Early Life and Imperial Service
Maximus was born around 580. Sources differ on his birthplace, some placing it at Hisfiyya in Syria Prima and others in the region of Constantinople, but they agree that he came from an aristocratic and devout Christian household. He received a superior classical education that encompassed philosophy, grammar, rhetoric, mathematics, and astronomy.
He entered imperial government service under Emperor Heraclius, who reigned from 611 to 641, and rose to the office of Protoasekretis, or first secretary and chief counselor, one of the most powerful positions in the empire. His attainment of so high an office by about the age of thirty reflects his elevated social standing and ability.
Recognizing that the emperor and members of the court had embraced the Monothelite heresy, Maximus resigned his post and entered monastic life at the monastery of Chrysopolis, near Skutari (modern Üsküdar), across the Bosporus from Constantinople. Within several years he was elevated to abbot. Sources place his entry into monasticism around 614.
Travels and the Monothelite Controversy
When the Persians invaded Anatolia, Maximus fled westward, eventually reaching a monastery near Carthage in North Africa. There he studied Christological questions under Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem and undertook extensive preaching in Alexandria, on Crete, and in Carthage, where he resided for roughly five years and earned the esteem of the Exarch Gregory and the Eparch George.
The Monothelite controversy concerned how to understand the will of Christ. Patriarch Sergius and his successor Pyrrhus promoted the teaching that Christ possessed only one, divine, will, while Maximus held that Christ possessed two wills, divine and human, a position known as Dyothelitism. From around 640 he championed this Orthodox confession against the Monothelite claims.
His most celebrated theological encounter came when the deposed Patriarch Pyrrhus arrived in Carthage. In a public debate held before many North African bishops, Pyrrhus acknowledged the error of the Monothelite position and recanted. Maximus then accompanied him to Rome in 645.
The Lateran Council and Confession
Maximus is thought to have resided at San Saba in Rome when Pope Martin I convened the Lateran Council in 649 at the Lateran Basilica. The council condemned Monothelitism and the imperial edict known as the Typos, and anathematized the Patriarchs Sergius, Paul, and Pyrrhus of Constantinople. Some hold that the official acts of the council may have been composed by Maximus himself.
His refusal to accept the Typos of Emperor Constans II brought the full weight of imperial displeasure upon him. He summarized his loyalties in a famous saying recorded in tradition: that he held the faith of the Latins but the language of the Greeks.
Both Pope Martin and Maximus were arrested on the emperor's orders. Maximus was brought to Constantinople and tried as a heretic, accused among other charges of having aided the Muslim conquests in Egypt and North Africa, charges that he rejected. After a further trial his tongue was cut out and his right hand cut off, so that he could neither speak nor write his confession.
Theological Writings and Legacy
Maximus left a substantial body of theological work. Among his principal writings are the Quaestiones ad Thalassium, sixty-five questions and answers on Scripture; the Ambigua, an exegetical work engaging the writings of Gregory the Theologian; the Mystagogia, an interpretation of the Divine Liturgy; the Chapters on Love; and dogmatic treatises against Monothelitism.
He articulated a developed theology of theosis, the deification of the human person, teaching that deification is wholly the gift of God's mercy rather than a product of human nature. His thought profoundly shaped later Orthodox tradition, influencing Saint Simeon the New Theologian and Saint Gregory Palamas.
His theological position was vindicated by the Third Council of Constantinople, the Sixth Ecumenical Council of 680 to 681, which declared that Christ possesses both a human and a divine will and condemned Monothelitism as heresy; Maximus was posthumously declared innocent. He became extremely popular within a generation of his death, and remains one of the last men recognized as a Father of the Church by both the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. Pope Benedict XVI called him the great Greek doctor of the Church in his 2007 encyclical Spe Salvi.
Relics & Shrines
Maximus was buried in the region of his exile in the Caucasus. The Orthodox Church commemorates his repose on January 21, while August 13 marks the translation of his relics to Constantinople.
Miracles & Traditions
Historically Documented: His vindication at the Sixth Ecumenical Council and his swift veneration as a saint within a generation of his death are recorded in the historical tradition.
Traditional Accounts: The synaxarion relates that Maximus foreknew the day of his death through a divine revelation. It is also recounted that miraculous candles burned above his grave and that numerous healings occurred at his tomb, accounts that contributed to his rapid popular veneration.
