St. John of Damascus

St. John of Damascus was born around the year 675 A.D. at a time the Muhammaden heresy was in full power in the Holy Lands. Not only this, but the Emperor Leo the Isaurian began to reign during the lifetime of this holy man and would pursue with a vengeance this man of God. Leo the Isaurian was a notorious God-hating iconoclast who despised the veneration of holy images and the orthodox faith of the Apostolic Catholic Church. Though heresy was rampant throughout his birthplace, St. John's parents preserved the Faith and they reared him to preserving it as well. Sergios was a faithful servant of the Caliph and was in a prominent position but the Caliph whom he served was more lenient toward Christians at the time and allowed the practice of Christianity.

Sergios would adopt an orphan named Kosmas who became a brother to St. John. But he wanted the boys to be well-learned in the faith. Once, he came across a monk named Kosmas who was about to be executed who was weeping bitterly. Sergios asked the monk why he was weeping so in the face of death as martyrdom should bring a Christian great joy and Kosmas disclosed that while he had studied the natural sciences throughout his life, finding them incomplete, he began to study the theology of the Orthodox Church. There, he came to faith, but he had no disciple to pass on his knowledge to. Thus, rejoicing, Sergios had realized he had found a man to tutor his sons in the sciences. He ordered Kosmas to weep no more for he would be released and would tutor his sons. He pleaded to the Caliph to release Kosmas and the Caliph obliged. Kosmas educated the young John and Kosmas until they surpassed him in knowledges. Upon this, Kosmas, who had become a dear friend to Sergios, reposed. Sergios would repose not long afterward and John would be elevated to the role of Advisor to the Caliph following his father's footsteps.

St. John wrote relentlessly against the attacks of the iconoclasts that were wreaking havoc upon the Church. He defended the veneration of icons on the basis that matter was made holy and good by God. "I salute all remaining matter with reverence, because God has filled it with His grace and power." When we venerate the icons, we are not worshiping a mere image nor are we worshiping matter. We are reverencing the grace of God that the icon has been filled with. We are venerating what is behind the image and has filled the image. His writings eventually reached the Emperor Leo the Isaurian as they spread beyond the Saracen world and throughout the Byzantine Empire. The Emperor Leo was incensed at the writings of this holy man and so obtained one of St. John's writings that was in his own hand. Ordering a copyist to forge the handwriting, he began a plot to frame the saint of treason against the Caliph. As the Emperor could not lay a hand on St. John himself, he had to go about this line of dubious business. A letter that called upon the Emperor to combat the Caliph and liberate the Christians was forged in John's name and sent to the Caliph. The Caliph, finding the letter, ordered the right hand of John to be cut off.

St. John, lamenting the loss of his right hand, asked if he could keep it as a memory. The hand was brought to St. John by a servant and John took the hand placed it upon the icon of the Holy Theotokos. He prayed for healing. St. John fell asleep before the icon and when he arose, he found his hand healed once more.

Thy mighty right hand, O Lord, is glorified in strength. Thy right hand has healed my wounded my right; and, by the same, crush those that refuse to honor thy revered icon and that of Thy Mother. Use my right hand to magnify Thy glory and as an organ against those who destroy icons.

A red thread was wrapped into the wrist of St. John providing evidence that his hand had indeed been cut off, so when he was falsely accused yet again of putting someone else in place to have their right hand severed, he was able to present this evidence to the Caliph. The Caliph, repenting, offered to St. John's old position of Chief Advisor back, but St. John refused, preferring to flee to the monastery of St. Savvas with his brother Kosmas.

In rigorous testing from the elder, he was ordered to go to Damascus selling baskets for twice the price they were worth as the monastery needed money. It was a test of his obedience. He was mocked by many people there who didn't recognize him, but one man who recognized him did pay the price for the baskets that were being sold though he did not disclose to the saint that he was recognized. St. John learned obedience and humility this way. He was ordered by the elder not to write any troparia or sing any hymns, but when a brother reposed, the brothers at the monastery pleaded earnestly that he would write a hymn for the brother who had fallen asleep. The elder was away from the monastery at this point, and St. John eventually gave into the pressure from the brothers, and disobeying his elder, wrote a most beautiful troparion that is still chanted today. The elder, finding out what had happened, banished St. John from the monastery.

The brothers, lamenting, begged the elder to allow St. John back into the monastery as St. John reflected on how his disobedience to the elder was similar to the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The elder eventually let him back into the monastery on the condition that he clean the monastery's bathrooms. St. John, eager to go back to the monastery, took this task faithfully upon himself and the elder was pleased to have such an obedient and humble servant among the brothers. It would be revealed to the elder in a vision of the Theotokos that he had been faithlessly suppressing the holy servant of God. That John was to write all sorts of troparia and defend the Faith in his writings against all sorts of heresies, and explain the Faith to many. The elder, repenting of his former suppression of the saint, allowed John to begin writing all sorts of canons, troparia, idiomela, prosomia, homilies, encomia, octoechos, and various other dogmatic instructions defending the Faith.

He and Kosmas began teaching music together and they compiled a Grammar of Music to help teach music to monastics. He would soon be ordained a priest by John V, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and would be known as "The Mouthpiece of John" for his preaching and apologetic writings on the Faith. This would incur upon him the wrath of Leo the Isaurian and Constantine V. Kosmas would be consecrated as Bishop of Maiouma in 743 and John would rely heavily upon his brother's advice. St. John went on to write various discourses explaining the Orthodox Faith including Elementary Introduction to Dogma, Exposition and Profession of Faith, On the Holy Trinity, The Fount of Knowledge, and even an encomia to St. Barbara of whom he shares a Feast Day with. He reposed in the year 777 at the age of 104. He has influenced many philosophers, both East and West, including the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas. St. John of Damascus, pray for us!