St. Pachomius Library

St. Maximus the Confessor, Abbot of the Chrysopolis

VI/VII Centuries
Ascetic and defender of Nicene Christianity, St. Maximus was born c. 580 into a noble family at Constantinople. A student of philosophy and theology, he served as imperial secretary to Heraclius until c. 614, when Maximus became a monk. During a Persian invasion in 626, he travelled first to Alexandria, then to Carthage, where he debated Pyrrhus, a monothelite. A number of African synods condemned Maximus for his insistence that Christ had a divine will and a human will, and Martin I invited Maximus to participate in the Lateran synod of 649. Four years later, he was arrested and tried at his birthplace for his refusal to adhere to the Typos of Constans II, which forbade the discussion of Christ's will or wills. Maximus was tortured and exile to Shemarum on the Black Sea, where he died of his injuries.
Maximus preaches that Christ's Incarnation is the purpose of history because it restores the equilibrium destroyed by Adam's fall. If Christ is not fully God and fully man, argues Maximus, salvation is void. Maximus is the author of Four Centuries of Love, about asceticism and charity in daily life; Ambigua about the writings of Sts. Gregory the Theologian; and Mystagogia about the nature of the church. Maximus also commented on the works of Dionysios the Areopagite and on the Scriptures.
Karen Rae Keck

ABOUT:
- Fr. Alexander Mileant: Our Holy Father St. Maximos the Confessor: --- Fr. Alexander
- Catholic Patron Saints Index:
- 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia: (Read with caution)
- Marcus Plested: Maximus the Confessor, (2004). Chapter 8 of his Macarian Legacy, (Oxford University Press, 2004).
- I. P. Sheldon-Williams: St. Maximus the Confessor, (1967). Chapter 32 of The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy edited by A. H. Armstrong, (Cambridge, 1967).
- P. Christou: Maximos Confessor on the Infinity Of Man: --- Myriobiblios
- Metro. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos: The Church and the Divine Eucharist, according to St. Maximos the Confessor: --- Pelagia
- Bp. Ignatius (Midich): The Relationship of Humanity with Nature and the Ecological Problem according to St Maximos the Confessor: --- Iskon.Co.Yu
WORKS:
- Chapters on Knowledge (numerous excerpts): Features an interesting topical index. --- Monachos
- Letter II (long excerpt): --- Vatican
- Letter to Marinus on the Filioque: St. Maximus apparently accepted the argument that the Filioque issue between East and West was a linguistic misunderstanding, which in the VII Century, when the West was Orthodox, it probably was. Subsequent theological developments in the West, however, have exacerbated rather than resolved the issue. --- Christian Platonist Page
- Selected Quotations (from the Philokalia) on Deification: --- Divine Will

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