Quotes:John of Damascus

Zirkoff, Boris

St. John Damascene. Doctor of the Eastern Church, b. at Damascus ca. 676; d. bef. 754. Arab name, Mansur (Victor). Father employed by Arab conquerors. Educated by Cosmas, a captive monk. After 730, he and Cosmas took Basilian habit in Laura of S. Sabas, near Jerusalem. Combated iconoclasts and was highly honored by 2nd ecumenical council of Nicea. Surnamed “Chryso- rhoas” (gold-flowing). Greatest liturgical poet and chief classical dogmatist of the Greek Church. Considered as the last of Greek Fathers. Not a theologian, but rather an encyclopedist. Composed many “canons” and “idiomela” for the Greek ecclesiastical office; some used also by Latin Church. To him is attributed the legend of *Barlaam and Josaphat (or loasaph), so popular for many centuries (Greek text and English trans, by Rev. G. R. Woodward and H. Mattingly, in Loeb Classical Library, London: W. Heinemann; New York: Macmillan and Co., 1914); also The Fountain of Knowledge, Sacra Parallela, etc.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 5, p. 381