John pleaded that his severed right hand that was hanged in the market place be returned. The caliph granted the request.
In his private chapel, John prayed to the Most Holy Mother of God (Theotokos) and praised the “Most Pure Virgin and His Son.” He pressed the severed hand near his wrist and fell asleep, worn out by excruciating pain. He woke up with his right hand intact.
News about the miracle spread. The caliph offered back his job but John politely declined. He retreated in the monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem with his brother Cosmas. In 730 he was ordained priest by Patriarch John. He preached and counselled bishops on faith and doctrine.
Holy intellectual
John Mansour was born in Damascus, Syria, in 675 of Christian and Arab parentage. His father, Sergius, was chief representative of the Christian community and finance officer of Damascus.
John and his foster brother, Cosmas, were educated by Cosmas, an old learned Italian monk who was captured in Sicily and brought to Damascus to be sold. Other prisoners converged at his feet pleading for his prayers and blessings. His eyes were filled with tears.
Curious, Sergius asked why. His answer, distressed he was “for all the learnings he had painfully acquired without an heir, an intellectual son he never had” (Orthodox Research Institute.org).
Sergius asked Caliph Abd Al Malek for his freedom. Cosmas rejoiced and gave John and his brother “an excellent education in all the sciences and theology.” After years, he returned in the monastery of Saint Sabas.
When his father died, the Caliph and the Saracens, so impressed with John’s intellectual ability, offered him a higher position than that of his father—protosymbulus, or chief counsellor to the caliph.
Iconoclastic Controversy
In 726 Emperor Leo III issued an edict against the veneration of images and icons which started the Iconoclastic Controversy or Image Breaking. The edict stated that images and icons fostered idolatry and Leo ordered them destroyed.
The edict was opposed vehemently by Eastern monks who were teachers of painting icons.
John Mansour, a Christian Arab and chief counselor to the Caliph of Damascus, then capital of the Arabian empire, wrote his Treatise on Images, to express his disagreement.
“The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God. Worshiping images in our churches, Far be it from us to do this…. With the material picture before our eyes we see the invisible God through the visible representation, and glorify Him as present, not as a God without reality, but as a God who is the essence of being. Nor are the saints we glorify fictitious. They are in being and are living with God….”
The emperor and his supporters were angry but they could not punish John because he was not a Byzantine subject.
Emperor Leo intercepted one of John’s letter and had his penmanship imitated. It was a letter to the emperor supposedly written by John that if Leo “would dispatch a band of resolute men, he would capture the city [Damascus] with little trouble.”
To the Caliph, Leo sent the letter with a note: “Let the Caliph beware of his Christian subjects when such were the proposals they were capable of making” (Orthodox Church of America).
When confronted by Caliph Abd Al Malek, John admitted that it was his handwriting but vehemently denied he wrote it. As a punishment, John was paraded through the city in chains before his right hand was cut.
Great theologian
Saint John was known for his oratorical skills and theological writings. A hymnographer, too, he was considered the Prince of Greek hymns. A prolific writer, he had 150 works in theology, religious education, philosophy, biographies and hymns, which Greek and Roman churches held in great esteem were attributed to him.
Fountain of wisdom, a compilation of ancient tradition and theological opinions of great ecclesiastical writers during his time was considered his greatest work. It was considered the Summa Theologica of the East.
To him, the church attributes the now classic distinction between adoration and worship given only to God and veneration and honor for God’s creatures.
Saint John died in 794 at the age of 74. Pope Leo XIII declared him Doctor of the church in 1890. The church celebrates his feast on December 4.
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Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.