A Christian in Muslim Damascus

John nonetheless made himself indispensable to the people in power, as his father had been. As a matter of fact, in addition to his fulltime government job, John was even able to write publicly on the hot button topics of Church life and theology.

His fellow Christians responded by forging a letter to incriminate him in a plot against his Muslim employer. At first, John’s boss believed him and had John’s hand chopped off. Then, without the benefit of surgery, John’s hand was miraculously reattached.

John’s employer took this as a sign that John was innocent. John took it as a sign that he needed to devote himself fulltime to the work of God. He withdrew to a monastery where he wrote important compilations of Christian theology and other works.

St. John of Damascus, priest and Doctor of the Church, died of natural causes in the middle of the eighth century A.D. and is celebrated by East and West today.