Maximus the Confessor

Saint Maximus
Icon of St. Maximus
Confessor, Theologian, Homologetes
Born	c. 580 Constantinople or Palestine
Died	13 August 662(662-08-13) exile in Georgia
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church Anglican Communion Lutheranism
Canonized	pre-congregation
Feast	13 August (Gregorian Calendar), 21 January or 13 August (Julian Calendar)

Maximus the Confessor (Greek: Μάξιμος ὁ Ὁμολογητής) also known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople (c. 580 – 13 August 662) was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar.

In his early life, Maximus was a civil servant, and an aide to the Jesus.

Life

Early life

Very little is known about the details of Maximus' life prior to his involvement in the theological and political conflicts of the Monothelite controversy.^[2] Numerous Maximian scholars call substantial portions of the Maronite biography into question, including Maximus' birth in Palestine, which was a common seventh century trope to discredit an opponent. Moreover, the exceptional education Maximus evidently received could not have been had in any other part of the Byzantine Empire during that time except for Constantinople, and possibly Caesarea and Alexandria. It is also very unlikely that anyone of low social birth, as the Maronite biography describes Maximus, could have ascended by the age of thirty to be the Protoasecretis of the Emperor Heraclius, one of the most powerful positions in the Empire. It is more likely that Maximus was born of an aristocratic family and received an unparalleled education in philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, etc. It is true, however, that Maximus did not study rhetoric as he himself notes in the prologue to his Earlier Ambigua to John,^[3] to which his lack of high stylistic by Byzantine standards attests. Nevertheless, for reasons not explained in the few autobiographical details to be gleaned from his texts, Maximus left public life and took monastic vows at the monastery of Philippicus in Chrysopolis, a city across the Bosporus from Constantinople (later known as Scutari, the modern Turkish city of Üsküdar). Maximus was elevated to the position of abbot of the monastery.^[4] "Theology without practice is the theology of demons". (One of his most famous quotes)

When the

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•  Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: Μάξιμος ὁ Ὁμολογητής
• Selected works of Saint Maximus Confessor
•  "St. Maximus of Constantinople".  
• Maximus Confessor in the Catholic Forum
• Maximus Confessor in the Orthodox Church in America
• Greek Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Graeca with analytical indexes
• Summary of Maximus' biography of Mary (mother of Jesus) by Commonweal magazine
• Uploaded online academic papers on Maximus the Confessor

External links

Further reading

References

• Commentary on Psalm 59
• Commentary on the Lord's Prayer
• Centuries on Love and Centuries on Theology – Two sets of works in the ascetic style of the 'century', where groups of one hundred short sayings are used as meditations during prayer.
• Hymns
• Mystagogy – A commentary and meditation on the Eucharistic liturgy.
• Questions to Thalassius – a lengthy exposition on various Scriptural texts. This was later translated by Eriugena.
• Disputation with Pyrrhus - anti-monotholete treatise in conversation with Patriarch Pyrrhus of Constantinople
• Scholia – commentary on the earlier writings of Pseudo-Dionysius.
• The Ascetic Life – a discussion on the monastic rule of life.
• Life of the Virgin – earliest complete biography of Mary, the mother of Jesus^[25]

• Ambigua – An exploration of difficult passages in the work of Pseudo-Dionysius and Gregory of Nazianzus, focusing on Christological issues. This also was later translated by Eriugena.

The original edition in Latin of Balthasar Corderius (Antwerp 1634) attributes all of the Scholia to Maximus, but the authorship has been questioned with Hans Urs von Balthasar (1940, 1961) attributing some of the Scholia to John of Scythopolis.^[24]

Writings

Maximus' work was translated by the 9th-century, Irish philosopher and mystical theologian Johannes Scotus Eriugena. In Eastern Christianity, Maximus has always been influential. The Eastern theologians Symeon the New Theologian and Gregory Palamas are seen as intellectual heirs to Maximus. Further, a number of Maximus' works are included in the Greek Philokalia, a collection of some of the most influential Orthodox Christian writers.

