Walking with the Saints Podcast | Feast of St. Maximus, The Chief Doctors of Theology | August 13

Walking with the Saints Podcast | Feast of St. Maximus, The Chief Doctors of Theology | August 13   St. Maximus, the Theologian, fought against Monothelitism. Monothelitism was a belief that Jesus Christ had only one will and that is the divine will. the Church  belief that  Jesus through the hypostatic union, saying that He had both a divine and human nature. He was drawn into   problem because of his friend who believed that Jesus had only one will. St. Maximus was born of an aristocratic parents in Constantinople, capital of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, around the year 580. He received a superior education in philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and other popular sciences. When he was of age, he was given a high position under the reign of Emperor Heraclius of Constantinople. A few years later, he left public life and became a monk at a monastery in the city. He was afterwards appointed abbot of the monastery. When the Persians conquered Anatolia or  (Asia Minor) he was forced to flee to a monastery in Carthage, where he studied the Christological writings of St. Gregory Nazianzus and Dionisius the aeropagite. While Maximus was in Carthage, the Monothelite controversy broke out. Maximus defended the truth that Jesus had two wills. He debated before the presence of many African bishops and his friend Phyrus, who believed it admitted his error. Maximus accompanied Phyrus to Rome. While in Rome, the Lateran Council of 649 was convened by Pope Martin I. The 105 Bishops present condemned the heresy. It was after the Council that Pope Martin and Maximus were arrested by the order of Emperor Constans II, then Emperor in Constantinople, who supported the Monothelite doctrine. Pope Martin died before he was put to trial. He was dragged from Rome in 653 and died of ill treatment at Inkerman in March 655. In 662, Maximus was again put to trial for refusing to follow the heresy. He was tortured, his tongue cut out, and his right hand cut off. Then he was exiled to Lazica and died on August 13, 662. During the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680-681, Maximus and Pope Martin I were vindicated when the Council declared that Christ possessed both a human and divine will. Monothelitism was condemned. In 2007 when Pope Benedict XVI issued the encyclical Spe Salvi, he called Maximus a great Eastern Doctor of the Church. Maximus main teaching may be summed up under two headings: union of God with humanity through the Incarnation, and the union of man with God by the practice of perfection and contemplation. His famous saying which people even today are striving to follow and imitate says: “To harbor no envy, no anger, no resentment against an offender is still not to have charity for him. It is impossible, without any charity, to avoid rendering evil for evil. But to render, spontaneously, good for evil – such belongs to a perfect spiritual love.” He was also known as a remarkable witness to the respect of the papacy held by members of the Eastern Church during his time. Moreover, he is one of the chief doctors of theology of the Incarnation and ascetic mysticism. Virtue: piety, humility, courage, integrity, patience, commitment, assertiveness and loyalty. Prayer: “Pray for us St. Maximus, that we may always defend the doctrines of the Church.”