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Know Your Faith IV:

The Fathers of the Church

Lesson 8: St Maximus the ConfessorDefender of the Faith Against Heresy

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St Maximus the Confessor580-662

Ardent Defender of OrthodoxyPious in His Monasticism

Fought Against MonotheletismTortured for His Faith

Constantinople in the Time of St Maximus

Constantinople in the 7Th Century

St Justinian the Great The Great Church of Hagia Sophia

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Attacks On the Byzantine Empire: Islam and Montheletism

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Flight to Africa, Maintaining Orthodoxy

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The Relationship of the Church and the State

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Like I said, “That which is not assumed cannot be redeemed.”

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Heretical Patriarchs of the Mid 7th Century

Orthodox and Faithful Patriarchs of the Mid 7th Century

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Oriental Orthodox ChurchesDiffering in Terminology, But Not in Faith

• The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria

• The Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch

(sometimes called 'Jacobite')

• Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church, a branch and

integral part of the Syriac Orthodox Church with

the Oriental Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch as its

supreme head.

• The Church of Armenia (sometimes called the

Armenian Apostolic Church)

• The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

(sometimes called the Indian Orthodox Church)

• The Ethiopian Orthodox Church

• The Eritrean Orthodox Church

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St Pope Martin of Rome And Confessor

Born in Tuscany, Italy Pope: 649-655

“Even if they cripple me, I will not have relations with the Church of Constantinople

while it remains in its evil doctrines.”

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The Writings of St Maximus the Confessor• Quaestiones ad Thalassium (Questions to

Thalassius)—65 questions and answers on difficult passages of Holy Scripture

• Ambigua—an exegetical work on St. Gregory the Theologian (329-390).

• Paraphrases of the works of Dionysius the Areopagite (though this may be the work of John of Scythopolis, who wrote in the first half of the 6th century, some 100 years before Maximus)

• Several dogmatic treatises against the Monothelites

• Liber Asceticus (Book on Asceticism)• Capita de Caritate • Mystagogia—a mystical interpretation of the

Divine Liturgy

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The Spiritual Legacy of St Maximus

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The Spiritual Legacy of St MaximusDiscussion

1. Why does it matter that Jesus Christ took on a human will, in addition to the Divine will?

2. What does it mean to be a Confessor, and how should this challenge our daily Christian lives?

3. What is the role of secular society and the decrees of governments in the life of the Church? If we must live in a society such as ours, where do we draw the line of governmental interference, or where do we open the gates for the synergy of the church and the state?

4. Should the Church ever allow something from outside of itself to determine the teachings of the Church? Does the answer change if we recall that the Church is the Body of Christ (because then the question would look like this: Should the body of Christ ever allow something from outside of itself to determine the its witness of itself?)

5. What are some steps, mundane or momentous, that put us on the path of salvation and urge us to theosis?

6. What other writings, whether St Maximus or not, are edifying in your spiritual struggles within the Orthodox Christian tradition?