Reception

Regarding salvation, Maximus has been described as a proponent of apocatastasis or universal reconciliation, the idea that all rational souls will eventually be redeemed, like Origen and St. Gregory of Nyssa.^[21] While this claim has been disputed,^[22] others have argued that Maximus shared this belief in universal reconciliation with his most spiritually mature students.^[23]

Christologically Maximus insisted on a strict dyophysitism, which can be seen as a corollary of the emphasis on theosis. In terms of salvation, humanity is intended to be fully united with God. This is possible for Maximus because God was first fully united with humanity in the incarnation.^[16] If Christ did not become fully human (if, for example, he only had a divine and not a human will), then salvation was no longer possible, as humanity could not become fully divine.^[19] Furthermore, in his works Maximus the Confessor argued the unconditionality of the divine incarnation.^[20]

The Platonic influence on Maximus' thought can be seen most clearly in his theological anthropology. Here, Maximus adopted the Platonic model of exitus-reditus (exit and return), teaching that humanity was made in the image of God, and the purpose of salvation is to restore us to unity with God.^[17] This emphasis on divinization or theosis helped secure Maximus' place in Eastern theology, as these concepts have always held an important place in Eastern Christianity.^[18]

As a student of Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus was one of many Christian theologians who preserved and interpreted the earlier Neo-Platonic philosophy, including the thought of such figures as Plotinus and Proclus. Maximus' work on Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite was continued by John Scotus Erigena at the request of Charles the Bald.^[16]

Theology

Maximus is one of the last men to be recognized by both the Orthodox and Catholic Churches as a Father of the Church.

Maximus is among those Christians who were venerated as saints shortly after their deaths. The vindication of Maximus' theological position made him extremely popular within a generation after his death, and his cause was aided by the accounts of miracles at his tomb.^[15] In the Roman Catholic Church the veneration of Maximus began prior to the foundation of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Along with Pope Martin I, Maximus was vindicated by the Third Council of Constantinople (the Sixth Ecumenical Council, 680–681), which declared that Christ possessed both a human and a divine will. With this declaration Monothelitism became heresy, and Maximus was posthumously declared innocent of all charges against him.

Maximus the Confessor and His Miracles. An early 17th-century Stroganov school icon from Solvychegodsk.

Legacy

In 662, Maximus was placed on trial once more, and was once more convicted of heresy. Following the trial Maximus was tortured, having his tongue cut out, so he could no longer speak his rebellion, and his right hand cut off, so that he could no longer write letters.^[12] Maximus was then exiled to the Tsageri.^[13] He died soon thereafter, on 13 August 662.^[14] The events of the trials of Maximus were recorded by Anastasius Bibliothecarius.

Maximus' refusal to accept Monothelitism caused him to be brought to the imperial capital of Constantinople to be tried as a heretic in 658. In Constantinople, Monothelitism had gained the favor of both the Emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople. Maximus stood behind the Dyothelite position and was sent back into exile for four more years.

Trial and exile

Maximus may have remained in Rome, because he was present when the newly elected Pope Martin I convened the Lateran Council of 649 at the Lateran Basilica in Rome.^[9] The 105 bishops present condemned Monothelitism in the official acts of the synod, which some believe may have been written by Maximus.^[10] It was in Rome that Pope Martin and Maximus were arrested in 653 under orders from Constans II, who supported the Monothelite doctrine. Pope Martin was condemned without a trial, and died before he could be sent to the Imperial Capital.^[11]

The Monothelite position was promulgated by Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople and by Maximus' friend and successor as the Abbot of Chrysopolis, Pyrrhus.^[7] Following the death of Sergius in 638, Pyrrhus succeeded him as Patriarch, but was shortly deposed due to political circumstances. During Pyrrhus' exile from Constantinople, Maximus and the deposed Patriarch held a public debate on the issue of Monothelitism. In the debate, which was held in the presence of many North African bishops, Maximus took the position that Jesus possessed both a human and a divine will. The result of the debate was that Pyrrhus admitted the error of the Monothelite position, and Maximus accompanied him to Rome in 645.^[8] However, on the death of Emperor Heraclius and the ascension of Emperor Constans II, Pyrrhus returned to Constantinople and recanted of his acceptance of the Dyothelite ("two wills") position.

A silver hexagramma showing Constans II with his son. Constans II supported Monothelitism, and had Maximus exiled for his refusal to agree to Monothelite teachings.

While Maximus was in Carthage, a controversy broke out regarding how to understand the interaction between the human and divine natures within the person of Jesus. This Christological debate was the latest development in disagreements that began following the First Council of Nicaea in 325, and were intensified following the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The Monothelite position was developed as a compromise between the dyophysitists and the miaphysists, who believed dyophysitism is conceptually indistinguishable from Nestorianism. The Monothelites adhered to the Chalcedonian definition of the hypostatic union: that two natures, one divine and one human, were united in the person of Christ. However, they went on to say that Christ had only a divine will and no human will (Monothelite is derived from the Greek for "one will"), which led some to charge them with Apollinarian monophysitism.

Involvement in Monothelite controversy

and the population as a holy man, ostensibly becoming an influential unofficial political advisor and spiritual head in North Africa. [6]