Feast Day ~ August 13
Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313 made it possible for Christianity to exist as a legal religion in the Roman Empire and, although there continued to be sporadic outbursts of persecution in some places, the age of martyrdom was essentially ended. Thereafter, if martyrdom occurred, it was usually that of a missionary saint who was killed in his efforts at conversion of a pagan people.
But then another kind of persecution began which, in its ugliness, pitted Christian against Christian. The great Christological questions of the first several centuries following the Resurrection were not all resolved at the Council of Nicaea in 325. There continued to be questioning and speculating, controversy and argument about the person of Christ and how the Church should respond to the world. Heresies grew out of independent opinions not accepted by the Church as a whole.
Just as the earlier controversy over whether Christ had one or two natures, one of the most fiercely fought controversies in the 7th century was the question of whether Christ had one (divine) will or two (one human, one divine). The greatest defender of the Orthodox teaching on the two wills of Christ was St. Maximus, an abbot who is known to us as “the Confessor”.
Born in the year 580 into a prominent family, Maximus entered public service as an adult, eventually becoming chief secretary to the Emperor Heraclius. The young man had long wished for a quieter, more contemplative life, so when it became apparent that the Emperor was leaning toward accepting the theories of the Monothelites, Maximus resigned his position and took refuge in a monastery near Constantinople.
But the quiet, contemplative life evaded him as invasions by Avars, Slavs and Persians destroyed the peace. Even though he had been elected Abbot of the monastery, Maximus escaped to Alexandria in 626. Now, as the heresy of Monotheletism gained momentum and both Emperor (now Constans II) and Patriarch of Constantinople Pyrros accepted it, Maximus became outspoken in his defense of Orthodox teaching. In Maximus Confessor: Selected Writings, George Berthold and Jaroslav Pelikan explain that Maximus knew that “whatever was not assumed in the Incarnation was not healed in the Redemption; the absence of a truly human will in Jesus Christ would have meant that (of all the functions of human nature and personality to be exempted!) the human will of sinful humanity would not have been saved.”
Through his writings and preaching, Maximus attempted to convey the truth. He was able to influence two local councils, one in Carthage in 645 and another in Rome in 649, where the teachings of the Church held firm. But public and political opinion in Constantinople held sway and in 653, Maximus, along with Pope Martin I of Rome, was arrested and brought to trial for treason (the proceedings of this trial were recorded by a scribe and can still be read today). Both the abbot and the pope were banished in 655 to different remote parts of the Empire; Pope Martin died within a few months of his exile.
But Emperor Constans did not give up on Maximus. He continued to urge his acquiescence to this heresy and the abbot continued to refuse. Maximus was recalled to Constantinople in 661 and, after further interrogation, he was sentenced to mutilation. The tongue of the holy man of God who had spoken truthfully about the second person of the Trinity was cut out, and the right hand which had written about the love and knowledge of God was cut off. Having become a “confessor” for the faith by virtue of his teachings and his sufferings for Christ, St. Maximus fell asleep in the Lord on August 13, 662. The heresy of Monotheletism was condemned at the 6th Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in 680-681.
We live again in an age when the nuances of Christian theology are being twisted, when basic Christian beliefs are being either diluted or ignored, when Truth must be defended. May St. Maximus the Confessor intercede for us that we may have the wisdom and strength to be defenders of the Faith.
References: Maximus Confessor: Selected Writings by George Berthold and Jaroslav Pelikan; Orthodox Saints, Volume One by George Poulos; Prologue From Ochrid by (St.) Nikolai Velimirovic; internet article from OrthodoxWiki.