The Last Four Great Fathers of the Catholic Church: Epilogue

With the labor of the late Fathers of the Church, Europe witnessed her miraculous recovery from chaos in the wake of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the weakening of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the invasion of Saracens. With the conversion of Heretics, Schismatics, Apostates, and Pagans beginning in the 5th century, many potential civil wars were prevented.

The conversion of the former enemies of the Church created the urgent needs of the Church to not only defend true doctrines but also educate the tribes and peoples of Europe. Among the late Fathers, four of them deserved the highest applaud:

(1) Isidore of Seville, Spain (Isidorus Hispalensis / Ισίδωρος Σεβίλλης) (560-636);
(2) John of Damascus, Syria (Ioannes Damascenus / Ιωάννης Δαμασκηνός) (676-749);
(3) Bede of Northumbria, England (Bedas Northanthyboriae / Βέδας Νορθουμβρίας) (672-735); (4) Hraban of Mainz, Germany (Rabanus Magnentius / Ράμπανους Μαγκεντίος) (780-856).

The establishment of new kingdoms and empires provided the Church better opportunities to exert Her influence, since the Church gained a chance to preach the Word of God since the beginning of these new political entities, as opposed to preaching in the Roman Empire, which had already been established for centuries. The humanist efforts of the Church in different parts of Europe earned true respect of people on Catholicism, and as Pope Leo III gracefully coronated Charlemagne as the Most Serene Augustus and Emperor of the Romans, the influence of the Church reached its peak since her Foundation.

Saint Isidore, while not the first Catholic dignitary to compose an encyclopedia, was the one to establish the encyclopedia tradition in not only the Church but also in Europe, influencing both polymathic figures and encyclopedia compilers in the High Middle Ages with his <<Etymologiae>>. Coupled with his intense piety, the Spanish Prelate became the model for an ideal Bishop in the Iberian lands.

Saint John, on the other hand, despite the polymathic characteristic common to his age among Christian authors, wrote relatively little regarding profane arts and sciences and only incorporated his knowledge when needed in his Philosophical and Theological works, leaving no dedicated secular works. His <<De Fide Orthodoxa>> directly inspired <<Libri Sententiarum>> of Peter Lombard when teaching in the great University of Paris, which was, in turn, studied and commented on by virtually every Medieval Scholastic Philosopher and Theologian. Equally importantly, his Mariological doctrines, together with the doctrines of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202) and Saint Cyril of Alexandria (376-444), formed the basis of Catholic Mariology to be developed by Aquinas and Scotus, defended by Canisius, and formalized by Suarez, in a same way the doctrines of Saint Athanasius (296-373) formed the basis of Catholic Christology.

Saint Bede and Saint Hraban had a much closer relationship due to their shared Benedictine lineage and the immense influence of the former on the latter. The influence through encyclopedia was not the first or most important connection, however. Bede, in fact, was the first Bible scholar to write so extensively on Bible by systematizing the writings of previous Fathers of the Church and synthesizing the two major schools of exegesis. The method of compiling and analyzing the interpretations of previous Fathers was

adopted by Hraban and would later formally become known as the Catenist tradition, or the practice of compiling Biblical Catena, inspiring great works like <<Glossa Ordinaria>> and <<Catena Aurea>>.

In general, although Saint Isidore and Saint John were regarded by a great many as the First Scholastics, and Saint Bede and Saint Hraban were regarded as the greatest Biblical scholars throughout the Middle Ages, they were generally not known for their original teachings, for most of their works, with the rare exceptions of a few points and paragraphs, were of a compilation nature, a character common to writers of the Late Patristic Age. These compilations would later come into fruition through Medieval Scholastic Philosophers and Theologians, many of the most influential of whom were Dominicans and Franciscans, including Thomas Aquinas (Doctor Angelicus Et Communis), Duns Scotus (Doctor Marianus Ac Subtilis), Albertus Magnus (Doctor Universalis), and Bonaventura Balneoregiensis (Doctor Seraphicus), and their Renaissance and Baroque successors, including Francisco Suarez (Doctor Eximius Ac Pius) and Gabriel Vasquez (Doctor Acutus), and modern Exegetes, mostly Jesuits, including Alphonsus Salmeron, Ioannes Maldonatus, Hieronymus Prado, Sebastianus Barradius, Benedictus Pereira, Franciscus Ribera, Immanuel Sa, Ioannes Pineda, Nicolaus Serarius, and Cornelius Lapidus, the last of whom being the most famous. Thus, these late Fathers of the Church of the Late Patristic Age were best-renown as great educators.

With the Catholic Church becoming more central and powerful in European societies in the High Middle Ages, styles and features of arts and sciences began to gradually shift, exemplified by the popularization of Gothic architectures, reflecting a less secular and humanist and more religious and mystical social life, and the dissemination of the Aristotelian theory of matters and forms, emphasizing a less experimental and more abstract focus in a Scholastic context.

The Last Four Great Fathers of the Catholic Church: Hraban

The death of Bede of Jarrow did not put a halt on the coming Carolingian Renaissance, nor did it stop the effort to synthesize and systematize the previous studies on the Sacred Scripture. Instead, with Alcuin, a native of York, part of the Kingdom of Northumbria at that time and the most accomplished student of one of the pupils of Bede, being invited by Charles the Great to Aachen, the political and cultural center of Europe in the 9th century, the literary achievements of Bede became the most potent fuel for the Carolingian Renaissance. Among the pupils of Alcuin in Germany and other parts of Europe, the most achieved and influential was Saint Hraban of Germany (Rabanus Magnentius / Ράμπανους Μαγκεντίος), Archbishop, Abbot and Father of the Church.

The German Saint was born around 780 in Mainz, with different sources pointing his year of birth to 776, 783, or 784, although no one could give an account of the date on which he was born. Little detail of the early life of the Eastern Frank was known, except the common belief that he was born of a noble family, until when he took the vow at a very young age in the Benedictine Monastery of Fulda, an important Benedictine Monastery founded in 744 by Saint Sturm, a disciple of Saint Boniface. In 801, the talented German was ordained Deacon, presumably by Baugulf, Abbot of the Monastery of Fulda at that time. Baugulf was succeeded by Ratgar in 802, a man of noble background who took extraordinary care for the education of the young Monks in his Monastery. Under the ardent recommendation of the Abbot, Hraban, together with Haimo, was sent to study under the most celebrated scholar at that time Alcuin of York in Tours, a city which would become the center of the Carolingian Renaissance in Gaul.

Although the Mainz native only remained in Tours for one year, his uncommon diligence, judgement, and talent were soon recognized by Alcuin, who bestowed him the surname Maurus in memory of Saint Maurus, the favorite disciple of Saint Benedict. Returning to Fulda in 803, the accomplished student was offered a position as a teacher in the Monastic School of Fulda, where he soon became the headmaster. Under his direction, although the excessive obsession of Ratgar in erecting new Ecclesiastical buildings somewhat hindered the development of the School of Fulda, the School still managed to successfully and rapidly expand and became one the leading centers of scholarship and literary production and saw many great students who would be instrumental for the Carolingian Renaissance, such as Walafrid of Swabia, Loup of Ferrieres, and Otfrid of Weissenburg. During his tenure as the headmaster, Hraban was ordained Priest in 814.

