# Matins Nocturn 2-3 readings for St. John Damascene, Confessor,
# Doctor of the Church (Mar 27). Sourced directly from
# web/www/horas/Latin/Sancti/03-27.txt, English/Sancti/03-27.txt.
#
# Nocturn 2: Lectio4-6 combined into one reading, one continuous vita.
# Nocturn 3: Lectio7's Gospel citation (Luke 6:6-11) is a bare incipit
# ("Et réliqua"), so only the homily is authored (not marked isGospel),
# St. Peter Chrysologus's homily (Lectio7's homily + Lectio8-9
# combined).
id: st-john-damascene
readings:
  - nocturn: 2
    isGospel: false
    text:
      la: >-
        Joánnes, a pátrio loco Damascenus dictus, nobili genere natus, humanis divinisque
        litteris a Cosma monacho Constantinopoli fuit excultus; cumque ea tempestáte
        imperátor Leo Isáuricus nefario bello sacrárum imaginum cultum insectarétur,
        Joánnes, hortatu Gregórii tertii Romani Pontificis, et sermóne et scriptis
        sanctitátem illíus cultus sédulo propugnávit. Quo facto tantam Leónis advérsum se
        invidiam concitávit, ut hic confictis litteris ipsum tamquam proditórem accusarit
        apud Damasci calípham, qui Joánne consiliario et administro utebátur. Credulus
        fraudi princeps Joánni nequidquam calumniam ejuranti præcídi déxteram jussit.
        Verum innocéntiæ vindex ádfuit cliénti suo sanctíssima Virgo, cujus opem
        precibus enixe imploraverat, ejusque beneficio trunca manus restituta ita
        brácchio coáluit, ac si divisa numquam fuísset. Quo maxime miraculo permotus
        Joánnes, quod pridem animo conceperat, éxsequi státuit. Itaque ægre a calípha
        impetrato secessu, suas omnes facultates in egénos distríbuit, et servos
        libertáte donávit; tum sacra Palæstinæ loca peregrínus lustrávit, ac demum una
        cum Cosma institutore suo in lauram sancti Sabbæ prope Hierosolymam concessit,
        ibique présbyter initiátus est.


        In religióne vitæ palæstra præclarióra virtútum exempla monachis præbuit,
        demissiónis potíssimum et obediéntiæ. Abjectíssima quæque cœnobii munia véluti
        sibi propria deposcebat, ac sédulo obíbat. Contextas a se spórtulas venditare
        Damasci jussus, in ea nimirum civitáte ubi olim summis honóribus perfunctus
        fuerat, irrisiónes ac ludíbria vulgi ávide captábat. Obediéntiam ádeo cóluit, ut
        non modo ad quémlibet præsidum nutum præsto esset; sed ne causam quidem eórum
        quæ præcipiebántur, quamvis ardua essent et insolita, quæréndam sibi umquam
        putarit. Inter has virtútum exercitatiónes, catholicum dogma de sanctárum
        imaginum cultu impense tueri numquam déstitit. Quare ut ante Leónis Isáurici, ita
        postmodum Constantini Coprónymi advérsum se odia vexatiónesque provocávit; eo
        vel magis quod líbere arrogantiam imperatórum retúnderet, qui fidei negotia
        pertractare, deque his senténtiam arbitratu suo ferre audebant.


