St. John Damascene, Confessor & Doctor of the Church († 754; Feast—March 27)
On the First Sunday of Lent, the Greeks keep one of
their greatest solemnities, that of Orthodoxy. The Church of Constantinople has
passed through a cycle of heresies on the dogma of the Incarnation. It rejected
successively the consubstantiality of the Word (Arianism), the unity of Person in Jesus
Christ (Nestorianism), and the integrity of His two natures (Monophysitism). It
seemed as though there were nothing left for heretical emperors and patriarchs to deny.
Yet there was one more error to proclaim before the measure of false teaching was
filled.
Christ enthroned in Heaven could not be belittled,
but His images might be proscribed on earth. Heresy was powerless to touch the King even
in these pictorial representations, but schism could at least shake off the yoke of His
Vicar, and this last denial rolled the stone to the door of a tomb which the Crescent
(Islamism) was one day to seal.
The heresy of the Iconoclasts or Image-breakers
represents the last phase of Eastern error with regard to the Incarnation of the Son of
God. It was right that the feast which commemorates the restoration of the holy
Images should receive the glorious name of the Feast of Orthodoxy. It celebrates the
last blow struck at Byzantine dogma, and recalls all those delivered by the councils of
the Church between the First and Second of Nicea. A peculiar solemnity was given to
this feast by the fact that all the anathemas formulated in previous times against the
adversaries of revealed truth were renewed in the Church of Sancta Sophia while the Cross
and the holy Images were exalted in triumph and the emperor stood at his throne.
Satan, the sworn foe of the Word Incarnate, showed
clearly that he looked upon the doctrine of the Iconoclasts as his last resource.
There is no heresy which has caused more martyrdoms or more destruction. Nero and
Diocletian seemed to be reincarnate in the baptised emperors who defended it: Leo the
Isaurian, Constantine Copronymus, Leo the Armenian, Michael the Stammerer and his son
Theophilus. The edicts of persecution, published in defense of the idols of former
times, were renewed for the destruction of the "idolatry" which was falsely said
to be defiling the Church.
In the early days of the heresy, St.
Germanus of Constantinople reminded Leo the Isaurian that Christians do not adore images,
but give them a relative honor, which is due to the persons of the Saints whom they
represent. The imperial pontiff replied by sending the Patriarch into exile.
The soldiers, whom the emperor charged to carry out his will, gave themselves up to the
pillage of churches and private houses. On all sides venerated statues fell under
the hammer of the destroyer. Mural paintings were covered with chalk, vestments and
sacred vessels mutilated and destroyed on account of images in embroidery or enamel.
Masterpieces of art, which had nourished the devotion of the people, were publicly burned,
and the artists who dared to represent Christ, Our Lady, or the Saints, were themselves
subjected to fire and torture together with those of the faithful who had not been able to
restrain their sorrow at the sight of such destruction. The "shepherds"
bowed beneath the storm and yielded to regrettable compromises, and the reign of terror
was soon supreme over the deserted flock.
But the noble family of St. Basil, both monks and
consecrated virgins, rose en masse to withstand the tyrant. They passed
through exile, imprisonment, starvation, scourging, death by drowning and the sword, but
they saved the tradition of ancient art and the faith of their ancestors. The whole
Order seems personified in the holy monk and painter Lazarus, who was first tempted by
flattery and threats, then tortured and put in chains. It was impossible to repress
him. His hands were burned with red-hot plates, but he still continued to exercise
his art for the love of the Saints, for the sake of his brethren, and for God, and he
outlived his persecutors.
The heresy of the Iconoclasts helped, moreover, the
temporal independence of the Roman pontiffs, for when the Isaurian threatened to enter
Rome and destroy the statue of St. Peter, all Italy rose to repel the invasion of these
new barbarians, defend the treasures of her basilicas and withdraw the Vicar of Christ
from the yoke of Byzantium.
It was a glorious period, 120 years, comprising the
reigns of great Popes, from St. Gregory II, to St. Paschal I. In the history of the
Eastern Church it begins with St. John Damascene, who saw the opening of the conflict, and
ends with Theodore the Studite, whose indomitable firmness secured the final triumph.
For many centuries this period, which gave so many Saints to the Greek Calendar,
was unrepresented in the Latin Liturgy. The feast of today was added by Pope Leo
XIII in 1892, and now St. John Damascene, the servant of Our Lady, the monk whose
excellent doctrines won for him the name of Golden Stream, commemorates in the
Western cycle the heroic struggle in which the East rendered such glorious services to the
Church and to the world.