In 818, Eigil replaced Ratgar and became the fourth Abbot of the Monastery of Fulda. The newly elected Abbot granted significantly more freedom and flexibility for Hraban, and the Monastic School of Fulda soon gained even more privilege in terms of literary achievements. In 822, the student of Alcuin was elected as the fifth Abbot of the Monastery of Fulda and remained in the position for twenty years. During his reign, the Monastery reached unsurpassed prosperity, not only materially but also spiritually. The Abbot erected numerous buildings, sent many Priests for population living in remote towns and villages, enriched Ecclesiastical properties with ornaments, and established libraries for higher learnings for both sacred and profane arts and sciences, and the skilled master at Fulda successfully achieved excellent accomplishments on education, art, science, exegesis, dogma, moral, and chronicle. For these reasons, the School of Fulda became the most praised model among the Carolingian Schools. Although the reign of the great teacher was generally peaceful, the Abbot was involved in the political tumults by siding with Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, and later his first son Lothair I, who was later defeated by his younger

brother Louis the German. Consequently, the humanist scholar was forced to flee in 840 and to resign from Fulda in 842, only reconciling with the newly enthroned Emperor in 845.

Soon after his reconciliation with the Emperor, the reputed Benedictine Monk regained favor within the Empire and was consecrated Bishop on June 26, 847 to succeed Odgar as the Archbishop of Mainz. The newly appointed Archbishop, as the Primate of Germany, brought his policies into the Mainz, expediting the propagation of Christian Humanism in the Frankish territories. In the same year during which the Saint began his archiepiscopate, he convoked the First Synod of Mainz, enacting thirty-one canons regulating Ecclesiastical disciplines, mostly pertaining to the administration of the Sacraments and the regulation of Clergies and Monks, and these disciplinary acts of the Synod became the guiding principles of German clergies in later centuries. The Second Synod of Mainz was soon convoked one year later in 848, refuting and condemning the doctrine of Gottschalk, a Benedictine Monk who developed a doctrine of double complete predestination, in which God does not wish all to be saved. The previously enacted Ecclesiastical rules would soon see their reaffirmations in the Third Synod of Mainz in 852, occasionally claimed to be convened in 851. The same synod also confirmed various privileges of the Catholic Church. Through his archiepiscopate, the Carolingian Monk remained generous and compassionate to his flock, especially to those who were poor. During the famine of 850, the beloved Archbishop fed hundreds of people each day.

The First Synod of Mainz can be viewed as the event in which the literary and disciplinary labors of the German prodigy, with the Papal and Imperial privilege of the Archbishop of Mainz as the Primate of Germany, began to become the standard in the German lands. The canons and decrees of the Synods participated by Saint Hraban, supplemented by their notes and analyses, were presented by the French Jesuits Labbe and Cossart (columns 1035-1048, 1048-1052, and 1084-1088 in <<Sacrosancta Concilia>>, Venice, 1729) and the Italian Archbishop Mansi (columns 899-913, 914-917, and 970-973 of Volume XIV in <<Sacra Concilia>>, Florence, 1769). On February 4, 856, the 10th year of his archiepiscopate, the virtuous Monk attained the reward for his service in the world, exemplifying a model Christian servant and teacher to his students and flocks.

Hraban, the central figure of the Carolingian Renaissance of European culture in the Frankish lands, was by necessity an outstanding grammarian. The only grammatical work by the educator was <<Excerptio De Arte Grammatica Prisciani>>, a selected excerpt of the famed <<Institutiones Grammaticae>> by the 6th- century grammarian Priscian of Caesarea. The concise grammar manual was not merely a summary by the German Archbishop, but a compilation of a range of selected topics from the original work which the reformer deemed most useful for the students.

The most famous work of the humanist was <<De Universo>>, also known as <<De Rerum Naturis>>, an encyclopedic work divided into twenty-two books. The encyclopedia was inspired by <<Etymologiae>> of Saint Isidore, but unlike the classic by the celebrated Archbishop of Seville, it was not organized based on human arts and sciences, but on Divine and Ecclesiastical matters. This is because the learned Monk wrote began writing his work on 842 and finished it 846, after learning Haimo, a fellow German student under Alcuin and lifelong friend, was promoted to the rank of Bishop of Halberstadt, an office which he would remain in for thirteen years, and dedicated his work to aid in the Episcopal duties of his greatest friend, including the education of his clergies and flocks. For the Monk who served as the Headmaster in Fulda, it is possible to explore and understand the world through the Sacred Scripture, as the world is a mirror or reflection of the Divine teaching and Heaven.

For this reason, instead of starting with the seven liberal arts and sciences, the encyclopedia dealt with Divine matters in its first books. The first book closely adopted the structure of Saint John of Damascus in understanding God as One God according to Nature and Triune God according to Person. The same book incorporated a concise discussion on the Angels, followed by two books dedicated to the splendid creation of mankind. The fourth book outlined the origin, order, and structure of the Catholic Church as the Heir of Israel according to the New Testament, in contrast to the Synagogue, advancing the idea of Ecclesia et Synagoga, as well as the sects of Heretics and Schismatics, whereas the fifth book defended the Canon of the Bible, enumerated its comparison with and influence on secular literature, and provided a Biblical basis of various duties performed in and by the Church. It should be noted, however, that the German Prelate adopted the Canon used by Saint Isidore of Seville, which significantly differed from the official Canon of the Council of Trent, especially for the Old Testament. Examples of differences include classifying <<Four Books of Kings>> in prophetic books, numbering <<Twelve Minor Prophets>>, and classifying <<Prophecy According to Daniel>> in hagiographical books. The sixth and seventh books delved into the origin, life and death of human beings, concluding all discussions of topics related to the mankind.

The eighth book was the first book treating in the encyclopedia on natural things, and was centered on earthly animals. The ninth book turned its attention to celestial elements, such as the stars observed by humans, followed by the tenth book that connected celestial things to the human society by offering an exposition on human reckoning of time, largely extracted from the works of Saint Bede of Jarrow. The learned man then devoted from the eleventh to the fourteenth books to geographical matters, giving an adequate examination on virtually all types of geographical phenomena. The last eight books covered a wide variety of issues pertaining to human arts, sciences, and societies, starting with the philosophies, beliefs, and literary activities of Gentiles, followed by a succinct overview of human civil and agricultural systems, and ended with an introduction of various human professions and their productions. It is truly noteworthy that this work is an early work to call for an increased attention to medical sciences.

Compared with the similar-themed works by Isidore and Bede, the encyclopedia by Bede is arguably less groundbreaking or eponymous and less diffuse, as it covered roughly the same topics covered by these two earlier humanist Fathers. This can be evidenced by the lower numbers of manuscripts produced and survived throughout the Middle Ages, since the encyclopedia composed by Saint Hraban was primarily used for supplemental purposes. However, it can be certain that this encyclopedic work received no less applause than works like <<Bibliotheca Mundi>> did.