        Mirum sane est quam multa tum ad fidem tutandam, tum ad pietátem fovéndam, et
        soluta et adstricta numeris oratióne, Joánnes elucubráverit; dignus sane qui ab
        áltera Nicæna synodo amplíssimis laudibus celebrarétur, et ob aureum oratiónis
        flumen Chrysórrhoas appellarétur. Neque solum contra Iconómachos orthodoxam fidem
        deféndit; sed omnes ferme hæreticos, præsertim Acéphalos, Monothelitas,
        Theopaschitas strenue impugnávit. Ecclésiæ jura potestátemque egregie vindicávit.
        Primátum Principis Apostolórum disertíssimis verbis asseruit; ipsumque
        ecclesiárum cólumen, infractam petram, orbis terrárum magistrum et moderatórem
        sæpius nóminat. Universa autem ejus scripta non modo eruditióne et doctrina
        præstant, sed étiam quemdam ingenuæ pietátis sensum præférunt, præcipue cum
        Genitrícis Dei laudes prædicat, quam singulari cultu et amóre prosequebátur.
        Illud vero maxime in laudem Joánnis cedit, quod primus universam theologíam recto
        ordine comprehénderit et sancti Thomæ viam complanáverit ad sacram doctrinam tam
        præclára méthodo tractandam. Tandem vir sanctíssimus meritis plenus devexáque jam
        ætate, in pace Christi quiévit anno circiter septingentésimo quinquagesimo
        quarto. Ejus Offícium et Missam Leo décimus tertius Pontifex maximus, áddito
        Doctoris título, univérsæ Ecclésiæ concessit.
      en: >-
        This John is called John of Damascus, from his native place. He was of noble
        birth, and studied sacred and profane letters at Constantinople, under the monk
        Cosmas. At what time the Emperor Leo the Isaurian was making a wicked attack upon
        the honouring of holy images, John, at the desire of the Roman Pontiff, Gregory
        III., earnestly defended both by his words and his writings, the holiness of this
        honour. By this he roused against him so great a hatred on the part of Leo, that
        that Prince, by forged letters, accused John as a traitor to the Caliph of
        Damascus, whom he was serving as a councillor and minister. John denied the
        charge, but the Caliph was deceived by it, and caused his right hand to be cut
        off. He called earnestly for the help of the most holy Virgin, and she manifested
        the innocency of her servant by reuniting his hand to his arm, as though it had
        never been cut off. This miracle moved John to carry out a design which he had
        long had in mind. He obtained from the Caliph, albeit with difficulty, leave to go
        away, distributed all his goods to feed the poor, and freed all his slaves, then
        visited as a pilgrim the holy places in Palestine, and at length withdrew, along
        with his teacher Cosmas, to the monastery of St. Saba, between Jerusalem and the
        Dead Sea. There he was ordained priest.


        As a monk John set a bright example to all the others, especially as regarded
        lowliness and obedience. He sought for the lowest offices in the community, as
        though they were in a peculiar sense his own, and fulfilled them with the
        greatest care. When he was sent to Damascus to sell baskets made by himself, he
        welcomed the mockery and jests of the lowest classes in that city where he had
        before time been charged with the most honourable offices. He was so devoted to
        obedience that he not only started up to obey every nod of his superiors, but
        also never thought it right to ask the reason of any duty laid upon him, however
        difficult or however strange it might be. While thus living he never ceased
        earnestly to defend the Catholic doctrine as to the honouring of holy images. For
        this reason he drew upon himself the hatred and persecution of the Emperor
        Constantine Copronymus, as he had first done that of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian,
        and this all the more because he freely rebuked the arrogance of these Emperors,
        who must needs take in hand matters concerning the faith, and pronounce sentence
        upon them according to their own judgment.


        It is a marvel how many things John devised both for the protection of the faith,
        and for the encouragement of godliness, and expressed in his writings both in
        prose and verse. He was worthy of the high praise which was given him by the
        Second Council of Nicea. On account of the golden streams of his eloquence, he
        was surnamed Chrysorrhoas, or John of the golden streams. It was not against the
        enemies of holy images alone that he defended the orthodox faith. He fought
        stoutly against the Acephali, the Monothelites, and the Theopaschites. He
        maintained the laws and the power of the Church. He taught with great learning
        the Primacy of the Prince of the Apostles, and many times calleth him the Pillar
        of the Churches, the unbroken rock, and the Teacher and Ruler of the world. The
        whole of his writings are not only steeped in learning and teaching, but have a
        certain savour of simple piety, especially when he is praising the Mother of God,
        toward whom he was filled with a special reverence and love. But the greatest
        praise of John is that he was the first who arranged in order a complete course
        of theology, and prepared the way in which holy Thomas of Aquino has so clearly
        dealt with the whole body of sacred doctrine. This truly holy man, full of days
        and good works, fell asleep in the peace of Christ about the year of salvation
        754. The supreme Pontiff, Leo XIII., established his office and Mass throughout
        the universal church, whereof he also gave him the title of doctor.
    status: { la: verified, en: verified }

  - nocturn: 3
    isGospel: false
    source: "St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 32 (on Luke 6:6-11)"
    text:
      la: >-
        In hoc hómine ómnium hóminum imago figurátur, in hoc geritur cura cunctórum, in
        hoc universórum sánitas diu exspectáta reparátur. Arúerat enim manus hóminis
        magis stupore fidei quam siccitate nervórum, et plus culpa consciéntiæ quam
        debilitate carnali. Antíqua ista nimis erat, et quæ in ipso mundi principio
        contígerat ægritúdo; nec arte hóminis aut beneficio póterat hæc curari, quæ Dei
        fuerat indignatióne contracta. Tetigerat vétita, inconcessa præsumpserat, cum se
        ad árborem sciéndi bonum malumque porrexerat: Auctore indigebat, non qui malagma
        impóneret, sed qui posset illatam relaxare senténtiam, et ignoscéndo resólvere
        quod religáverat indignando.


