St. John of Damascus
Saint John Damascene has the double honor of being the last but one of the fathers of the Eastern Church, and the greatest of her poets. It is surprising, however, how little that is authentic is known of his life. The account of him by John of Jerusalem, written some two hundred years after his death, contains an admixture of legendary matter, and it is not easy to say where truth ends and fiction begins.
The ancestors of John, according to his biographer, when Damascus fell into the hands of the Arabs, had alone remained faithful to Christianity. They commanded the respect of the conqueror, and were employed in judicial offices of trust and dignity, to administer, no doubt, the Christian law to the Christian subjects of the Sultan. His father, besides this honorable rank, had amassed great wealth; all this he devoted to the redemption of Christian slaves on whom he bestowed their freedom. John was the reward of these pious actions. John was baptized immediately on his birth, probably by Peter II, bishop of Damascus, afterwards a sufferer for the Faith. The father was anxious to keep his son aloof from the savage habits of war and piracy, to which the youths of Damascus were addicted, and to devote him to the pursuit of knowledge. The Saracen pirates of the seashore neighboring to Damascus, swept the Mediterranean, and brought in Christian captives from all quarters. A monk named Cosmas had the misfortune to fall into the hands of these freebooters. He was set apart for death, when his executioners, Christian slaves no doubt, fell at his feet and entreated his intercession with the Redeemer. The Saracens enquired of Cosmas who he was. He replied that he had not the dignity of a priest; he was a simple monk, and burst into tears. The father of John was standing by, and expressed his surprise at this exhibition of timidity. Cosmas answered, "It is not for the loss of my life, but of my learning, that I weep." Then he recounted his attainments, and the father of John, thinking he would make a valuable tutor for his son, begged or bought his life of the Saracen governor; gave him his freedom, and placed his son under his tuition. The pupil in time exhausted all the acquirements of his teacher. The monk then obtained his dismissal, and retired to the monastery of S. Sabas, where he would have closed his days in peace, had he not been compelled to take on himself the bishopric of Majuma, the port of Gaza.
The attainments of the young John of Damascus commanded the veneration of the Saracens; he was compelled reluctantly to accept an office of higher trust and dignity than that held by his father. As the Iconoclastic controversy became more violent, John of Damascus entered the field against the Emperor of the East, and wrote the first of his three treatises on the Veneration due to Images. This was probably composed immediately after the decree of Leo the Isaurian against images, in 730.
Before he wrote the second, he was apparently ordained priest, for he speaks as one having authority and commission. The third treatise is a recapitulation of the arguments used in the other two. These three treatises were disseminated with the utmost activity throughout Christianity.
The biographer of John relates a story which is disproved not only by its exceeding improbability, but also by being opposed to the chronology of his history. It is one of those legends of which the East is so fertile, and cannot be traced, even in allusion, to any document earlier than the biography written two hundred years later. Leo the Isaurian, having obtained, through his emissaries, one of John's circular epistles in his own handwriting -- so runs the tale -- caused a letter to be forged, containing a proposal from John of Damascus to betray his native city to the Christians. The emperor, with specious magnanimity, sent this letter to the Sultan. The indignant Mahommedan ordered the guilty hand of John to be cut off. John entreated that the hand might be restored to him, knelt before the image of the Virgin, prayed, fell asleep, and woke with his hand as before. John, convinced by this miracle, that he was under the special protection of our Lady, resolved to devote himself wholly to a life of prayer and praise, and retired to the monastery of Saint Sabas.
That the Sultan should have contented himself with cutting off the hand of one of his magistrates for an act of high treason is in itself improbable, but it is rendered more improbable by the fact that it has been proved by Father Lequien, the learned editor of his works, that Saint John Damascene was already a monk at Saint Sabas before the breaking out of the Iconoclastic dispute.
In 743, the Khalif Ahlid II persecuted the Christians. He cut off the tongue of Peter, metropolitan of Damascus, and banished him to Arabia Felix. Peter, bishop of Majuma, suffered decapitation at the same time, and Saint John of Damascus wrote an eulogium on his memory. Another legend is as follows: it is probably not as apocryphal as that of the severed hand: -- The abbot sent Saint John in the meanest and most beggarly attire to sell baskets in the marketplace of Damascus, where he had been accustomed to appear in the dignity of office, and to vend his poor ware at exorbitant prices. Nor did the harshness of the abbot end there. A man had lost his brother, and broken-hearted at his bereaval, besought Saint John to compose him a sweet hymn that might be sung at this brother's funeral, and which at the same time would soothe his own sorrow. John asked leave of the abbot, and was curtly refused permission. But when he saw the distress of the mourner he yielded, and sang him a beautiful lament. The abbot was passing at the time, and heard the voice of his disciple raised in song. Highly incensed, he expelled him from the monastery, and only re- admitted him on condition of his daily cleaning the filth from all the cells of his brethren. An opportune vision rebuked the abbot for thus wasting the splendid talents of his inmate. John was allowed to devote himself to religious poetry, which became the heritage of the Eastern Church, and to theological arguments in defense of the doctrines of the Church, and refutation of all heresies. His three great hymns or "canons," are those on Easter, the Ascension, and Satin Thomas's Sunday. Probably also many of the Idiomela an Stichera which are scattered about the office- books under the title of "John" and "John the Hermit" are his. His eloquent defense of images has deservedly procured him the title of "The Doctor of Christian Art." The date of his death cannot be fixed with any certainty; but it lies between 754 and before 787.
