St John Damascene: Life, Holy Images, Prayer and Feast Day

St John Damascene, or St John of Damascus, was a Christian high official at the court of the Muslim caliph of Damascus who became a monk near Jerusalem and, in the bitterest years of the Iconoclast persecution, the great defender of the veneration of holy images. Butler calls him the last of the Greek Fathers; his Exposition of the Orthodox Faith became for the East what the Summa of St Thomas became for the West, and Leo XIII declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1890. In the calendar of 1962 his feast falls on 27 March; here is his life, how he defended sacred images, his writings and hymns, and the prayers of his Mass in the Missal of 1962.

Who was St John Damascene?

John was born at Damascus late in the seventh century, under the rule of the caliphs. The date is uncertain: the Catholic Encyclopedia gives about 676, Butler about 690. The Muslim rulers of Damascus, Butler explains, allowed Christians to hold important posts, though they made them pay a poll tax and bear other humiliations. John's father, also called John, was a Christian who held the post of chief of the revenue at the caliph's court, an office that seems to have been hereditary in the family; the Arabs called him al-Mansur, a surname later passed on to his son.

The boy was baptized in infancy and given the best education his father could buy. His chief master was a monk named Cosmas, brought back as a captive from Sicily, who taught him every science and above all theology, together with another boy, also named Cosmas, whom the elder John seems to have adopted. The Breviary adds that John was "of noble birth" and was formed in "human and divine letters" by this monk.

From the caliph's court to the monastery of St Sabas

John at first followed his father in the service of the caliph, and at court he lived openly as a Christian, remarkable for his virtues and above all his humility. After some years he gave up his office, distributed his goods to the poor, freed his slaves, as the Breviary records, and with his adopted brother Cosmas entered the laura of St Sabas (Mar Saba), in the desert near Jerusalem.

The monks did not at first welcome the newcomers. Writing books seemed bad enough; composing and singing hymns seemed worse. Butler tells the story his biographer gives: when John, at the request of a monk whose brother had died, wrote a hymn on death and sang it to a sweet tune of his own, his old master threw him out of the cell ("Is this the way you forget your vows?"), and took him back only on condition that he clean out the filth of the whole laura with his own hands.

John obeyed without a word; then Our Lady appeared to the old monk and told him to let his disciple write as many books and hymns as he wished. The same biographer says John was sent to sell baskets in the streets of Damascus, where he had once held so high an office. Butler warns that these details, written more than a century after his death, "are of very questionable authority".

The patriarch of Jerusalem, John V, made Cosmas bishop of Majuma and ordained John a priest. John soon returned to St Sabas, where he spent the rest of his life writing theology and poetry.

How did St John Damascene defend sacred images?

The Emperor Leo the Isaurian made war on the veneration of holy images, and after him Constantine Copronymus. John, living beyond the frontier of the empire under the caliph, could answer the emperor freely, and he did. The Breviary relates that he defended the veneration of images "by word and by writing" at the urging of Pope Gregory III, and that he rebuked the emperors who presumed to judge matters of faith by their own authority.

He wrote three discourses against those who attacked the holy images, and returned to the question in his Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (Book IV, chapter 16). His argument, in substance:

• The honour passes to the original. As St Basil had taught, the honour given to an image is referred to the one it represents. Christians do not venerate wood and paint, but Christ, His Mother and the saints whom the images show.
• The Incarnation makes the image possible. In the Old Law the invisible God could not be portrayed; but the Word was made flesh and was seen, and what was seen can be painted.
• God Himself commanded images. The cherubim over the ark and the furnishings of the tabernacle were made by human hands at His command, and they were honoured.
• Images are books for the unlettered. They keep the memory of Christ's life and of the saints before those who cannot read.
• The apostles handed down unwritten traditions. He appeals to St Paul: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast: and hold the traditions, which you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle" (2 Thessalonians ii. 15).

His enemies never succeeded in harming him, Butler notes, only because he never crossed the frontier into the empire. After his death the Second Council of Nicaea, which restored the holy images, praised him in the highest terms, as the Breviary records.

The legend of the restored hand

The Gospel of his Mass, the man with the withered hand whom Christ healed on the sabbath (St Luke vi. 6-11), recalls a story long told of him. The Breviary gives it: the Emperor Leo, unable to reach John openly, forged a letter in which John seemed to offer to betray Damascus, and sent it to the caliph; the caliph had John's right hand cut off; John prayed before an image of the Mother of God, and the severed hand was joined again to his arm as if it had never been cut.

Butler's Lives says plainly that the story, "once widely credited", is "now regarded as apocryphal". We give it as a legend; the Introit of his Mass, chosen for it, is nonetheless beautiful: "Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy will thou hast conducted me, and with thy glory thou hast received me" (Psalm lxxii. 24).

The writings of St John Damascene

His greatest work is the Fount of Knowledge (Pege gnoseos), in three parts: the Philosophical Chapters, often called the Dialectic; a book On Heresies; and the Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, a summary of the whole teaching of the Greek Fathers. Butler says that he sought no originality: his work was to gather and order what his predecessors had taught, which is why he remained "the ultimate court of appeal among the Greeks". The Breviary gives him a still higher praise: he was the first to embrace all theology in right order, and so "smoothed the way" for St Thomas to treat sacred doctrine by his celebrated method. You will find the Angelic Doctor in our page on St Thomas Aquinas.