It will be well to give a short summary of the
definitions by which in the 8th and the 16th centuries the Church has avenged the holy
Images from the attacks made on them by Hell. The Second Council of Nicea declares
that: "It is lawful to place in churches, in frescoes, in pictures, on vestments and
the sacred vessels, images, whether painted or mosaic or of other suitable material,
representing Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Our Most Pure Lady, the Holy Mother of God,
the Angels and the Saints; and it is equally lawful to burn incense before them and
surround them with lights." "Not that we must believe that these images
have any divinity or virtue of their own," says the Council of Trent against the
Protestants, "or that we must put our confidence in them as the pagans did in their
idols. But the honor which is given to the images is referred to Christ the
prototype, to Whom, through them, all our adoration is addressed, and to the Saints whom
we venerate in their portraits." This formula was originally taken word for
word from St. John Damascene. The account given by the Breviary of the life of this
holy Doctor is so complete that we need add nothing further:
Saint John, who received the name of Damascene from his
native place, was of noble birth, and studied sacred and profane subjects at
Constantinople under the monk Cosmas. When the Emperor Leo the Isaurian made a
wicked attack upon the veneration of the holy Images, John, at the desire of Pope Gregory
III, earnestly defended this veneration both by words and writings. By this he
enkindled so great a hatred in the heart of Leo that the Emperor accused him, by means of
forged letters, of treachery to the Caliph of Damascus, whom he was serving as a
councillor and minister. John denied the charge, but the Caliph was deceived by it
and ordered his right hand to be cut off. John implored most earnestly the help of
the Blessed Virgin, and She manifested the innocence of Her servant by reuniting the hand
and arm as though they had never been severed. This miracle moved John to carry out
a design which he had long had in mind. He obtained, though not without difficulty, the
Caliph's permission to leave him, distributed all his goods to the poor and freed all
his slaves. He then made a pilgrimage to the holy places in Palestine, and at length
withdrew with his teacher Cosmas to the monastery of St. Sabbas near Jerusalem, where he
was ordained priest. (The icon on the left shows the severed hand of St. John Damasence.)
In the religious life he was an example of virtue to
all the monks, especially in his humility and obedience. He sought for the lowest
offices in the community as though they were peculiarly his own, and fulfilled them with
the greatest care. When he was sent to Damascus to sell baskets made by himself, he
welcomed the mockery and jests of the lowest classes in that city where he had once held
the most honorable offices. He was so devoted to obedience, that not only was he
ready to obey the nod of his superiors, but he never thought it right to ask the reason of
any command, however strange or difficult. While practicing these virtues, he never
ceased earnestly to defend the Catholic doctrine as to the honoring of the holy Images.
Thus he drew upon himself the hatred and persecution of the Emperor Constantine
Copronymus, as he had once done that of Leo the Isaurian, and this all the more because he
freely rebuked the arrogance of these emperors, who meddled with matters concerning the
Faith, and pronounced sentence on them according to their own judgment.
It is a marvel how much Saint John wrote
both in prose and verse for the protection of the Faith and the enouragement of devotion.
He was worthy of the high praise which was given him by the Second Council of
Nicea. He was surnamed Chrysorrhoas on account of the golden streams of his
eloquence. It was not only against the enemies of the holy Images that he defended the
orthodox Faith, for he also stoutly oppsed the Acephali, the Monothelites and the
Theopaschites. He maintained the laws and the power of the Church. He asserted
the primacy of the Prince of the Apostles in eloquent words, and often called him the
Pillar of the Churches, the unbroken Rock and the Teacher and Ruler of the world.
His writings are not only distinguished for doctrine and learning, but have a savor of
simple piety, especially when he praises the Mother of God, Whom he honored with a
singular love and devotion. But the greatest praise of Saint John is that he was the
first to arrange in order a complete course of theology, thus preparing the way in which
St. Thomas Aquinas has so clearly dealt with the whole body of sacred doctrine. This
holy man, full of days and good works, fell asleep in the peace of Christ about the year
754. Pope Leo XIII declared him to be a Doctor of the Church, and ordered his Office
and Mass to be said throughout the world.
Early in his life, Our Blessed Lady Herself had
foretold the teaching and the works of Saint John. She appeared to the superior,
whose voice he had obeyed as that of God, and said to him, "Suffer the waters to
flow, the clear sweet waters whose abundance will spread throughout the whole world, whose
virtue will refresh souls athirst for knowledge and purity, whose power will stay the
floods of heresy and transform them into a marvellous sweetness."
Let us Pray:
The Queen of the heavenly minstrels declared that
thou, Saint John Damascene, hadst received the prophetic harp and psaltery to sing the new
canticle of the Lord our God in rivalry with the Cherubim. The daughters of
Jerusalem, who are the Churches, sing the death and resurrection of Christ, and thou art
one of the chief cantors. Lead us from the feasts of our exile – the Pasch of
time – through the Red Sea and the desert to the eternal feast where all images of
earth will vanish before the realities of Heaven, where all knowledge will pass into
vision, where reigns in glory the Queen who inspired thy song, Mary, the Mother of us all.
Amen.
Back to "In this Issue"
Back to Top
Back to Saints
Contact us: smr@salvemariaregina.info
Visit also: www.marienfried.com