St. John of Damascus
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=66
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12月04日 聖若望達瑪瑟聖師（St. John Damascene）
文章來源：《聖人傳記》 思高聖經學會 出版
聖若望達瑪瑟原籍大馬士革，所以就以「達瑪瑟」為名。他是東方教會的最後一位聖師。也是東方教會最著名兩位詩人之一（另一位著名詩人是聖羅麥納）。聖若望與 聖刁多祿兩人是保衛聖教正統教義，攻斥「禁供聖像」派異端的中堅人物。聖若望也是東方教會的神學權威，他的不朽名著《論正統教義》在東方教會所佔的地位， 與聖多瑪斯的《神學概要》在西方教會所佔的地位，不相上下。
聖若望於主曆六九零年誕生。父親也名叫若望，是當地的一位官吏。他替兒子請有名的良師，將各種學問教授給他；並又請一位有聖德的修士擔任訓導小孩的德育。父 親自己也是一位博學多才的人，精通文學、論理學、算術、幾何，他親自教授神學給小若望和一個名叫葛斯默的養子。後來葛斯默也隨若望同入修院。
若望雖然接受了良好的神學訓練，最初他並沒有出家修道的意思。學業完成，就接他父親的職位，在朝廷為官。那時大馬士革的宗教信仰是自由的。若望的才德，不久就很出名，他的謙虛精神，更受到眾人一致的推崇。
若望的仕途生活，雖很順利，青雲直上，指日可待。可是他早已視富貴如敝屣，所以過了一個時期，就辭去官職，前往耶路撒冷附近聖沙巴修院。
若望最早的幾篇攻擊「禁供聖像派」異端的論文，大約就是在聖沙巴修院發表的。若望和葛斯默兩人，在修院裡，一有餘暇，就寫論文，編歌詞，以文字筆墨傳揚聖教。
不幸，曲高和寡，若望的這種作風，受到一部分修士的不諒解和反對。他們覺得寫文章，編聖歌，是一種太大膽的嘗試。有一天，同院某修士的兄弟死了。若望循這位 修士的請求，寫了一首以死亡為題材的詩歌，用優美的樂調譜出。他的老師聽見了，怒氣沖沖，跑來質問他道：「人家遭了喪事，你居然還坐著唱歌作樂。」他罰若 望把院內全部垃圾掃清，在沒有掃清以前，不准回臥室。若望一言不發，很謙遜地接受懲戒處分。當天晚上，聖母顯現給老師，囑他不可干涉若望寫文章，編聖歌， 自該時起，若望獲准自由寫作。
若望兄弟二人的才學，不久就家喻戶曉。耶路撒冷宗主教，召兩人入主教府服務。聖葛斯默（按：葛斯默死後，也榮列聖品）祝聖為默如木主教，若望晉陞鐸品。葛斯 默在默如木治理教務，成績斐然。若望在耶路撒冷住了一個時期，重返修院，把自己舊日的著作，重新校訂。他也在聖沙巴修院寫了許多有關神學的著作。主曆七四 九年逝世，主曆一八九零年聖教會敕封他為聖教會聖師。
在今天聖若望達瑪瑟瞻禮的彌撒經中，福音摘自耶穌治癒枯手病人的靈蹟，這事有一段來歷的。相傳若望在大馬士革任稅吏，尚未棄俗修道的時候，羅馬皇帝痛恨若望 常用文字的武器攻擊「禁供聖像派」異端，但是大馬士革不屬羅馬管轄，無法對若望下毒手，就用借刀殺人之計，模仿若望的筆跡，捏造書信一封，信內說大馬士革 防衛空虛，勸羅馬乘機進攻，定可一戰而下。這封信的措詞，完全是通敵叛國的口氣。羅馬皇帝託人送給大馬士革總督拆看，總督大怒，下令將若望的右臂斬下。若 望請求將斷臂發還給他。他拿了斷臂跪在聖母像前祈禱片刻，將斷臂重接上去，照常可以使用。若望立即揮臂寫感謝經一篇。
https://www.ccreadbible.org/Members/Bona/reading/saintbiography/1204-st-john-damascene
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