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John of Damascus, Priest and Doctor of the Church
 John of Damascus (ca 657. ca 749), also John Damascene and John Chrysorrhoas (GK, Golden Speaker), was one of the most influential Greek theologians in the medieval West; his thought impacted the work of Thoms Aquinas (January 28), Peter Lombard, and others. Born in Damascus, Syria, of a wealthy Christian family, he was well educated by a Sicilian monk (who had been brought back from Sicily as a captive) in science and theology. John succeeded his father briefly as chief of revenues, but ca. 7000, after a shift in policy toward Christians, he resigned his office, divided his wealth among his relatives, the Church, and the poor and became a monk and late a priest at the Laura (Gk., street) of the Sabas (December 5), near Jerusalem. (A Laura, or Lavra, was a monastery in which the monks lived in separate cells or huts and in complete solitude, expect for liturgies in the monastery church). John invested his time, energy, and considerable intellectual gifts in the composition of hymns and theological works, the most important of which was his Fount of Wisdom" which was divided into three parts: philosophy, heresies, and the Orthodox Faith. The last was a summary of the teachings of Greek Fathers on the main elements of the Christian faith: the Trinity, creation, Incarnation, the Church, the Sacraments, Mary (he held the doctrines of the divine maternity, the Immaculate Conception , and the Assumption) and the Second coming of Christ.
John had a quintessentially Catholic sacramental vision. "The One who seek God continually will find him", he wrote, "for God is in everything". He also wrote three tracts against the iconoclasts (those who destroyed icons, statues and any other representation of Christ, Mary, and the other saints), which brought him the disfavor of the pro-iconoclastic Christian emperors. However, they were unable to take any action against John Damascene, as they had against other anti-iconoclasts, because, ironically, John lived under protective Muslim rule. He died at Mar Saba ca. 749, and his cult developed soon thereafter. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1890. His feast is on the General Roman Calendar, and it is also commemorated today by the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches, and by the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in the USA.
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