![]() ![]() ![]() John was the reward of these pious actions. His father, besides this honorable rank, had amassed great wealth all this he devoted to the redemption of Christian slaves on whom he bestowed their freedom. They commanded the respect of the conqueror, and were employed in judicial offices of trust and dignity, to administer, no doubt, the Christian law to the Christian subjects of the Sultan. The ancestors of John, according to his biographer, when Damascus fell into the hands of the Arabs, had alone remained faithful to Christianity. The account of him by John of Jerusalem, written some two hundred years after his death, contains an admixture of legendary matter, and it is not easy to say where truth ends and fiction begins. It is surprising, however, how little that is authentic is known of his life. ![]() Saint John Damascene has the double honor of being the last but one of the fathers of the Eastern Church, and the greatest of her poets. ![]()
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