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| St. Maximos the Confessor (d. 662) |
Today, the Church commemorates St. Maximos the Confessor (662). Before becoming a monk in 614, St. Maximos had been an imperial secretary to Emperor Heraclius, who was a close collaborator with Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople. In an effort to heal the schism with the Non-Chalcedonians, the Monothelite doctrine was developed and promulgated by Patriarch Sergius: that Christ had only a single will in the hypostatic union of the two natures in Christ. Patriarch Sergius convinced Heraclius to publish a decree called the Ekthesis, or “exposition,” propagating Monothelitism.
Pope Severus of Rome scorned the Ekthesis, and his successor Pope John had it anathematized at a council. St. Maximos learned that the Monothelite heresy had no followers in the West and had been completely rejected there. Throughout the East, only St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, rejected the false Christology. So the blessed Maximos decided to leave his monastery and go to the West, where he hoped to find refuge with the Orthodox of old Rome.
St. Maximos’ eloquence and divine wisdom vanquished his adversaries. He convinced the deposed and exiled Patriarch Pyrrhus of Constantinople of the error of Monothelitism (although he soon returned to the heresy). Later in Rome, Maximos likewise persuaded Pope Theodore, John’s successor, so strongly that the Pope broke communion with the Monothelite Patriarch Paul of Constantinople, who had signed a heretical edict called the Typos, just as his grandfather Heraclitus once signed the Ekthesis. In 649, Maximos inspired the new Pope St. Martin to hold a council at the Lateran Basilica in Rome, which anathematized the errors of Monothelitism and the Typos.
One aspect of Orthodox tradition emphasized in the life of St. Maximos is the importance of church councils in the struggle against heresies. Just as Pope Theodore broke communion with the Constantinopolitan Patriarch after Pope John synodally condemned the Ekthesis, St. Maximos also separated himself from communion with the Patriarch after the Lateran Council in 649. When asked by messengers from the Patriarch and Emperor why he had cut himself off from communion with the see of Constantinople, Maximos would mention how the synod convened in Rome by the blessed Pope Martin had first condemned Monothelitism. He stressed, “The Orthodox Church recognizes as true and holy precisely those synods that proclaimed true dogmas. Your holiness knows that the canons require that local councils be held twice yearly in every Christian land for the defense of our saving faith and for administrative purposes; however, they say nothing about imperial decrees.”
When asked later why he still refused to enter into communion, Maximos again brought attention to church councils, and particularly the local council at Rome: “Because the leaders of this Church have rejected the definitions of four holy councils and accepted the Nine Chapters published in Alexandria; the Ekthesis written by Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople; and the recently issued Typos. . . . Additionally, they have been cut off and stripped of priesthood by the local council held at Rome.”
“Will you enter into communion with our Church, or not?” the Prefect Troilus asked in a final cross-examination. “I will not,” said the saint. “Why?” asked the Eparch. “Because it has rejected the rulings of Orthodox councils,” said Maximos. The interrogation concluded with Maximos’ mention of the Lateran synod held in Rome. One of the saint's adversaries, Demosthenes, contested, “That was not a true council, because Martin, who convened it, was deposed.” The saint replied, “Pope Martin was not deposed, but persecuted.”
St. Maximos and Pope St. Martin suffered greatly for opposing the Monothelite position. They were both arrested by the imperial authorities and brought to Constantinople, where they were tried on false charges, condemned, imprisoned, and exiled. St. Maximos even had his right hand and his tongue cut off by the imperial powers. For Maximos, excommunication as a resistance to heresy was dependent upon preceding church councils, especially the Lateran Council convened by Pope Martin. Both saints were also vindicated by the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680-681, the Third Council of Constantinople) when communion between Rome and the Eastern Churches was restored.
Sources:
St. Dimitri of Rostov, “Life of Saint Maximus the Confessor.”
“Saint Maximus the Confessor and Saint Martin of Rome,” Orthodox Church in America.