Sunday, September 20

Byzantine · c. 580 – 662

St Maximus the Confessor

Monk, theologian, confessor against monothelitism

Once a high imperial secretary in Constantinople, Maximus left the court for monastic life and became the deepest theological mind of his century. When emperors promoted monothelitism — the teaching that Christ has no human will of His own — Maximus saw that this quietly undid salvation: what Christ has not assumed is not healed. He argued the point across the Mediterranean, helped Pope Martin convene the Lateran Council of 649 that condemned the doctrine, and paid the price. Arrested and tried for treason, he refused communion with the compromised see of Constantinople even if 'the whole world' accepted it. In 662 his tongue and right hand — the instruments of his confession — were mutilated, and he died in exile in the Caucasus that year. Nineteen years later the Sixth Ecumenical Council vindicated everything he taught. His Ambigua and Centuries on Love remain summits of Christian theology.

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