Another famous work of the loyal son of Saint Benedict was <<De Laudibus Sanctae Crucis>>, dedicated to Louis the Pious. The diligent teacher from Mainz learned of the literary form of figure poem or picture poem under his master Alcuin in Tours and developed the form to its peak during his years teaching his young students, completing such massive collection in 810. The centerpieces of this collection were the twenty-eight calligrams, each containing one abstraction of the Holy Cross representing and illustrating different elements of the history of Salvation, unfolding the entire aspects of Christology and Soteriology and corresponding to the text in respective calligrams. The number twenty-eight was quite deliberately chosen as it is both the sum of all its divisors and the multiple of four and seven, indicating a mystical connection to perfection.

The work was divided into two books, with the twenty-eight calligrams appearing in the first book. Each calligram was followed by a plain-text version of the poem without the figure of the Holy Cross that may hinder the reading and a commentary that served the purpose of assisting the readers in understanding

the spiritual senses of the poem. The technique employed by authors during the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages allowed the combination of image and word in such a way that letters could be excluded as hidden intext from the basic text and be used to show the cosmological order of God and the structure of His creation. The second book was a condensed version of the first book, offering only a paraphrasing for the poems in the calligrams.

The bulk of works of the German Primate, however, were on the Sacred Scripture, which were classified into three classes, namely commentaries, homilies, and questions, largely prepared during the teaching life of the Abbot in Fulda, though many were published later. The commentary category accounted for at least three quarters of all works on Scripture by the Saint, encompassing lengthy commentaries on <<Five Books of Moses>>, <<Book of Judge>>, <<Book of Ruth>>, <<Four Books of Kings>>, <<Two Books of Chronicles>>, <<Book of Judith>>, <<Book of Esther>>, <<Book of Proverbs>>, <<Book of Canticles>>, <<Book of Wisdom>>, <<Book of Sirach>>, <<Prophecy according Jeremiah>>, <<Prophecy according to Daniel>> and <<Two Books of Machabees>>, as well as on <<Gospel according to Saint Matthew>> and <<Fourteen Pauline Epistles>>. The homily category was comprised of two longer series organized based liturgical seasons, the first centered upon Epistles and Gospels from the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Vigil of Easter and the second centered upon Epistles and Gospels from the Vigil of Easter to the fifteenth Sunday after the Pentecost, and two shorter lectures, the first on the genealogy of Jesus Christ and the second on the seven signs of the Nativity of Our Lord. The question category entailed a series of lectures on the allegorical languages used in the Sacred Scripture, advocating for a better understanding of the spiritual senses of Written Word of God.

The Scriptural works of the Abbot were largely based on the commentaries and homilies of the Fathers of the Church in previous centuries. Similar in both literary style and structure to the works of the earlier English Benedictine Monk and teacher Bede, the works of the German Benedictine headmaster at Fulda sought to not only systematize the works of previous Western and Eastern Fathers of the Church, giving coherent, multifarious meanings to each passage in the Sacred Scripture, but also to synthesize the two opposing exegetical schools, the School of Antioch and the School of Alexandria. The most distinguishing feature in the work of the Frankish Archbishop, however, was his use of the life of Monastic Fathers and Desert Fathers, such as Saint Anthony the Great, Saint John the Ascetic, and Saint Moses the Black, who may or may not had written extensively on Scripture, as examples of an ideal life for Monks in particular and Christians in general, according to the Word of God.

As a pedagogist who had been appointed to the office of both the Abbot of the Monastery of Fulda and the Archbishop of Mainz, Hraban wrote multiple important didactic works helping fellow clergies across different regions. The most widely circulated of them was <<De Clericorum Institutione>>, dedicated to Haistulph, Archbishop of Mainz, in 819. The work was comprised of three books, with the first focusing on the sacramental and liturgical duties of Clergies, the second focusing on clerical life and regulations and pastoral duties, and the third offering instructions on the formation of Clergies, in which the author adamantly admonished that despite the crucial, or even fundamental, role of liberal arts and sciences, they must serve be used for the fulfilling of the highest purpose, the preaching of the Word of God, and, therefore, must be subordinate to Scripture and Tradition.

Other clerical instructions of the holy Archbishop were given through a similar form, dedicated to other clergies, many of whom were Catholic and Imperial dignitaries, such as <<De Disciplina Ecclesiastica>>, <<De Quaestionibus Canonum Poenitentialium>>, and <<De Anima Et Virtutibus>>, generally focusing

more on specific questions rather than systematic instructions. Beside the treatises with an instructional nature, two linguistic manuals used for references, <<Glossae>> and <<De Inventione Linguarum>>, and a commentary on the Rule of Saint Benedict, <<Commentaria In Regulam Sancti Benedicti>>, were also produced.

Only one edition of <<Opera Omnia>> of Hraban was ever published between 1626 and 1627 in Cologne in six folio tomes, only to be collected again in Volumes CVII-CXII of <<Patrologia Latina>> by Migne. The three works largest works not directly related to Scripture, <<Excerptio De Arte Grammatica Prisciani>>, <<De Universo>>, and <<De Laudibus Sanctae Crucis>>, were included in Tome I, whereas the works on Scripture by the Benedictine from Mainz accounted for Tome II, Tome III, Tome IV, Tome V, and a large portion of Tome VI, with the remaining portion accounted by the rest of his works.

The only printed edition of <<De Universo>> was issued in Strasbourg in 1467, proving that although the encyclopedia of Hraban remained popular throughout the Middle Ages, as many illustrated manuscripts had been produced, it was certainly not as popular as the works by Isidore and Bede, since it used more as a supplemental rather than primary textbook. The encyclopedia was recently translated into English in 2009 in two volumes, under the unchanged title <<De Universo>>. A three-volume Italian edition was offered in 1994, under the alternative title <<De Rerum Naturis>>, containing not only the original text and translation but also commentaries. One similarly popular work was <<De Laudibus Sanctae Crucis>>, largely due to its unique format of picture poem. The poem collection was preserved through at least 80 manuscripts, still preserved within various European libraries as a witness to early European manuscript traditions. Its first printed edition was issued in Pforzheim in 1503, followed by a second edition in 1605 in Augsburg. A modern Latin edition was incorporated, under the title <<In Honorem Sanctae Crucis>>, in Volume 100 and Volume 100A of <<Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis>>, the Medieval continuation of <<Corpus Christianorum Series Latina>> and <<Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca>>. A German translation was published in 2006, titled <<Auf Den Spuren Eines Karolingischen Gelehrten>>, containing 77 colored and 8 black-and-white illustrations, including the 28 calligrams, and their commentaries, as well as their transcriptions and translations. A French translation, not containing the original beautiful illustrations but with a decent amount of notes, was published under the title <<Louanges De La Sainte Croix>> in 1988.