He also defended the faith against almost every heresy of his time, and the Breviary notes that he asserted the primacy of St Peter in the clearest words, calling him the pillar of the churches, the unbroken rock, the teacher and ruler of the world. He loved the Mother of God with a singular devotion: he preached three sermons on her Assumption.

The hymns of St John Damascene

Butler ranks him with St Romanus the Melodist as one of the two greatest poets of the Eastern Church. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls his canon for Easter the Te Deum of the Greek Church, and notes that some of his hymns became widely known in English versions, among them "Come, ye faithful, raise the strain" and "'Tis the day of resurrection". The Breviary records that he was called Chrysorrhoas, "flowing with gold", for the golden stream of his eloquence.

How did St John Damascene die?

Peacefully, at the laura of St Sabas, at a great age, after a life of prayer, study and writing. The year is not known: the Breviary says about 754, Butler about 749. He died a priest and monk, out of reach of the emperors who hated him.

The prayer of St John Damascene (Missal of 1962)

His Mass is proper, Tenuisti manum, with the Epistle from the Book of Wisdom (x. 10-14) and the Gospel of the withered hand. All three prayers speak of the holy images.

Collect, 27 March

Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, qui, ad cultum sacrárum imáginum asseréndum, beátum Joánnem cœlésti doctrína et admirábili spíritus fortitúdine imbuísti: concéde nobis ejus intercessióne et exémplo; ut, quorum cólimus imagines, virtútes imitémur et patrocínia sentiámus. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. R. Amen.

Almighty and everlasting God, who, to uphold the veneration of sacred images, didst fill blessed John with heavenly doctrine and wonderful strength of spirit: grant us, by his intercession and example, that we may imitate the virtues and feel the protection of those whose images we venerate. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.

Secret

Ut, quæ tibi, Dómine, offérimus, dona tuo sint digna conspéctu: beáti Joánnis et Sanctórum, quos ejus ópera expósitos in templis cólimus, pia suffragátio conspíret. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. R. Amen.

That the gifts we offer Thee, O Lord, may be worthy of Thy sight, may the loving intercession of blessed John unite with that of the Saints whom, through his labours, we venerate set forth in our churches. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.

Postcommunion

Sumpta nos, quǽsumus, Dómine, dona cœléstibus armis tueántur: et beáti Joánnis patrocínia circúmdent Sanctórum unánimi suffrágio cumuláta; quorum imágines evícit in Ecclésia esse venerándas. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. R. Amen.

May the gifts we have received, O Lord, we beseech Thee, guard us with heavenly armour; and may the patronage of blessed John surround us, strengthened by the united prayers of the Saints whose images he established must be venerated in the Church. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.

The Collect is the Church's own prayer to St John Damascene, and the best one for any day: it asks not only for his help, but that every image of the saints before which we pray may lead us to imitate them. Those who wish to make a novena may pray it on the nine days before his feast.

When is the feast day of St John Damascene?

In the calendar of 1962 the feast of St John Damascene falls on 27 March, as a feast of the third class, in white vestments. Leo XIII extended his Office and Mass to the whole Church when he declared him a Doctor in 1890.

Because 27 March falls in Lent or Passiontide, and under the rubrics of 1960 a Lenten weekday outranks a feast of the third class, St John Damascene is kept by a commemoration: the Mass and Office are of the day, and his Collect is added to the prayer of the day. When 27 March falls on a Sunday, in Holy Week or in Easter week, which are days of the first class, he is not commemorated at all that year. The dates for the current year are in our traditional Catholic calendar of 1962; he stands among the Greek Fathers in our guide to the Catholic saints, with St John Chrysostom and St Cyril of Jerusalem.

The calendar of 1969 moved his feast to 4 December.

What is St John Damascene the patron saint of?

We have found no patronage given to him by the Church before 1958, and we will not invent one. His Collect shows where his intercession belongs: all who honour the holy images of Christ, of His Mother and of the saints, and who wish to imitate the virtues of those they represent.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was St John Damascene?

A Christian of Damascus, high official at the caliph's court, who became a monk and priest at the monastery of St Sabas near Jerusalem, defended the veneration of holy images against the Iconoclast emperors, and summed up the theology of the Greek Fathers. He is a Doctor of the Church.

How did St John Damascene defend sacred images?

By three discourses and by his Exposition of the Orthodox Faith: the honour given to an image passes to the one it represents; since the Word became flesh, Christ can be portrayed; God Himself commanded the cherubim of the ark; and images teach those who cannot read.

What did St John Damascene write?

The Fount of Knowledge, whose third part is the Exposition of the Orthodox Faith; the three discourses in defence of holy images; sermons on the Assumption of Our Lady; and many hymns, among them the Easter canon.

When was St John Damascene declared a Doctor of the Church?

By Pope Leo XIII, in 1890.

Is the story of his severed hand true?

The Breviary tells it, but Butler says it is now regarded as apocryphal. It is a legend, to be read as such.

How do you pronounce Damascene?

In English it is said "DAM-uh-seen" or "dam-uh-SEEN"; the name means "of Damascus", his city.

The Iter Fidei app carries the Roman Missal of 1962, the Breviary and the traditional calendar with every feast and commemoration, in Latin and English. Join early access here.

Sources. Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, 27 March (St John Damascene, Doctor of the Church). Roman Breviary, 27 March, historical lessons. Roman Missal (1962), Proper of Saints, 27 March. St John Damascene, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book IV, chapter 16. Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), article "St. John Damascene". Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version, Psalm lxxii. 24; St Luke vi. 6-11; 2 Thessalonians ii. 15.