Wednesday, March 11

Byzantine · c. 560 – 638

St Sophronius of Jerusalem

Patriarch of Jerusalem, theologian and hymnographer

A sophist and teacher of rhetoric from Damascus, Sophronius became a monk and spent decades travelling the monasteries of Palestine, Egypt, and Sinai with his friend John Moschos, whose Spiritual Meadow — a beloved collection of monastic stories — is dedicated to him. Elected patriarch of Jerusalem in 634, he became the first great voice against monoenergism and monothelitism, insisting in his synodical letter that Christ acts with both a divine and a fully human energy — the theology Maximus the Confessor would die defending. His patriarchate ended in sorrow: after a long siege he negotiated the peaceful surrender of Jerusalem to the Caliph Umar in 637/638, securing protection for its Christians and churches, and died soon after. He composed odes and prayers still used in worship — the great blessing of waters at Theophany is attributed to him, as is the Life of St Mary of Egypt read each Great Lent, an attribution that is traditional though not certain.

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