        In hoc hómine nostræ tantum géritur umbra sanitátis; perfécta autem salus nobis
        reservátur in Christo: quia tunc aríditas nostræ manus miseranda dissolvitur, cum
        cruore perfunditur Dominicæ passiónis, cum in illo vitali ligno crucis exténditur,
        cum carpit fructuosam de dolóre virtútem, cum totam árborem salútis amplectitur,
        cum clavis Dómini corpus affígitur, quo numquam ad árborem concupiscéntiæ et
        áridæ redeat voluptátis. Et ait hómini habénti manum áridam: Surge in médium,
        professor debilitátis própriæ, supernæ pietátis exactor, testis divinæ virtútis,
        Judáicæ incredulitátis assertor: surge in médium; ut quos non compungit virtus
        tanta signórum, quos non ópera tantæ salútis inclínant, vel debilitátis tantæ
        miserátio constringat et mítiget.


        Dixit homini: Extende manum tuam; et extendit, et restituta est manus illius.
        Extende manum tuam: jussione solvitur, qua fuerat jussione convincta. Extende
        manum tuam: agnovit pœna judicem, opus Deum, indulgentia prodidit conditorem.
        Orate, fratres, ut sola synagoga tali debilitate fuscetur, nec sit in Ecclesia
        cujus manum arefaciat cupiditas, contrahat avaritia, rapina debilitet, tenacitas
        ægrotam constringat; sed si acciderit id ipsum, audiat Dominum et cito eam in
        opere pietatis extendat, relaxet et in misericordia, in eleemosynis porrigat.
        Sanari nescit, qui nescit pauperi fœnerari.
      en: >-
        This man is a figure of all men. His healing is a type of their healing, and his
        soundness is a pledge of that soundness for which all have looked so long. The
        hand of man hath withered through the deadness of faith rather than through the
        drying up of the sinews, and by the fault of the conscience rather than by the
        weakness of the flesh. The withering up of man's hand hath been of old time, and
        a sickness which smote him at the very beginning of the world, and no art or
        benefit of man could heal that which had been blasted by the wrath of God. That
        hand had touched the forbidden thing, it had sought that which was unlawful when
        it had been stretched out to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It had
        need of Him who had made it, not to lay a plaster upon it, but to cancel the
        sentence which He had uttered, and to loosen by pardon that which He had bound by
        judgment.


        This man's healing is a type of the healing of all men, our perfect health is to
        be found in Christ, then shall our miserable hand be withered no more when there
        droppeth thereon the Blood of the Suffering Lord, when it is stretched forth to
        the Tree of Life, which is the Cross. When it gathereth the mighty fruit of His
        suffering, when it layeth hold upon the Tree of Salvation, when the body is so
        nailed thereto with the nails of the Lord that it can never return again to the
        tree of lust and barren enjoyment. And He said to the man which had the withered
        hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. Rise up and stand forth in the
        midst, O Thou that dost confess thine own weakness, thou that dost call for pity
        from on high, thou that canst witness to the power of God; rise up and stand
        forth in the midst, thou that tellest of the unbelief of the Jews; the power of
        so many signs hath not pierced them, so many works of healing hath not beset
        them; let the pity shown to such misery constrain them and soften them.


        He said unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand, and he did so; and his hand was
        restored whole as the other. Stretch forth thine hand the hand which had been
        blasted by a commandment is by a commandment loosed. Stretch forth thine hand the
        punishment which had been the work of God was a sufficient testimony of Who had
        been the Judge Who had inflicted it, and the pardon was a proof that the Pardoner
        was the same. Brethren, pray that upon the synagogue only may the shadow of such
        an affliction fall, and that there may be in the Church no hand which is withered
        by greed, shrunken by avarice, paralyzed by theft, stricken by selfishness; but if
        such there be, let him who is so afflicted give his ear unto the Lord, and
        stretch forth his hand in works of godliness, let him exercise it in mercy, and
        set it to almsgiving. He that knoweth not how to lend unto the Lord by giving unto
        the poor, knoweth not how to be healed by the Lord.
    status: { la: verified, en: verified }
