St. John Damascene

Who they were

John of Damascus was a Christian of high rank in the administration of the Umayyad caliphate, his family having served Damascus for generations, and he left position and fortune for the monastery of Mar Saba in the Judean desert.

His moment came when the Byzantine emperors launched iconoclasm and began stripping and smashing the Church's images. John, living outside the empire's reach, could write what bishops inside it could not afford to, and his three treatises in defence of the holy icons gave the Church its permanent theology of the image. One sentence carries it: I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake. Images are not idols but windows, the Incarnation's own logic extended. He also composed hymns the East still sings at Easter, and the Fount of Knowledge, the first great theological synthesis. He is a Doctor of the Church.

Why people turn to St. John Damascene

Sacred artists, iconographers, and illustrators, and honestly everyone making religious images for screens, since the theology of the image is their job description. Eastern Catholics, whose Doctor he is. Pharmacists, by the older tradition.

How to ask their intercession

Before making or choosing sacred art, ask for the Damascene test: does this window open toward God, or stop at itself?