SAINTS COMMEMORATED IN DECEMBER & JANUARY
4 December John of Damascus (died 749)
A polymath whose field of interest included theology, philosophy and music,
he is said to have served as chief administrator to the Muslim Caliph before
his ordination. He wrote expounding the Christian faith & composed hymns,
he is considered the “last of the Fathers of the Eastern Orthodox Church”
and is best known for his strong defence of icons. The RC Church regards
him as the ‘Doctor of Assumption’ due to his writings on the Assumption of
Mary. John’s life is known from Arabic texts of the early 9 th & 10th century.
He was born into a prominent family known as Mansour, named for his
grandfather who was responsible for taxes of the Region under the Emperor
Heraclius and who surrendered the City to the Muslims. Both grandfather
and father served the Caliph, as did John. After ordination in 735 he became
a monk at Mar Saba near Jerusalem. He was bilingual in Arabic and Greek
and had received his Christian education from St Cosmas of Maiuma, whom
the Arabs had brought from Sicily as a slave and sold to his father. John
died at Mar Saba in about 749. He was officially called ‘Doctor of the Faith’
in 1883.
6 December St Nicolas (Fourth century)
There is a lot more tradition than history attached to the original Father
Christmas. What is certain is that he was Bishop of Myra, now in Turkey. He
also was imprisoned in the persecutions under Diocletian (around 303) and
was present at the Council of Nicaea in 325, where he argued strongly
against Arius and his heresy. He was a great champion for justice and
intervened even with Constantine for prisoners who had been unjustly
condemned. He died in Myra and was buried there. When the Saracens
conquered Myra, his relics were taken to Venice and then Bari in Apulia,
only in recent years claimed back by Myra. Among the legends attached to
him was the one of his throwing through a window bags of gold for three
daughters of a widow for their dowry, these became the origin of the
pawnbroker’s three golden balls and made him patron saint of brides. There
was also the unpleasant story of the boys killed by an innkeeper, which
Nicolas restored back to life. These stories made him the patron of children
and associated with the giving of presents at Christmas.
1 January (Old Calendar, 14 January according to the new) Basil the
Great (died 379)
The Church reveres him as a fighter for purity of the faith, a great theologian,
calling him a ‘universal teacher’. A man of ‘encyclopaedic cast’, with great
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