John
was first the chief minister to Caliph Abdul-Malik and later a monk in the
Monastery of St. Sava the Sanctified. Because of his ardent defense of the
veneration of icons during the reign of the iconoclastic Emperor Leo the
Isaurian, John was maligned by the emperor to the Caliph, who cut off his right
hand. John fell down in prayer before the icon of the Most-holy Theotokos, and
his hand was rejoined and miraculously healed. Seeing this miracle the Caliph
repented, but John no longer desired to remain with him as a nobleman. Instead,
he withdrew to a monastery, where, from the beginning, he was a model to the
monks in humility, obedience and all the prescribed rules of monastic
asceticism. John composed the Funeral Hymns and compiled the Octoechos (The
Book of Eight Tones), the Irmologion, the Menologion and the Paschal Canon, and
he wrote many theological works of inspiration and profundity. A great monk,
hymnographer, theologian and soldier for the truth of Christ, Damascene is
numbered among the great Fathers of the Church. He entered peacefully into rest
in about the year 776 A.D. at the age of 104.
- PROLOGUE OF OHRID
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