Today we celebrate the beautiful memorial of Saint John of Damascus, who was born in 675 and died in 749. He spent his entire life under Muslim rule in the Umayyad Caliphate before becoming a monk. He served as a high-ranking financial administrator, something like a chief accountant for the caliph in Damascus. This placed him in a politically sensitive position where overt Christian polemic could have cost him his life. Yet he still defended Christian doctrine unapologetically.