MARCH 27TH, FRIDAY OF PASSIONTIDE;

Commemorations of the Seven Sorrows of the BVM and St. John Damascene, Confessor & Doctor, OR, some similar combination of those three.

Month in honor of Saint Joseph, Patron of the Dying.

This John is called John of Damascus, from his native place. He was of noble birth, and studied sacred and profane letters at Constantinople, under the monk Cosmas. At what time the Emperor Leo the Isaurian was making a wicked attack upon the honouring of holy images, John, at the desire of the Roman Pontiff, Gregory III., earnestly defended both by his words and his writings, the holiness of this honour. By this he roused against him so great a hatred on the part of Leo, that that Prince, by forged letters, accused John as a traitor to the Caliph of Damascus, whom he was serving as a councillor and minister. John denied the charge, but the Caliph was deceived by it, and caused his right hand to be cut off. He called earnestly for the help of the. most holy Virgin, and she manifested the innocency of her servant by reuniting his hand to his arm, as though it had never been cut off. This miracle moved John to carry out a design which he had long had in mind. He obtained from the Caliph, albeit with difficulty, leave to go away, distributed all his goods to feed the poor, and freed all his slaves, then visited as a pilgrim the holy places in Palestine, and at length withdrew, along with his teacher Cosmas, to the monastery of St. Saba, between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. There he was ordained priest. As a monk John set a bright example to all the others, especially as regarded lowliness and obedience. He sought for the lowest offices in the community, as though they were in a peculiar sense his own, and fulfilled them with the greatest care. When he was sent to Damascus to sell baskets made by himself, he welcomed the mockery and jests of the lowest classes in that city where he had before time been charged with the most honourable offices. He was so devoted to obedience that he not only started up to obey every nod of his superiors, but also never thought it right to ask the reason of any duty laid upon him, however difficult or however strange it might be. While thus living he never ceased earnestly to defend the Catholic doctrine as to the honouring of holy images. For this reason he drew upon himself the hatred and persecution of the Emperor Constantine Copronymus, as he had first done that of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian, and this all the more because he freely rebuked the arrogance of these Emperors, who must needs take in hand matters concerning the faith, and pronounce sentence upon them according to their own judgment. It is a marvel how many things John devised both for the protection of the faith, and for the encouragement of godliness, and expressed in his writings both in prose and verse. He was worthy of the high praise which was given him by the Second Council of Nicea. On account of the golden streams of his eloquence, he was surnamed Chrysorrhoas, or John of the golden streams. It was not against the enemies of holy images alone that he defended the orthodox faith. He fought stoutly against the Acephali, the Monothelites, and the Theopaschites. He maintained the laws and the power of the Church. He taught with great learning the Primacy of the Prince of the Apostles, and many times calleth him the Pillar of the Churches, the unbroken rock, and the Teacher and Ruler of the world. The whole of his writings are not only steeped in learning and teaching, but have a certain savour of simple piety, especially when he is praising the Mother of God, toward whom he was filled with a special reverence and love. But the greatest praise of John is that he was the first who arranged in order a complete course of theology, and prepared the way in which Saint Thomas of Aquino has so clearly dealt with the whole body of sacred doctrine. This truly holy man, full of days and good works, fell asleep in the peace of Christ about the year of salvation 754. The supreme Pontiff, Leo XIII., established his office and Mass throughout the universal church, whereof he also gave him the title of doctor.