16th century
Saint Damaskinos the Studite
A learned sixteenth-century preacher and author of the popular Thesauros, who became a bishop and later Metropolitan of Naupaktos.
Biography
Damaskinos was born around 1520 in Thessaloniki, received an excellent education, and became a monk of the Stoudite brotherhood in Constantinople, where he gained fame as a preacher. His sermons later formed the basis of his hugely popular book, the “Thesauros”, reprinted dozens of times into the twentieth century.
In 1560 he was ordained bishop of Litis and Rentini and served as an exarch of the Patriarchs on Mount Athos and in Ukraine, where he countered Catholic propaganda. In 1574 he became Metropolitan of Naupaktos and Arta, and died in 1577, remembered for his learning and humility.