"The saints must be honored as friends of Christ and children and heirs of God, ... let us emulate their faith, charity, hope, zeal, life, patience under suffering, and perseverance unto death, so that we may also share their crowns of glory." – Saint John of Damascus,

Feast Day: December 4

Patron of:

• pharmacists
• icon painting
• theology students

Saint John of Damascus, the Doctor of Christian Art. John was raised a Christian in the Saracen city of Damascus, as such he was highly educated in the classical arts of literature, geometry, logic, rhetoric, music, astronomy, and grammar. He defended the use of images in churches in a series of letter opposing the iconoclastic decrees of Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople.

According to legend, Germanus hatched plot against John by forging a letter in which John betrayed the caliph. The caliph ordered John’s writing hand chopped off, but the Virgin Mary appeared and re-attached the hand, a miracle which restored the caliph’s faith in him.