of orthodoxy in the stereotyped form which has characterised them during all subsequent ages. There is much that is mythical in the story of his life. We cannot fix the date of his birth; but it is clear that he was ordained before the year 735. His death occurred sometime between the years 759 and 767. Thus his active life coincides with the period of the great iconoclastic persecution beginning in the reign of Leo the Isaurian and extending through the greater part of that of Constantine Copronymus. John came from a Christian family in the city of Damascus bearing the Arabic name of Mansour, and he held for a time an honourable post in the court of the caliph. From this place of shelter he launched his attacks on Leo the Isaurian with impunity, when that emperor was engaged in putting down picture worship. Unable to get at him directly, Leo is said to have sent the caliph a forged letter in the handwriting of John offering to let the emperor into Damascus. Thereupon, we are told, the caliph had John's right hand cut off. It was restored to him in response to his prayer to the Virgin, Subsequently John retired to the famous monastery of Mar Saba, still overhanging the gorge of the Kidron in the wilderness of Judæa. The monks were afraid to receive so important a personage from the court till they had tested his humility. This they did by sending him back to Damascus with a load of baskets manufactured at the monastery. There is no reason to question the second story simply because we must regard the earlier narrative as legendary, for truth and fiction are always mixed up in these lives of saints, and the ordeal was quite characteristic. John stood this and every other test that was devised to try him, after which he was duly accepted. He lived the rest of his days in his out of the world retreat, composing hymns and theological works.
The most important of the works of John of Damascus is the De Fide Orthodoxa.[1] What the Summa of Thomas Aquinas is for the Roman Church and what Calvin's
- ↑ Ἔνδοσις ἀκριβὴς τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως.
