St. John Damascene

St. John Damascene (John of Damascus) was born around 675 at Damascus, Syria, then under Muslim rule, and died around 749 at the monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem. Born into a prominent Christian family, he served for a time in the administration of the caliph before renouncing the world to become a monk and priest, devoting himself to prayer, study, and writing in the Judean desert.

Often regarded as the last of the Greek Fathers, he gathered and synthesized the theology of the East in his great work The Fount of Knowledge, whose section 'An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith' became a foundational text for both Eastern and Western Christianity. When the Byzantine emperors launched the iconoclast campaign against sacred images, John — writing safely beyond their reach — became the foremost defender of the veneration of icons, teaching that because God became visible in the flesh in Christ, it is fitting to honor holy images. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1890.