While the Scriptural works of the holy Abbot were quoted widely and extensively by later Exegetes, they were not reprinted until Migne started his monumental Patristic collection, as the <<Opera Omnia>> in 1626 was satisfying enough for modern Catholic scholars. The only modern reprint was <<Commentarius In Matthaeum>> as Volume 174 and Volume 174A of the great <<Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis>>. Their prefatory epistles, however, were all collected in Volume V of <<Epistolae>>, the third of the five series of <<Monumenta Germaniae Historica>>, a scholarly collection of carefully and comprehensively selected and edited primary texts dedicated for the study of history of Germany and, to a less extent, Northwestern and Central Europe, from the destruction of the Western Roman Empire to the eve of the Protestant Revolt.

A modern reprinted and critical edition of <<De Clericorum Institutione>> was published under the title <<De Institutione Clericorum>> in 1996, followed by a second edition with German translation under the title in 2006. An Italian translation was published in 2002, titled <<La Formazione Dei Chierici>>. Like the prefatory epistles of the Scriptural works by the Primate, various prefatory epistles of the non-Scriptural works of the Saint were collected in the same Volume V of <<Epistolae>>.

Hraban was undoubtedly the most accomplished teacher of the Carolingian era, as his students went to continue reinvigorating the European culture and civilization in a way no one else could achieve or even imagine. Among his achieved pupils, the most distinguished were Walafrid of Swabia, Loup of Ferrieres, Otfrid of Weissenburg, and Rudolf of Fulda. Because of the German Primate and his students who took his mantel during his life and after his death, the Holy Roman Empire truly expelled Barbarian influence and revived its Roman heritage, and various German metropolitan cities like Mainz and Fulda gradually emerged as eminent centers of learning and missionary works in Europe. Thus, although the greatest Archbishop of Mainz was never recognized as a Doctor of the Church, he was revered and hailed by not only the German Clergies but also the common German people as Praeceptor Germaniae, or Teacher of Germany.

The Last Four Great Fathers of the Catholic Church: Bede

With the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of various Barbarian tribes, Western Europe saw an unprecedented age of darkness in learning. Great libraries and centers of learning, together with the books and manuscripts stored there, perished in endless wars, and scholarly activities retreated into the more remote Monasteries. As a result, Monks became increasingly more influential by preserving and copying ancient manuscripts and teaching Philosophy, Theology, and Scripture. This allowed Monks to amass a great number of books and build libraries in their Monasteries. As the best representation of Catholic monastic orders, the Order of Saint Benedict produced great literary activities vital to not only the later Renaissances, which saw the rediscovery and development of arts and sciences as well as Philosophy and Theology, but also the High Middle Ages, the first Golden Age of Scholasticism. Among them, the most acclaimed was Saint Bede of England (Bedas Northanthyboriae / Βέδας Νορθουμβρίας), Monk, Father and Doctor of the Church.

The English Saint was born in 672 or 673, in a place very close to the twined Monasteries in Jarrow and Monkwearmouth, which were the Monastery of Saint Peter and the Monastery of Saint Paul. However, there is very little to know about his family. At the age of seven, Bede was sent to the as a puer oblatus to the Monastery in Monkwearmouth to be educated by Abbott Benedict Biscop, a common practice that would suggest a Germanic origin and noble birth of Bede. At one point of his life, Ceolfrith succeeded Biscop as the Abbot of the Monastery in Monkwearmouth and then founded a Monastery in Jarrow in 682, transferring Bede together to the new Monastery. A plague then broke out four years after Bede moved to the new Monastery, leaving nothing but three survivors, the other two of which being Abbott Ceolfrith and a young boy.

When Bede was 17 years old, Abbott Adomnán of the Iona Abbey visited Monkwearmouth and Jarrow and met Bede. The Abbott brought the Easter dating controversy to the knwoledge of Bede, sparking his interest in natural sciences. Bede never lost his scientific interests, even after being ordained a Deacon in 692 and a Priest in 702, both of which rituals being performed by Saint John, Bishop of Hexham.

Bede devoted almost his entire life in the twinned Monasteries at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow. At his Monasteries, Bede strictly followed the Rule of Saint Benedict and had a holy contemplative life. As a scholar, Bede established a vast library, containing the works of many great sacred and profane writers, and his works covered a wide range of philosophical and theological topics, including, but not limited to, education, history, biography, exegesis, dogma, moral, art, science, and chronicle.

There were, however, several rare occasions of Bede travelling a bit far away from his Monasteries. One occasion was in 708, when some fellow Monks accused Bede of Heresy for his decision to independently calculate the age of the world, instead of accepting the widely accepted view of previous theologians, such as that of Saint Isidore of Seville, and the subsequent different result on this question. Another occasion was his visit to his pupil and friend Ecgbert, Bishop of York, in 733. It is widely believed that Bede and Ecgbert had a lengthy discussion on the elevation of the Diocese of York to the rank of Archdiocese of York, a proposal that would come into fruition in 734. Although these were not the only long travels of Bede, it is certain that long visits were extraordinarily rare in the whole life of Bede, causing someone to even mistakenly believe that Bede never traveled far away from his Monasteries.

In 735, after having served his Master for more than six decades, Bede finally came to the end of his earthly life. On May 26, 735, the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, the saintly Benedictine Monk was still busy translating the <Gospel according to Saint John>>. When the young boy transcribing his words told him that all were finished, Bede, knowing his Judgement was coming, thanked the boy and told him to leave his cell so that he could pray and give thanks to his Father for the last time. As he was lying on the floor of his cell, Bede prayed Glory Be, and took his last breath when finishing the prayer, ascending to Heaven on the day of the Ascension of his Master, encouraging his followers to continue reviving the European civilization.

Bede, a scholar at an age during which Europe was slowly beginning to recover from wars and Barbarian influences, was an accomplished educator of children and Monks who wrote numerous pedagogical and didactical treatises. The most famous and important of his numerous treatises on education was <<De Arte Metrica>>. Bede wrote this work for the purpose of teaching the grammatical rules and practices of spelling of Latin in the monastic environment during the 8th century. The precious treatise was divided into 25 chapters and can be grouped into three parts. The first part contained the first eight chapters and was centered on the letters and syllables of the words and phrases in relation to their length and was mainly modeled after the works of the English grammarian Aldhelm and the Roman grammarians Aelius, Theodorus, and Honoratus. The second part contained the middle fifteen chapters and was focused on the knowledge of ancient meters, the basic rhythmic structure of verses or lines in a verse of a poem. The third part contained the last two chapters and was based on the examples of the poetical works of Christian authors and, to a less extent, authors of Classical Antiquity. While the treatise should not be considered very original on its own, it was nevertheless backed by the unparalleled learning of the Saint and was used as a textbook in Western Europe for centuries.

