Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.
Saint John Damascene.
Confessor.
Doctor Of The Church.
Feast Day 27 March.
Double.
White Vestments.
Saint John Damascene
(John of Damascus),
icon from Damascus, Syria.
19th-Century.
Ἰωάννης ὁ Δαμασκηνός (Greek).
Ioannes Damascenus (Latin).
يوحنا الدمشقي (Arabic).
Source:
Author: Attributed to Iconographer, Ne'meh Naser Homsi.
(Wikimedia Commons)
John, surnamed Damascene (or, of Damascus), was raised up by God to defend the Veneration of images, at a time when Emperor Leo the Isaurian endeavoured to destroy it.
Filled with Divine Knowledge (Epistle), he strongly opposed the Iconoclasts (or destroyers of images in Greek); “his Heavenly Teaching and his admirable power of mind” (Collect) earned for him the Title of Doctor of The Church.
His biography, written in the 10th-Century by the Patriarch, John of Jerusalem, relates several legends recalled in The Liturgy of his Mass.
It says, for instance, that The Emperor, having accused him of betraying The Caliph of Damascus, whose Counsellor and Minister he was, he was condemned to have his Right-Hand cut off. But, as in the case of the man with the dried-up hand, mentioned in the Gospel of this Mass, his hand was miraculously restored to him, for he promised The Virgin to use it, henceforth, in writing her Praises. He kept his promise.
His numerous Works, rich in knowledge and piety, and his eloquence, caused him to be compared by The Second Council of Nicea to a “River of Gold” and to be proclaimed Doctor of The Church by Pope Leo XIII.
Saint John Damascene fell asleep in The Lord about 749 A.D. (others say
708 A.D.).
Let us Venerate Holy Images so as to obtain the protection of those they represent.
Mass: Tenuisti manum.
Commemoration (in Lent): Of The Feria.
Credo: Is said.
Last Gospel (in Lent): Of The Feria.
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