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

I9
ST.
JOHN
OF DAMASCUS.
Christian. When he finished, the king was so in
flamed with anger as to be moved to commit his
body to the flames. But fearing to incense the
friends of one who had been so high in station, he
suppressed his wrath, and, telling
him that he owed
his life to the peaceful
counsellors whom he had
promised
to call into
court, dismissed the once high
officer from his presence.
To complete the worldly prosperity of this king
one thing was wanting, for which he had long pined
in vain. He was childless, and had no heir to the
throne. At last, to his delight, a son is born, whom
he names Joasaph, and the nation is bidden to
rejoice and offer sacrifices at the event. When the
soothsayers are met together to forecast his destiny,
they vie with one another in presaging
riches and
power. But one astrologer, wiser than all the rest,
foretold, like another Micaiah, that the infant prince
should indeed attain to great honour, but not in his
earthly father s kingdom. He would embrace the
faith of Christ, and in His kingdom would he be
great.
Such a foreboding was gall and wormwood to
Abenner. In the hope of falsifying the prediction,
he had a splendid palace raised in a secluded city of
his dominions. There he had the child kept, with
the strictest injunctions to his attendants that nothing
should meet his eyes,
as he grew up, likely in the
remotest degree to suggest the truths of the religion
he abhorred. The royal pages were to be all young
and beautiful. If one fell ill,
he was to be removed
immediately, and another, in all the bloom of health,
substituted in his place. Every sight of sickness, or