John Damascene, St.
Personal
Financial officer to Saracen caliph
Resigned in 700
Entered a monastery and ordained a priest
Opposed the Iconoclasts
Place and dates
Damascus, Syria
675-749
Writings
Source of Knowledge: three part text
  of dogmatic theology in the early Greek
  church; contains a complete theological
  system based on the early Greek fathers
  and synods of 4th-7th centuries