Another two related works were <<De Schematibus Scripturae>> and <<De Tropis Scripturae>>. The two works may be viewed as the two integral parts of a single work, with the former dealing with the figure of speech and the latter dealing with the way of the use of the word. Although Bede was highly familiar with the works of Vergil and other pre-Christian Latin authors, he believed it is not appropriate to use their works to teach Biblical grammar and believed that the Biblical grammar was superior. A fourth and more minor work on education was <<De Orthographia>>, a work on orthography, the conventions or norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, break, emphasis, and punctuation, serving the purpose of helping readers understand the unfamiliar abbreviations and words from Classical Latin works. Unlike the three more major works on education, this work served more as a manual or reference book rather than a textbook or treatise.

Apart from being an educator, Bede was also a prolific author on various disciplines on arts and sciences, having written about thirty minor works and three major works on arithmetic, music, astronomy, and other related disciplines. Examples of such small works include <<De Arithmeticis Numeris>>, <<De Computo Dialogus>>, <<De Divisionibus Temporum>>, <<De Ratione Calculi>>, <<De Cyclo Paschali>>, and <<De Musica Theorica>>, the last being a treasure for the study of early Gregorian music.

The major work of Bede that offers a general treatment of the nature, observed from a Biblical point of view, was <<De Natura Rerum>>, also known as <<De Rebus Caeli Et Mundi>>. The treatise was written at the beginning of the 8th century and comprised of fifty-one chapters and was divided into three parts. The first part included the first two chapters, describing the creation of the Earth and the universe as the work of God according to the account in the <<Book of Gensis>>. The second part ranged from chapter 3

to chapter 24 and treated cosmological questions, including the nature and shape of the Earth, the size of the moon, the sun, and the planets, and the zodiacs, and the causes and effects of solar and lunar eclipses. The third part ranged from chapter 25 to chapter 51 and treated meteorological questions, covering earthly phenomenon such as lightning, thunder, rainbow, tide, and earthquake. The primary sources Bede used for his treatise were <<Naturalis Historia>> of Pliny the Younger and <<De Natura Rerum>> of Isidore of Spain, and Bede placed Christian writings and teachings above pagan counterparts throughout the entire work.

The work considered the companion of the great cosmological and meteorological treatise was <<De Temporum Ratione>>, written in 725. The work was an astronomical treatise with an ultimate focus on the calculation of the date of Easter. The treatise contained 71 chapters and was divided into 3 sections. The first section, ranging from chapter 1 to chapter 43, centered on the scientific analysis on topics and questions about calendars. The section started with 4 chapters formalizing terminologies regarding the measurement of time, followed by 37 chapters on the movements of the Earth and the Moon as well as the reckoning of the leap year. The second section, ranging from chapter 44 to chapter 65, centered on the Easter cycle. The scholar based his calculation on the works of Dionysius Exiguus, who composed an Easter table for years from 532 to 626. With some adjustments on the dates, Bede expanded the old Easter table for the years from 722 to 1063, with information on the position of the Moon and the date of Easter. The third section, ranging from chapter 66 to chapter 71, centered on the world chronicle. The section started with an exhaustive description of the Six Ages of the World, comparing and contrasting the calendars used by Egyptians, Hebrews, Latins, Greeks, and Anglos to determine the dates of various Biblical events, followed by a series of extensive discussions on End Time prophecies.

An important theme in this influential masterpiece was the development and popularization of BC/AD dating system. Similar to Dionysius Exiguus who created the Anno Domini system, Bede employed an Ab Incarnatione Domini system, and created an Ante Incarnatione Domini system, which is what the BC style ultimately came from.

A more condensed work on similar topics was <<De Temporibus>>, written in 703. The work contained 22 chapters and was divided into 3 sections. The first section ranged from chapter 1 to chapter 9 and was concerned with various concepts and definitions about time and calendars, borrowing heavily from the works of Varro, Pliny the Elder, and Saint Isidore. The second section ranged from chapter 10 to chapter 15 and was concerned with considerations for the Easter date. The concept of leap year used to compensate for the slowness of the Sun, the lunisolar calendar that combines lunar and solar years with differing lengths, and many other astronomical subjects were extensively discussed and analyzed. Even though Bede is quite indebted to Dionysius Exiguus, in multiple occasions, his calculations deviated from those of the Scythian Monk. The third section ranged from chapter 16 to chapter 22 and was concerned with establishing a world chronicle containing both sacred and profane events. Therefore, it was viewed as a concise representation of world history.

With his exceptional ability as a chronicler, it is not surprising that Bede was an extraordinary historian and biographer. His magnum opus on history, <<Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum>>, was a work on the Ecclesiastical and political history of England, covering events from Roman Britannia of the Late Roman Republic period to his day. The history classic was divided into five books, with the first covering the events before 603 and the last four covering the events between 603 and 731.

The first book contained 34 chapters and opened with a description of the geography of England and its residents in the past in a way similar to the description offered by Tacitus. The most important event in the first book was the mission of Saint Augustine of Canterbury under the order of Pope Saint Gregory I in 597, commonly known as the Gregorian Mission. Regarding other events in England before 603, Bede drew his chief sources from Orosius, Pliny the Elder, and Gildas. The second book contained 20 chapters and covered the events between 604 and 633, ending with the death of King Edwin of Northumbria. The third book contained 30 chapters and covered the events between 633 and 665, from the aftermath of the death of King Edwin to the conversion campaign waged Jaruman, Bishop of Mercia. The fourth book contained 30 chapters and covered the events between 664 and 698, mainly focused on the history of the Catholic Church in England, embellished with a great number of religious miracles and legends. The fifth book contained 24 chapters and covered the events between 687 and 731, ended with an inventory of his own works, an autograph that served as a major source of accounts of his life, and a chronology of the history of England.

In general, the most important theme of the work was the conversion of the British to Christianity. Bede, a partisan of Rome, regarded Pope Saint Gregory I, instead of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, as the true Apostle to the English. Like in his other works, Bede used the Anno Domini dating system in his history of the English Church, further popularizing the system. In terms of style, Bede modeled his work after the Acts of the Apostles and <<Historia Ecclesiastica>> of Eusebius of Caesarea, focusing on the gradual and steady development of the Church. Despite the fact that Bede was a partisan on some Ecclesiastical and political issues, his work on history was noted for its remarkable accuracy and attention to detail, and it was frequently quoted by Ecclesiastical historians when compiling a universal Church history, such as by Cardinal Baronius, and by Catholic polemicists when defending the Catholic Church in England and other British regions against the Protestant usurpers, such as by Bellarmine and Suarez

Other than being a historian, Bede was also a biographer. Bede wrote ten biographies, such as <<Vita Divi Cuthberti>> and <<Vita Divi Eustasii>>, together with a poem for Saint Justin Martyr, a martyrology, and a few Biblical anthropological works.

The most theologically influential works of Bede, however, were his works on the Sacred Scripture. The works of Bede on the Sacred Scripture constituted the bulk of his all works, and can be categorized into three classes, namely commentaries, homilies, and questions. The commentary category accounted for more than half of the works of Bede on Scripture and entailed lengthy commentaries on <<Five Books of Moses>>, <<Four Books of Kings>>, <<Two Books of Esdras>>, <<Book of Tobias>>, <<Book of Job>>, <<Canticles of Solomon>> and <<Proverbs of Solomon>>, as well as on <<Four Gospels>>, <<Acts of the Apostles>>, <<Fourteen Pauline Epistles>>, <<Seven General Epistles>>, and <<Apocalypse according to Saint John>>. The homily category was grouped with topics, with two series based on liturgical seasons, two series based on Saints, one series focused on the Easter season, and a few shorter series on the miscellaneous topics. The question category was organized based on Biblical books for questions about the Old Testament and based on topics for questions regarding the New Testament.

