Christian monk, priest, hymnographer and apologist (675/6-749)
"Chrysorrhoas" redirects here. For the river in Syria, see Barada. For the river in Turkey, see Pactolus.
"Damascenus" redirects here. For other uses, see Damaskinos.
Saint
John of Damascus
Doctor of the Church, Monk, Teacher of the Faith
Born
c. 675 or 676 Damascus, Bilad al-Sham, Umayyad Caliphate
Died
4 December 749 (aged c. 72–74) Mar Saba, Jerusalem, Bilad al-Sham, Umayyad Caliphate
Venerated in
Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church Anglican Communion Lutheranism
Canonized
Pre-congregation
Feast
4 December 27 March (General Roman Calendar, 1890–1969)
Attributes
Severed hand, icon
Patronage
Pharmacists, Iconographers, theology studentsPhilosophy career
Notable work
The Fountain of Knowledge Philosophical Chapters Concerning Heresy An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith
Era
Medieval philosophy Byzantine philosophy
School
Neoplatonism[1]
Main interests
Law, Christian theology, philosophy, apologetics, criticism of Islam, geometry, Mariology, arithmetic, astronomy, music
Notable ideas
Icon, dormition/assumption of Mary, Theotokos, perpetual virginity of Mary, mediatrix[2]
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Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox philosopher with unknown parameter "influenced"
Influenced
Second Council of Nicaea
John of Damascus (Arabic: يوحنا الدمشقي, romanized: Yūḥana ad-Dimashqī; Greek: Ἰωάννης ὁ Δαμασκηνός, romanized: Ioánnēs ho Damaskēnós, IPA:[ioˈanisoðamasciˈnos]; Latin: Ioannes Damascenus; born Yūḥana ibn Manṣūr ibn Sarjūn, يوحنا إبن منصور إبن سرجون) or John Damascene was an Arab Christian monk, priest, hymnographer, and apologist. Born and raised in Damascus c. 675 or 676; the precise date and place of his death is not known, though tradition places it at his monastery, Mar Saba, near Jerusalem on 4 December 749.[5]
A polymath whose fields of interest and contribution included law, theology, philosophy, and music, he was given the by-name of Chrysorroas (Χρυσορρόας, literally "streaming with gold", i.e. "the golden speaker").
He wrote works expounding the Christian faith, and composed hymns which are still used both liturgically in Eastern Christian practice throughout the world as well as in western Lutheranism at Easter.[6]
He is one of the Fathers of the Eastern Orthodox Church and is best known for his strong defence of icons.[7] The Catholic Church regards him as a Doctor of the Church, often referred to as the Doctor of the Assumption due to his writings on the Assumption of Mary.[8]
He was also a prominent exponent of perichoresis, and employed the concept as a technical term to describe both the interpenetration of the divine and human natures of Christ and the relationship between the hypostases of the Trinity.[9] John is at the end of the Patristic period of dogmatic development, and his contribution is less one of theological innovation than one of a summary of the developments of the centuries before him. In Catholic theology, he is therefore known as the "last of the Greek Fathers".[10]
The main source of information for the life of John of Damascus is a work attributed to one John of Jerusalem, identified therein as the Patriarch of Jerusalem.[11] This is an excerpted translation into Greek of an earlier Arabic text. The Arabic original contains a prologue not found in most other translations, and was written by an Arab monk, Michael, who explained that he decided to write his biography in 1084 because none was available in his day. However, the main Arabic text seems to have been written by an unknown earlier author sometime between the early 9th and late 10th century.[11]
Written from a hagiographical point of view and prone to exaggeration and some legendary details, it is not the best historical source for his life, but is widely reproduced and considered to contain elements of some value.[12] The hagiographic novel Barlaam and Josaphat, is a work of the 10th century[13] attributed to a monk named John. It was only considerably later that the tradition arose that this was John of Damascus, but most scholars no longer accept this attribution. Instead much evidence points to Euthymius of Athos, a Georgian who died in 1028.[14]
^Byzantine Empire: The age of Iconoclasm: 717–867 – britannica.com
^Mary's Pope: John Paul II, Mary, and the Church by Antoine Nachef (1 September 2000) ISBN 1-58051-077-9 pages 179–180
^On the Aristotelian Heritage of John of Damascus Joseph Koterski, S .J
^O'Connor, J.B. (1910). St. John Damascene. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 30 July 2019 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08459b.htm
^M. Walsh, ed. Butler's Lives of the Saints (HarperCollins Publishers: New York, 1991), p. 403.
