“IT appears then that the most proper of all the names given to God is ‘He that is,’ as He Himself said in answer to Moses on the mountain, ‘Say to the sons of Israel, He that is has sent me’ (Ex. 3:14). For He keeps all being in His own embrace, like a sea of essence infinite and unseen.”
~St. John Damascene: ‘An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith,’ Bk. I, Chap. 9.
John of Damascus or Damascene, was a learned theologian who gathered together and transmitted to us the teaching of the Greek Fathers. He also wrote many liturgical hymns still in use today. St. John Damascene died in 749. He was the last of the Greek Fathers, and one of the principal defenders of the veneration of images against the Iconoclasts, who condemned this practice. Leo XIII proclaimed him a Doctor of the universal Church.