The first feature in the works by Bede on the Sacred Scripture was the synthesis and systematization of the works of the previous Fathers and Doctors of the Church. Bede was, evidently, extremely familiar with their works, especially those of the Eight Great Latin and Greek Fathers and Doctors. Besides those Great Eight whom Bede quoted frequently, Bede relied heavily on the works of Origen, Cyprian, Cassian, Cassiodorus, and Isidore, and it was even more impressive that Bede was very familiar with the works by

authors less known at his time, such as Fulgentius of Ruspe and Prosper of Aquitaine, disciples of Saint Augustine. In fact, it was highly likely that Bede was the one who originally coined the influential terms Four Great Latin/Western Fathers/Doctors and Four Great Greek/Eastern Fathers/Doctors. Both these two terms later influenced the decisions of Pope Boniface VIII and Pope Saint Pius V to name the Great Eight as the first eight Doctors of the Church.

The second feature was the increased attention paid to books less commented on in previous centuries, such as on Acts of the Apostles. Such efforts were intimately connected with the attempt to synthesize and systematize the studies on the Sacred Scripture and reflected a less polemical environment during the Late Patristic Age. The third feature was unity of the literal and allegorical approaches of exegesis, or the unity of the School of Antioch and the School of Alexandria.

Bede was the first Catholic author to write commentaries on the Sacred Scripture with such wide range of sources and coverages, with several passages incorporated into <<Glossa Ordinaria>>, a collection of Biblical commentaries which later became of standard Biblical reference work throughout the Medieval times. Bede achieved a long-lasting influence on Catholic exegetes in later following centuries, from Nicolaus Lyranus and Augustinus Calmet of France and Dionysius Carthusianus and Cornelius Lapide of Belgium.

In general, the writings of Bede reflected a general humanistic trend at his time, which can be proved by the large portion of works devoted to human arts, sciences, and history unseen in the writings of Fathers in the High Patristic Age and by the literary style of Bede, which was closer to that of Cicero and Vergil than to that of Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome, a stark contrast to the style of Saint Aldhelm, whose style was noticeably more Celtic.

Three editions of <<Opera Omnia>> of Bede were published. All three editions were divided into eight folio tomes, with the first edition printed in Basel in 1563 and the second and third editions printed in Cologne in 1612 and 1688, respectively. The three editions were virtually the same. A modern edition of the complete works by Bede was collected in Volumes XC-XCIV of <<Patrologia Latina>> by Migne, an edition which discarded several works of disputed authenticity. The works on education and most of the small works on art and science were included in Tome I, including the famous <<De Arte Metrica>>, <<De Schematibus Scripturae>>, <<De Tropis Scripturae>>, and <<De Orthographia>>. The other works on art and science were taken in Tome II, including <<De natura Rerum>>, <<De Temporum Ratione>>, and <<De Temporibus>>, followed by <<Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum>> and the other works on history, chronicle, and biography arranged in Tome III. The rest five tomes were dedicated to the works about the Sacred Scripture, with Tome IV, Tome V, and Tome VI containing the commentary category, Tome VII containing the homily category, and Tome VIII containing the question category.

An edition of the commentaries by Bede was printed in Paris in 1544, divided into three folio tomes, and multiple editions of his particular commentaries went through numerous editions. In addition, the three scientific works, namely <<De Natura Rerum>>, <<De Temporum Ratione>>, and <<De Temporibus>>, survived throughout the Middle Ages through hundreds of manuscripts, until their first printed edition came all in 1529. Similar things may be said on <<De Arte Metrica>>, whose first printed edition came in 1473. All these four great works were used extensively throughout Medieval universities as textbooks and reference manuals. Various translations of the four treatises exist, primarily in English, such as <<On The Nature Of Things>> and <<On Times>> by Faith Wallis in 2008 and <<The Reckoning Of Time>> by the same author in 1999, reprinted in 2004.

The most diffuse work of Bede was his <<Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum>>. Besides nearly 200 manuscripts that survived throughout the Middle Ages, there were at least three editions before the end of the 16th century, printed in Strasbourg, Antwerp, and Paris. It was translated as early as in the late 9th century, and a new translation was offered by the great Thomas Stapleton, printed in Antwerp in 1565, and most of its modern translations are titled <<Ecclesiastical History Of The English People>>. As a popular work, it had been translated into various other languages, such as three French editions titled <<Histoire Ecclesiastique Du Peuple Anglais>>, printed in Paris in 1995, 1999, and 2005, and one German edition titled <<Kirchengeschichte Des Englischen Volkes>>, printed in Darmstadt in 1982 and 1997.

Bede was revered both as a Christian scholar and as a humanist. Although Bede rarely traveled far away from his Monasteries, he already exerted a fair amount of influence on Ecclesiastical affairs through his pupils, such as Ecgbert, Bishop of York. However, it is only after his death when his scholarly influence grew strong. Alcuin, the most achieved student of one of the pupils of Bede, brought his works to the Carolingian Empire under the invitation of Charles the Great, first Frankish Emperor, commonly known as Charlemagne. The scholastic models of learning developed by Bede was adopted and improved by Carolingian scholars at the 9th century, mostly his Benedictine confreres. Therefore, the death of Bede should be viewed as the dawn of the Carolingian Renaissance, a glorious artistic, scientific, and literary renaissance to bring high culture back to Europe after centuries of Barbarian influences. For this reason, Bede was address with the epithet Venerable by Alcuin, Amalarius, Paul the Deacon, and the Council of Aachen in 835, and later generations would call him Pater Historiae Anglorum, or Father of the English History. A local cultus soon emerged after the death of the saintly scholar, and then soon spread to the Northern England, but it was only during the High Middle Ages when Bede was widely venerated throughout Europe. There were already debates on whether Bede should be declared a Doctor of the Church before the reign of Pope Benedict XIV, but it was only in 1899, under the reign of Pope Leo XIII, was Bede declared a Doctor of the Church.

The Last Four Great Fathers of the Catholic Church: John

While the Easter Roman Empire did not fall like the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Christian world was neither immune from the contaminations of Heresies nor safe from the invasions of Muslims. The death of the false prophet Muhammad did not stop his Saracen followers from conquering large parts of Christian lands and the Crescent from rising above the magnificent Basilicas and Cathedrals. Despite the wars, however, religious and humanist learnings still flourished in the Eastern Christian lands, including those conquered by the Islamic Caliphates, during the Late Patristic Age. The most achieved polymath in this century of humanist learning was Saint John of Syria (Ioannes Damascenus / Ιωάννης Δαμασκηνός), Monk, Father and Doctor of the Church.

