Barlaamand Josaphat

Barlaam and Josaphat, a Greek Christian legend, dating probably from the seventh century A.D., but due in its present form to John of Damascus, a Greek who lived at the court of the Caliph of Bagdad about 1090, recounting the conversion of the Indian Prince Josaphat by the hermit Barlaam. Both these personages appear as saints in the Roman Catholic Calendar; but the story is only a Christianised version of the legendary history of Buddha. See Max Midler's Chips from a German Workshop, vol. iii.