John of Damascus or John Damascene was a Christian monk, priest, hymnographer, and apologist. He was born and raised in Damascus in 675 or 676. As per tradition, he died at his monastery, Mar Saba, near Jerusalem on 4 December 749.

According to his biographer, when Damascus fell into the hands of the Arabs, the ancestors of John 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 the Christian law to the Christian subjects of the Sultan.

The Saracen pirates of the seashore neighbouring to Damascus, swept the Mediterranean, and brought in Christian captives from all quarters. John’s father managed to secure the life of a monk called Cosmas, who was one among the captives.

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.

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.

The Abbot’s approach to John was tough as he sent John in the meanest and most beggarly attire to sell baskets in the marketplace of Damascus, where he had been accustomed to appearing in the dignity of office, and to vend his poor ware at exorbitant prices. The harshness of the abbot did not end there. One day John was singing a beautiful lament to one of his friends who lost his brother. The Abbot heard John singing. Highly incensed, he expelled him from the monastery, and only re- admitted him on condition that he would daily clean the filth from all the cells of his brethren.

However, subsequently John was allowed to devote himself to religious poetry, which became the heritage of the Eastern Church, and to theological arguments in defence 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. His eloquent defence of images has deservedly procured him the title of "The Doctor of Christian Art."

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