The Syrian Saint was commonly believed to be born in 675 or 676, although some less common and popular accounts put his date of birth in later years, but no later than 700. It is also certain that John was born into a prominent, and possibly aristocratic, Christian family in the ancient city of Damascus, known as the Mansour or Mansur family, named after the patriarch of the family Mansour or Mansur Ibn Sarjun. It is believed that Mansour Ibn Sarjun was responsible for negotiating a favorable surrender condition with Khalid, commander of the invading forces of the Rashidun Caliphate, the Islamic Caliphate that invaded Damascus in 634 and Jerusalem in 637 and the first of the Four Major Caliphates after the death of their supposed Last Prophet. In 661, the Umayyad Caliphate replaced the Rashidun Caliphate and decided to move its capital from Kufa to Damascus. Under the tolerant religious policy of Muawiyah I, first Caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, the Christian bureaucracy and its large numbers of Christian civil servants had been largely retained and remained intact, although Greek Christians were far more hostile to the new regime than were the Arab and Aramaic Christians, resulting in a flight of the urban population of Damascus.

Sarjun, father of John and a Christian of possibly Arab descent, served as a secretary in administrative functions of the capital, according to several Muslim sources. Although not as hostile to the Caliphate as the Greek Christians were, Sarjun desired John to receive a classical education that would afford him a rich Christian education coupled with not only Islamic but also Classical sources. When John reached the age of 23, his father desired to find a wise man to educate his children, and by the grace of God, he met an erudite named Cosmas, a Sicilian Monk captured during a Muslim raid. With the help from the wise Italian, the young prodigy soon excelled in not only Philosophy and Theology, but also music, astronomy, geometry, and algebra. The knowledge of Cosmas on Western Fathers and their thoughts afforded John, who had chiefly learned about Eastern Fathers, a solid understanding of Western Christianity, especially on Saint Hilary, Saint Jerome, and Saint Augustine.

At the time when Sarjun died, the Caliph appointed John to succeed his father as the Chief Councilor of the City of Damascus. During his office, the Iconoclast controversy broke out. Emperor Leo III, commonly known as Leo the Isaurian, openly ignoring the protest of Saint Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, forbade any veneration or exhibition of sacred images, especially in public places. In 726, the talented and wise councilor of Damascus issued a series of defense against Iconoclasm, not only swiftly refuting the ruling Byzantine Emperor, but also widely inciting the revolt among the faithful. As the Emperor was able to neither refute nor punish the polymath openly, he used a manuscript written and signed by the Caliph- favored scholar himself to frame him of treason, and the Caliph, dismissing any defense from the scholar, ordered his hand to be cut off.

At some point in the future, the Caliph realized that the son of Sarjun was innocent and offered him to be reinstated into his previous office. The Damascene, growing more zealous in his Catholic Faith as each day passed, accepted the apology but instead chose to retire to the Monastery of Mar Saba, also known as the Monastery of Saint Sabas, a Monastery in Jerusalem, in order to become a Monk. Legends claimed that Saint John prayed fervently to the Virgin Mary after his hand was cut off by the Caliph, and the Immaculate Mother of God restored his hand, allowing him to ultimately prove his innocence to the Caliph with such miracle. Although the reliability of such legend remains a mystery, it is certain that the humble Saint did pray fervently to the Queen of Heaven incessantly, and was ordained a Priest by John V, Patriarch of Jerusalem, who would become his sole biographer, and remained in the Monastery while composing most of the works during his earthly life until December 4, 749, when the wise Damascene was granted the Eternal Life by his Creator, leaving his fruits to become the seeds of the great Medieval thinkers.

As a person involved in polemics with both Iconoclasts and Muslims, the Damascene remained one of the most controversial figures throughout the Late Patristic Age. As a result, although he was recognized and praised widely, the Synod of Constantinople in 754, a robber synod, shamelessly slandered the Saint in Heaven and assaulted his reputation, calling him with various injurious titles. Such attempts remained vain, however, and the Second Council of Nicaea, the Seventh Ecumenical Council, amply amended the slanders of the Heretics and fully restored the reputation of the famed defender of the Faith, and was called Chrysorrhoas, or Golden Stream, by Saint Theophanes for his oratorical gifts.

John, a champion of the Faith, wrote various treatises, long and short, defending Christian orthodoxy. His principal works on Christian Philosophy and Christian Theology are collectively known as <<Scientiae Fons>>, consisting of three separate works. The first of the three was <<Capita Philosophica>>, a work that, despite its title, divided into 68 chapters, did not treat upon all branches of Philosophy. Instead, it mainly dealt with ontology, based on works of Aristotle and commentaries of Porphyry, and was intended for the readers to better understand to the two subsequent works. The second work of the collection was <<De Haeresibus>>, documenting 100 heresies, was, for the most part, a mix of summary and paraphrase of similar works by Saint Epiphanius, with more recent heresies added. Most heresies were briefly summarized within a single paragraph, with the exceptions of Iconoclasm, Aposchitism, and Islam.

The third and most important of the collection, and the most important of all the works of the Saint, was <<De Fide Orthodoxa>>, also known as <<Expositio Fidei>>. The work is comprised of four books and is considered one of the most important books by Eastern Fathers. The first book consisted of fourteen chapters, starting by arguing for the existence of God, proving that God is One God according to Nature and Triune God according to Person, then giving a delicate and elegant exposition on Divine union and separation, and finally ending with discussions on certain attributes of God. The second book contained thirty chapters, centered on the Work of God, namely His Creation, and, by extension, the role of human within such ineffable Work. The book started with a very brief yet ample discussion on the creation of age, followed by ten chapters concerning various subjects of Heaven and Earth. The remaining nineteen chapters were divided into two parts, with the first part explaining various elements of human soul and the second part examining the Free Will of human beings and the interaction between Free Will and Divine Providence, where the holy Monk took a stance more favoring human freedom.

The third book of the great summa of Catholic Philosophy and Catholic Theology was centered on Jesus Christ, encompassing twenty-nine chapters, starting with the Nature and Incarnation of Our Lord. The Father affirmed the unquestionable Catholic teachings on the motive and fittingness of the Incarnation,

the perpetual virginity of Mary, the existence of two Natures of Christ and the relationship between them, and the existence of two distinct but united Energies of Christ, refuting numerous Nestorian and Monophysite arguments. This part accounted for the first nineteen chapters of the third book, while the questions to a variety of questions on the mysteries of the life of Christ constituted the last ten chapters, such as His prayer, fear, and Passion, based on the previous chapters of the same book, answering such questions thoroughly yet elegantly.

The fourth book consisted of twenty-seven chapters, beginning with an ample extension of the previous treatise on Christ, covering the first eight chapters of the book. The first section of the treatise was the answer to the final questions on the Resurrection, closing the discussion on the mysteries of the life of Christ, followed by reaffirmations of the Catholic teachings on the Nature of Christ, including a reply that Mary, the Holy Mother of God, did not bear two natures but bore only one subsistence revealed in Two Natures of Christ and that Christ was called first-born because He was, by his Human Nature, the first human to become a son of God. The wise Damascene dedicated the last part of his masterpiece to various questions on our Catholic Faith, such as Baptism, Christian Liturgy and worship, veneration of holy images, and veneration of Saints.

