St. John of Damascus

St. John of Damascus (John Damascene) is called by J. M. Neale the greatest of the poets of the Eastern Church. Neale's headnote gives his death as c. 780 and records that he was born of a good family at Damascus, served under the Caliph, retired to the monastery of S. Sabas in Palestine, was an eloquent opponent of the Iconoclasts and was ordained priest of the Church of Jerusalem. John Brownlie likewise dates him to 780.

He had a principal share in the Octoechus, the Eastern Church's cycle of weekly hymns. His three great canons are those for Easter, the Ascension and S. Thomas's Sunday, and the Easter canon is known as the 'Golden Canon' or 'Queen of Canons'. This file gives the pieces Neale and Brownlie ascribe to him: Neale's 1862 versions, including the Easter and S. Thomas's Sunday canons joined ode by ode, and Brownlie's 1900 versions of the same Easter canon and two shorter hymns. Neale cautions that the 'Stichera of the Last Kiss' are attributed to John without any great cause. Each poem's translator is recorded.