induced to honour three natures and three substances; some one substance in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity; some two natures and two substances.
BTTT on 12-04-04, Optional Feast of St. John of Damascus.
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December 4, 2004
 St. John Damascene
(676?-749)
John spent most of his life in the monastery of St. Sabas, near Jerusalem, and all of his life under Muslim rule, indeed, protected by it. He was born in Damascus, received a classical and theological education, and followed his father in a government position under the Arabs. After a few years he resigned and went to the monastery of St. Sabas. He is famous in three areas. First, he is known for his writings against the iconoclasts, who opposed the veneration of images. Paradoxically, it was the Eastern Christian emperor Leo who forbade the practice, and it was because John lived in Muslim territory that his enemies could not silence him. Second, he is famous for his treatise, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, a summary of the Greek Fathers (of which he became the last). It is said that this book is to Eastern schools what the Summa of Aquinas became to the West. Thirdly, he is known as a poet, one of the two greatest of the Eastern Church, the other being Romanus the Melodist. His devotion to the Blessed Mother and his sermons on her feasts are well known. Quote:
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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.
Salvation,Bump.
That IS an interesting fact!
Good to see you.
St. John of Damascus, pray for us.
BTTT on the Optional Memorial of St. John of Damascus, December 4, 2006!
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St John Damascene 676-749. The Icon or Image Doctor, Feast Dec 4th. |
BTTT on the Optional Memorial of St. John of Damascus, December 4, 2007!
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