^Lutheran Service Book (Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 2006), pp. 478, 487.
^Aquilina 1999, p. 222
^Rengers, Christopher (2000). The 33 Doctors of the Church. Tan Books. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-89555-440-6.
^Cross, F.L (1974). "Cicumincession". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford University Press.
^
O'Connor, J.B. (1910) "John of Damascus was the last of the Greek Fathers. His genius was not for original theological development, but for compilation of an encyclopedic character. In fact, the state of full development to which theological thought had been brought by the great Greek writers and councils left him little else than the work of an encyclopedist; and this work he performed in such manner as to merit the gratitude of all succeeding ages".
In Orthodox Christianity, the concept of "fathers of the Church" is used somewhat more loosely, with no exhaustive list or end date, with a number of theologians younger than John Damascene generally included.
^ abSahas 1972, p. 32
^Sahas 1972, p. 35
^R. Volk, ed., Historiae animae utilis de Barlaam et Ioasaph (Berlin, 2006)
^Barlaam and Ioasaph, John Damascene, Loeb Classical Library 34, at LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY ISBN 978-0-674-99038-8
Damascus (/dəˈmæskəs/ də-MASK-əs, UK also /dəˈmɑːskəs/ də-MAH-skəs; Arabic: دِمَشق, romanized: Dimašq) is the capital of Syria, the oldest current capital...
reward of the good-doers. — Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:82–84 In 746, JohnofDamascus (sometimes St. JohnofDamascus) wrote the Fount of Knowledge part two of which...
to Marwan I, from another branch of the clan. Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus as their capital. The Umayyads continued...
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list of Christian Church Fathers. Roman Catholics generally regard the Patristic period to have closed with the death ofJohnofDamascus, a Doctor of the...
by John Hughes Siege ofDamascus during the Crusade of 1129 Siege ofDamascus (1148), a failed siege during the Second Crusade Siege ofDamascus (1229)...
complex in Damascus, Syria, destroying the building housing its consular section. Sixteen people were killed in the strike, including eight officers of the Islamic...
century, JohnofDamascus listed eighteen attributes which remain widely accepted. As time passed, Christian theologians developed systematic lists of these...
Damascus steel is the forged steel of the blades of swords smithed in the Near East from ingots of carbon steel imported from Southern India or made in...
al-Umawī), also known as the Great Mosque ofDamascus, located in the old city ofDamascus, the capital of Syria, is one of the largest and oldest mosques in...
7th-century writer John bar Penkaye. One Christian who came under the early dominion of the Islamic Caliphate was JohnofDamascus (c. 676–749 AD), who...
the worldwide model of monastic life and liturgical order known as the Byzantine Rite. Mar Saba was the home of St JohnofDamascus (676–749; Arabic: يوحنا...
history, such as JohnofDamascus (8th century) and John Calvin (16th century), have interpreted Muhammad as being the Antichrist of the New Testament...
special regard as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs (alongside Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus). The feast days ofJohn Chrysostom in the Eastern...
Islamic religion in the Middle East and North Africa. In the 8th century JohnofDamascus, a Syrian monk, Christian theologian, and apologist that lived under...
mother of Ismail, Hajar, was a granddaughter of Saleh. A similar tradition is related in an eighth-century commentary on Islam by JohnofDamascus and is...
that alone. Patriarch Germanus I of Constantinople JohnofDamascus In the Roman Catholic Church, St. JohnofDamascus, who lived in the 8th century, is...
Christian-Muslim wars and a period of iconoclasm in West Asia. The defense of images and the role of the Syrian scholar JohnofDamascus was pivotal during this...
7th century), 25th bishop of Tongres John III of the Sedre (died 648), Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch JohnofDamascus (676–749), Syrian monk and...
Saint JohnofDamascus (c. 675 or 676 – 749) was noted for his work as a hymn writer; some of the most popular English hymns which are translations of his...
Damascus Cover is a 2017 political thriller film, directed by Daniel Zelik Berk, from a screenplay by Berk and Samantha Newton. It is based upon the 1977...