st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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IO2 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
CHAPTER
SERMONS.
IX.
THE work of John of Damascus as a preacher does
not fill
any great space in the record left us of his
labours. His biographer, in the vague manner which
has disappointed us before, merely says in passing
that he moreover composed discourses for the
joyous festivals (c. xxxiii.) but when and
;
where
they were delivered, we are not told. In fact, the
circumstance is mentioned before he relates his
ordination; and the very word employed, which we
have rendered "composed" (literally "put forth")
leaves it doubtful whether the writer meant that
John of Damascus really delivered them, or merely
wrote them, as rhetorical or devotional exercises.
The expression
is such as might have been used by
one who had glanced at this portion of his writings,
and took no pains to go more deeply into the matter.
When we examine the sermons themselves, there is
not much more to satisfy us, in the way of exact in
formation. In the title to one of them that on the
"Withered Fig-tree"
the author is styled "Priest
of the Holy Resurrection of Christ our God;" and,
coupling this with the statement that he was ordained
infer that he
by John, Bishop of Jerusalem, we may
was then serving as priest of a church dedicated by
that name in Jerusalem. From the language used in