Life of Joannes DamascenusHe was the author of a life of Joannes Damascenus, Βίος τοῦ
ὁδίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰωάννου τοῦ Δαμαδκηνοῦ δυγγραφεὶς παρὰ Ἰωάννου
πατριόρχου Ἱεροδολύμων,
Vita sancti Patris nostri
Joannis Damasceni a Joanne Patriarcha Hierosolymitano conscripta. The life is a
translation from the Arabic, or at least founded upon an Arabic biography; and was written a
considerable time after the death of Damascenus, which occurred about
A.
D. 756, or perhaps later [
DAMASCENUS
JOANNES], and after the cessation of the Iconoclastic contest,
which may be regarded as having terminated on the death of the emperor Theophilus,
A. D. 842. But we have no data for determining how long after these
events the author lived. Le Quien identifies him with a Joannes, patriarch of Jerusalem, who
was burnt alive by the Saracens in the latter part of the reign (
A. D.
963-
969) of Nicephorus Phocas, upon suspicion that he had
excited that emperor to attack them. (Cedrenus,
Compend. p. 661, ed.
Paris, vol. ii. p. 374, ed. Bonn.)
Editions
The life of Joannes Damascenus was first published at Rome, with the orations of
Damascenus, De Sacris Imaginibus, 8vo. Rome, 1553:
it was reprinted at Basel with the works of Damascenus A. D. 1575; and
in the Acta Sanctorum Maii (a. d. 6), vol. ii. (the Latin version in
the body of the work, p. 111, &c., and the original in the Appendix, p. 723,
&c.); and in the edition of the works of Damascenus by Le Quien, vol. i.
fol. Paris, 1712.The Latin version is given (a. d. vi. Maii) in the Vitae Sanctorum of Lippomani, and the De
Probatis Sanctorum Vitis of Surius.