Jean Damascene
John Mansour John of Damascus or Damascene says, born circa 676 and died on 5 December 749 , theologian, Christian , father of the Church and Doctor of the Church. Called in Arabic (son of Victor Serge) or Yuhanna Al Demashqi; in Greek Ioannis Damasknos; in Latin Iohannes Damascenus and was nicknamed the rhetorician of gold.
Born into a family of origin Arabic in Damascus , he served as Minister for the caliph. Then, renouncing the world after his controversy with the Byzantine emperor Leo III, who was friendly and iconoclasts who wanted to convict him by the caliph, he became a monk at the Lavra of St. Sabas in Palestine.
He was the author of De fide orthodox doctrinal important treaty. He launched into a bitter controversy with Islam , he ranked among the heresies. He compared the Bible stories with their versions listed in the Koran. It is also one of the main Byzantine hymnody and liturgy owes the texts of Easter Matins.
The Byzantine iconography represented with a turban to signify his Arab origins. His father, Serge (Sarjoun) won the Umayyad caliphs in Damascus they save the Basilica of St. John the Baptist , but it was converted into a mosque 70 years after the Muslim conquest.
He had a particular veneration for the memory of two great holy martyrs:
- Thecla of Iconium , whose grave is honored to Maaloula near Damascus
- Barbara of Heliopolis , honored nearby to Baalbek.
And he died the day of St. Barbara, the 4 December 749. It was anathema posthumously by the council iconoclast of Hireia. It was declared Doctor of the Catholic Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1890.
In a homily celebrated on the Annunciation , he salutes the Virgin as the Mother of the theological virtue of hope, Our Lady of Holy Hope (Spes in Latin) he calls the "Hope of the hopeless," which was included in the Catholic religion in the invocation and prayer, Mary Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Hope of the hopeless "and this was sometimes attributed to St. Ephrem. He developed a theology of Mary Biography The biography's most widely used source of information about his life is a work attributed to John of Jerusalem, Patriarch of Jerusalem. It is a Greek translation of an Arabic text earlier. The original Arabic contains a prologue not found in most other translations, which was written by a monk named Michael and that Arab states had decided to write a biography of John of Damascus in 1084 , noting that none was available Greek and Arabic at the time. The following text in the original Arabic version seems to have been written by the author of another biography, even earlier, between ninth century and late tenth century century. Wrote a hagiographic point of view, this is not the best historical sources, but it was widely reproduced and considered a work of value. The hagiographic novel St. Josaphat , traditionally attributed to John, is actually a work of the tenth century century. John Damascene was born into a prominent Arab Christian family called Mansour (Arabic: Mansr, "Victory") in Damascus in the seventh century century. He was named Mansur ibn Al Sarjun - Taghlib (Arabic: ) as his grandfather Mansour responsible for taxes in the region by the emperor Heraclius. When the area was under Arab-Muslim domination late seventh century century, the Court of Damascus officials remained Christians, whose grandfather John. Sarjun or Mansour, his father served the caliphs Muslims in the collection of taxes for the entire Middle East. After the death of his father, John also served as a senior officer in the Court of Caliphate Umayyad before leaving to become a monk and adopted the monastic name to Mar Saba , where he was ordained priest in 735. Until the age of 12 years, John has apparently received a traditional Islamic education. His father wanted him to learn, "not only works Muslims but also those of the Greeks." John grew up in a bilingual and bicultural, a transition period between Late Antiquity and Islam Other sources describe his education at Damascus as having been made in a traditional Greek way, called "secular" by one source and "Classic Christianity" by another. One identifies his guardian, a monk by the name of Cosmas, who had been captured by the Arabs from his home in Sicily , for which John's father paid a large sum. Under the instruction of Cosmas, who also taught an orphaned friend of John (the future of St. Cosmas Maouma), John made great strides in music , in astronomy and theology , and soon rivaled Pythagoras in arithmetic and Euclid in the geometry. In the early eighth century , appeared the iconoclasm , a movement to ban the veneration of icons, the Byzantine Court. In 726 , despite protests from St. Germain, Patriarch of Constantinople , Emperor Leo III issued his first edict against the veneration of images and their exposure in public places. Environmental talented writer of the Court of Caliph, John of Damascus took the defense of sacred images in three separate publications: "Treaties against those who decry the holy images," which afforded him a great reputation. Using a simple literary style, he introduced the controversy in the little people and simple people, inciting revolt those who were Christian. Later, his writings played an important role during the Second Council of Nicaea, which met to resolve the dispute icons. To counter its influence, Leo III would have produced falsified documents involving John of Damascus in a planned attack in Damascus. Called to account for those written by the caliph, Jean could not convince him and was sentenced to have his right hand cut off, and leave the caliphate. Having had his hand reattached following its insistent prayer to the Virgin Mary represented by an icon ((later called " Tricherousa "or" image with three hands), and this has deeply impressed the caliph, who then realized that it was innocent, asked John to leave his job and live a life of a monk at Mar Saba near Jerusalem. There he studied, wrote and preached until he was ordained priest in 735. This episode of hand cut and glued, classified by some in the rank of "legend" shows how John was personally involved in the defense of icons at a level that can be called "faith" deep and absolute. He put this defense in the same fierce focus and unyielding determination that when he decided, as an Arab, born in Arab land, to settle once and for all the "dispute" Muslim-Christian student objections point by point and leading to a condemnation of all this calling: "Heresy", which did not prevent Muslims to respect greatly, since after his death, his body will rest, and is still based in a mosque. Christian among Mohammedans ... John died in 749 being considered a "Church Father", and is recognized as a saint. It is sometimes called the "last of the fathers of the church" by the Roman Catholic Church (he was declared Doctor of the Catholic Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1890 ). When the name of St. John of Damascus was inserted into the General Roman Calendar in 1890 , he was assigned to 27 March. This date is still Lent , a period during which there is no memorial mandatory. Therefore, the celebration was moved in 1969 to the day of the saint's death, December 4, the day is also celebrated her birthday in the calendar Byzantine. 1. "Philosophical Chapters" (Kephalaia philosophika) - commonly called "Dialectic , "deals mainly with logic, its main objective is to prepare the reader for understanding the rest of the book. 2. "On the Heresy "(peri haireseon) - the last chapter of this part (Chapter 101) deals with the heresy of the Ishmaelites. Different from previous 'chapters' on other heresies which are usually only a few lines, this chapter occupies a few pages in his work. It is one of the earliest Christian writings polemic against the Islam and the first written by an Orthodox Greek and Melkite. 3. 'An Exposition of the Orthodox faith exact (Ekdosis Akribi your Orthodoxou pisteos) - a written summary of the early church fathers dogmatic, the third section of the book is known to be the most important work of John of Damascus. GIC 8040-8127. In the series "Christian sources" for Editions du Cerf , are published: In the series "Fathers in the faith" in Migne editions, is published: English: 
Family and education
Education
Defense of Sacred Images
His last days
Veneration
List of his works
Teachings
Bibliography
Books
Texts of John Damascene
References
Loading ...