John of Damascus
Christian monk, priest, hymnographer and apologist (675/6-749)
b. c. 675 · d. 4 Dec 749
John of Damascus or John Damascene, born Yūḥana ibn Manṣūr ibn Sarjūn, was a Christian monk, priest, hymnographer, and apologist. He was born and raised in Damascus c. AD 675 or AD 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 AD 749. A polymath whose fields of interest and contribution included law, theology, philosophy, and music, he was given the by-name of Chrysorroas. 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.
Related people
- Sarjun ibn Mansur child of · traditional
- Mansur ibn Sarjun relative of · traditional
- Cosmas of Maiuma sibling of · traditional
Works
Commemorated
Places
- Damascus birth
- Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas death
How we know
Recorded as a historical figure.
Documents
- On the Divine Images author
What he held
- Icons may be venerated Images of Christ, the Mother of God and the saints are to be set up and given honourable reverence, the honour paid to the image passing to its prototype.
- Veneration is not worship The reverence given to images is honour, and not the worship which belongs to the divine nature alone.
In the disputes
- Iconoclasm Whether Christ may be depicted, argued from Chalcedon by both sides: Hieria held that the two natures cannot be painted, since one cannot be circumscribed and the other cannot be shown alone; Nicaea II answered on the same ground and reached the opposite conclusion.