DAMASCENUS, JOANNES, a voluminous ecclesiastical writer who flourished in the first half of the eighth century A.D. He derived the surname of Damascenus from the place of his birth, but was also styled Chrysorrhoeas from his eloquence. His father, Sergius, was a councillor at the court of the khaliph, and transmitted both his office and fortune to his son. While on an embassy to Jerusalem, however, Damascenus entered the service of the church, and retired to the monastery of St Saba, where he passed the remainder of his days. He died sometime about the middle of the eighth century, and has been canonized both by the Greek and Latin Churches. In his works he has treated a great variety of speculative questions, relating to the Manichean, Nestorian, and Eutychian heresies. His Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith still maintains its reputation in the Greek Church; but his keen defence of image-worship, against the iconoclasm of Leo the Isaurian, shows him to have been deeply tinctured with the superstition of the age. The best edition of his works is that of Le Quien, Paris, 1712.