John the Righteous of Damascus

Reading from the Synaxarion:

Saint John was born in Damascus about the year 675, the son of wealthy
and pious parents, of the family of Mansur. He was reared together
with Saint Cosmas (see Oct. 14). who had been adopted by John's father
Sergius, a man of high rank in the service of the Caliph of Damascus. Both
of these young men were instructed by a certain monk, also named
Cosmas, who had been taken captive in Italy by the Arabs and later
ransomed by John's Father. Saint John became a great philosopher and
enlightener of the age in which he lived, and was honoured by the Caliph with
the dignity of counsellor.

When Emperor Leo the Isaurian (reigned 717-741) begin his war on the
holy icons, John wrote epistles defending their veneration. Since the
Saint, being under the Caliph of Damascus, was beyond Leo's power, the
Iconoclast Emperor had a letter forged in John's handwriting which invited
Leo to attack Damascus, saying the city guard was then weak; Leo then
sent this letter to the Caliph, who in his fury punished John's
supposed treason with the severing of his right hand. The Saint obtained
the Caliph's Permission to have his severed hand again, and that
night prayed fervently to the most holy Theotokos before her icon. She
appeared to him in a dream and healed his hand, which, when he awoke, he
found to be healed in truth. This Miracle convinced the Caliph of his
innocence, and he restored John to his office as counsellor. The Saint,
however, with many pleadings obtained his permission to withdraw from the
world to become a monk. He assumed the monastic habit in the Monastery
of Saint Sabbas. Then he had as elder a very simple and austere monk
who commanded him neither to write to anyone, nor to speak of the
worldly knowledge he had acquired, and John faithfully obeyed. A monk
grieving over his brother's death, however, after insisting vehemently,
prevailed upon John to write a funeral hymn to console him for his
brother's death. When John's elder learned of his transgression of the rule
he had given him, he cast him out of his cell, and would only accept
him back after John had humbly, with much self-condemnation and
without murmuring consented to clean all the latrines in the lavra. After
his elder had received him back, our Lady appeared to the elder and
sternly charged him not to hinder John any longer from his writings and
composition of hymns.

In his writings he fought courageously against the Iconoclasts Leo
the Isaurian and his son Constantine Copronymus. He was also the
first to write a refutation of Islam. The time he had spent as a
counsellor in the courts of the Moslems of Damascus had given him
opportunity to learn their teachings at first hand, and he wrote against
their errors with a sound understanding of their essence. Saint John
was surnamed Chrysorroas ("Golden-stream") because of the eloquence
of his rhetorical style and the great abundance of his writings;
this name - Chrysorroas was also the name of the river that flows by
Damascus. In his writings he set forth the Orthodox Faith with exactness
and order. In his old age, after his foster-brother Cosmas had been
made Bishop of Maiuma, John also was ordained presbyter by the
Patriarch of Jerusalem. Having lived eighty-four years, he reposed in peace
in 760. In addition to his theological writings, he adorned the
Church of Christ with metrical and prose hymns and composed many of the
prosomia used as the models for the melodies of the Church's liturgical
chant; he also composed many of the sacred hymns for the feasts of the
Lord Saviour and the Theotokos. The life of Saint John of Damascus was
written by John, Patriarch of Jerusalem. See also June 28.

Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
You are a guide of Orthodoxy, a teacher of piety and modesty, a
luminary of the world, the God inspired pride of monastics. O wise John,
you have enlightened everyone by your teachings. You are the harp of
the Spirit. Intercede to Christ our God for the salvation of our
souls.

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
Come, O ye faithful, let us praise the hymn-writer, the Church's
luminary and wise instructor, the hallowed John, who cast down all her
enemies; for since he took up the Cross of the Lord as a weapon, he drave
off the heresies, with their every delusion. And as our fervent
champion with God, he granteth all the forgiveness of trespasses.