The 8th-century monk and theologian known as a Doctor of the Church for defending the veneration of icons was John of Damascus.
Born in Damascus around 675 or 676, John likely served in the administration of the Umayyad caliphate before becoming a priest and monk at Mar Saba near Jerusalem. During the Byzantine iconoclast controversy, he wrote three major defenses of holy images, arguing that honoring an icon was not the same as worshipping the material object.
John’s arguments influenced the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, which restored the veneration of icons in the Byzantine Church. A famous later tradition says that an emperor’s forged accusation led to the amputation of John’s right hand, which was miraculously restored after his prayers before an icon.
He is sometimes confused with later Doctors such as Augustine or Thomas Aquinas. John was designated a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1890 and is often called the last of the Greek Fathers.