John of Damascus

John was born in Damascus around 675 into a prominent Christian Arab family, the Mansur, who served as financial officials under the Umayyad caliphs; he himself held a post in the caliph's administration. Around the early eighth century he left Damascus and became a monk, traditionally at the monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem, where he was ordained a priest. When the Byzantine emperor Leo III began to oppose the veneration of religious images in the 720s and 730s, John, living outside the empire, wrote three treatises in defense of icons, arguing that because God became visible in Christ he may be depicted. His Fount of Knowledge combined a philosophical introduction, a catalogue of heresies, including a chapter on Islam, and the Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, a summary of the teaching of the Greek fathers that became a standard textbook in East and West. He also wrote hymns still sung in the Orthodox liturgy. He died around 749 and is honoured as a Doctor of the Church. He defended icons by appeal to the Incarnation of Christ.

John of Damascus is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Christian monk and theologian of the Eastern Church. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) (via Wikisource)