Such a magnificent work was considered the epitome of Eastern Christian Philosophy and Theology, and the wise Syrian drew his sources chiefly from the Cappadocian Fathers, namely Saint Basil of Caesarea, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, although other prominent Fathers were widely consulted. The first two books, centering on God and His creation, were relatively brief, whereas the last two books, focusing on Christ and our Faith, were much bulkier. It is widely agreed within the Catholic Church that subsequent Eastern writers, Catholic or Orthodox, neither surpassed the diligent Monk in terms of quality nor furthered development on Philosophy and Theology. Peter Lombard, the universally esteemed Magister Sententiarum, adopted the primitive organization of <<De Fide Orthodoxa>> into his work of long-lasting influence, <<Libri Sententiarum>>, treating God as God the Creator, God the Redeember, and God the Sanctifier, and ordering theological questions by such an elegant order. The improved order was perfected by Saint Thomas Aquinas in his <<Summa Theologica>>, citing the ancient polymath 367 times, almost exclusively from <<De Fide Orthodoxa>>, placing him as the second most frequently cited Eastern Father and fourth most frequently cited among all Catholic Fathers. Moreover, his refutation of Islam was highly praised by later Catholic Apologists, especially by Thyrsus Santalla, the thirteenth Superior General of the Society of Jesus who wrote an influential work against Mohametans titled <<Manuductio Ad Conversionem Mahumetanorum>>.

Beside <<De Fide Orthodoxa>>, the talented son of Sarjun wrote various works on doctrinal issues. The most diffuse among them were three orations on the veneration of sacred images against Iconoclasm, collectively known as <<Pro Sacris Imaginibus Orationes>>, earning him the epithet Chrysorrhoas. These three orations were heavily cited by the Dominican Cardinal Gotti, the premier Catholic Controversialist in the 18th century, in his <<Veritas Religionis Christianae>>. There were also quite many works directed against the different heretical sects, such as <<Contra Manichaeos Dialogus>>, <<De Natura Composita Contra Acephalos>>, and <<De Mensibus Macedonicis>>, and multiple works regarding diverse issues, such as <<De Sancta Trinitate>>, <<De Virtute Et Vitio>>, and <<De Unione Definitiones Variae>>. The same Saint also wrote numerous letters, the most famous of which being <<Epistola Ad Jordanem Archimandritam Scripta De Hyno Trisagio>>, in which the erudite Monk stressed the Unity of God in Nature and Trinity of God in Person. With regard to Western Fathers, the defender of the Church against

Iconoclasm produced two theological fragments based on works of Saint Hilary, a Western Father he studied and admired deeply.

Similar to Saint John Chrysostom from Antioch, another Father who earned an epithet associated with gold for his oratorical gifts, the Saint from Damascus distinguished himself through his preaching efforts on Christ and Mary, including, but not limited to, <<Sacra Parallela>>, <<Oratio De Gloriosa Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Transfiguratione>>, and <<In Sabbatum Sanctum>>. The most famous and important of them, however, were a series of three long sermons collectively known as <<Encomium In Dormitione Dominae Dei Genetricis Semperque Virginis Mariae>>, frequently cited as the highest authority by later Marian Apologists, such as the Jesuits Saint Peter Canisius in his <<De Maria Virgine Incomparabili>> and Francisco Suarez in his <<De Mysteriis Vitae Christi>>. On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII invoked his privileged Papal Infallibility in his Apostolic Constitution <<Munificentissimus Deus>>, citing the teaching of Saint John Damascene along with others, to define the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. Other than his homilies on Christ and Mary, the Syrian Saint also left two sermons about Saint John Chrysostom.

Numerous editions of <<Opera Omnia>> of John were published after the initial convocation of Council of Trent. The most representative ones include three editions published in one folio tome in Basel in 1548, 1559, and 1575, followed by three editions published in Paris in 1577, 1603, and 1619, also in one folio tome. The most outstanding edition was published under the care of Michel Lequien in Paris in 1712 in two folio tomes, with its distinctive features adequately adopted in the 1748 edition published in Paris, again in two folio tomes. In modern times, the complete works of John were collected by in Volumes XCIV- XCVI of <<Patrologia Graeca>> by Migne. With works of disputed authorship added, Tome I was comprised of the theological works of the Syrian Hermit, and Tome II consisted of his homiletic works.

As a result of its great fame, <<De Fide Orthodoxa>> was undoubtedly the most frequently printed work of the Eastern precursor of Scholasticism. Having survived through hundreds of manuscripts during the Middle Ages, the unparalleled work that inspired Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas was first printed in original Greek in Verona in 1531, followed by two Latin-Greek parallel editions in the same city in 1548 and 1575. Three editions with only Latin text were printed in Paris in 1577, 1603, and 1617, and again collected by Hugo Hurter in Volume XLI of his <<Opuscula Sanctorum Patrum>>. The famous orations on sacred images, <<Pro Sacris Imaginibus Orationes>>, were first printed in Rome in Greek in 1553, then a Latin edition, translated by the German Carthusian Tilmanus, was printed in Paris in 1555, reprinted in Antwerp in 1556. Other works of the Saint were also less frequently printed, though rarely referenced in modern times.

Unsurprisingly, <<De Fide Orthodoxa>> was translated most frequently among the works of Saint John. Its English translations are commonly titled <<An Exact Exposition To The Orthodox Faith>>, its French translations are titled <<La Foi Orthodoxe>>, and its German translations are titled <<Genaue Darlegung des orthodoxen Glaubens>>, along with translations in other languages, mostly European, most of which appeared after 1980. Several other works of the great scholar were also translated, though certainly less frequently, chiefly <<Capita Philosophica>> and <<De Haeresibus>>, and such translations were almost always printed together with other translations. A German edition titled <<Die Schriften Des Johannes Von Damaskos>> was published between 1969 and 2013. This edition, perhaps the most comprehensive vernacular edition of the works by the Monk in Jerusalem, contains all his major works, though many of the smaller works of the Syrian Father were still omitted.

John was universally hailed as the Father of Scholasticism in the East, even hailed as the First Scholastic or Precursor of the Scholastics by many, together with either Isidore or Anselm, who was hailed as the Father of Scholasticism in the West, largely due to his role as the epitome of Eastern Christianity and the influence of his greatest work. For the same reason, he was recognized as Graecorum Petrus Lombardus, or Peter Lombard of the Greeks. For his eminent doctrines on the Assumption of Mary, the Marian Saint was rightfully revered as Doctor Assumptionis, or Doctor of the Assumption. In 1890, Pope Leo XIII, a Supreme Pontiff deeply devoted to the Blessed Mother of God and called the Rosary Pope for his record number of eleven encyclicals on the Rosary alone, believed it was fitting so that he declared the Damascene a Doctor of the Church.