A Significant Doctoral Dissertation on “The Interpretive Framework of the Christology of Saint Maximus the Confessor”

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

On June 25, 2013, I attended, in the Conference Hall of the Theological School of Thessaloniki, the defense of the dissertation of Mr. Georgios Siskos, which was submitted to the Department of Pastoral and Social Theology, on the topic “The Interpretive Framework of the Christology of Saint Maximus the Confessor,” following a request by the doctoral candidate.

The truth is that I myself also showed interest in this dissertation, because I had discussed it with its author during the course of its preparation and had discerned its exceptional importance for the Church, theology, and our time.

The seven-member committee consisted of Professors Despo Lialiou, Demetrios Tselengidis, Konstantinos Christou, His Eminence Metropolitan Elpidophoros of Prousa, Vasilios Tsigos, Symeon Paschalidis, and Fr. Christos Filiotis-Vlachavas. During the defense of the dissertation, statements and questions were posed by the professors, and the candidate under evaluation responded thoroughly, as an excellent connoisseur of the subject — both from the perspective of the teaching of Saint Maximus in relation to Chalcedonian and anti-Chalcedonian Christology, and from the perspective of contemporary theological bibliography on this topic.

Saint Maximus the Confessor in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The commemoration of our Venerable Father Maximus the Confessor, the “all-blessed and all-great,” constitutes for our Church an eternal proclamation — both of his blood that was shed for the sake of the faith and of his God-inspired teachings. That is to say, our Church does not regard the celebrated Saint as something belonging merely to the past, even a glorified one — perhaps analogous to various anniversaries of national holidays — but as a living and enduring present. For his blood (as indeed that of the other martyrs and teachers of the Church) nourished the Church, and his teachings preserved unadulterated the revelation of Christ and the preaching of the Holy Apostles and the later Fathers. Indeed, these two — his blood and his teachings — were inseparably bound together: his blood was the confirmation of his orthodox doctrines.

This is not merely our own opinion concerning Saint Maximus. It is the common faith of our Church, expressed through the mouth of another great Father and hymnographer, Saint John of Damascus. In his Canon for the Saint, for example, the Holy Hymnographer notes among other things: “Even to this day and unto all the ages, O all-blessed and all-great Maximus, your blood, like that of Abel, cries aloud in the Church of Christ, proclaiming with a piercing voice your divinely-inspired dogmas.”

January: Day 21: Teaching 2: Venerable Maximus the Confessor

January: Day 21: Teaching 2:
Venerable Maximus the Confessor
 
(Christians Must Confess Their Calling Without Shame)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. In the 7th century, the false teaching of the Monothelites arose in the Eastern Church, who recognized in Jesus Christ one divine will with two natures, divine and human. The defenders of the heresy were two Patriarchs, those of Alexandria and Constantinople; it was also held by the Greek Emperor Heraclius himself, who issued a decree confirming the heresy. But the Orthodox teaching found a firm defender in the Venerable Maximus, now being glorified by the Church. He convinced the faithful by word and writing to stand firm for the truth. On his advice, the Roman Bishop Martin convened a Synod in Rome in 649, at which the heresy and its defenders were condemned. Emperor Constans II, the successor of Heraclius, himself an adherent of Monothelitism, ordered Martin to be seized and brought to Constantinople; Maximus was also taken with him. The fate of the latter was very sad. They tried to convert him to heresy by various tortures, kept him in prison, beat him cruelly, trampled him underfoot. But Venerable Maximus, despite the tortures, remained unshakable and firmly defended Orthodoxy. Finally, the emperor ordered his tongue to be cut out and his right hand to be cut off, so that he could not proclaim the truth either by word or by writing. After this, the Confessor was dragged through the city in disgrace and finally exiled to imprisonment on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. He endured much suffering before he reached his place of exile. Arriving there, the Venerable languished in prison for three years under the supervision of cruel guards and died in 662.

Homily on Abba Dorotheos of Gaza and Saint Maximus the Confessor (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Today our Church celebrates the memory of two great ascetic Fathers, namely our holy and God-bearing Father Dorotheos and Saint Maximus the Confessor, the latter on the occasion of the transfer of his relics. Between these two Fathers there is a common characteristic and that is the ascetic life, which is the basis of Orthodox theology.

First of all, let me refer to Venerable Dorotheos, who lived in the 6th century though we don't know the particular circumstances in which he grew up. In general, he came from a rich family in Gaza, he acquired great philological and philosophical knowledge, but at a very young age he left everything and joined the Sacred Monastery of Seridos, a few kilometers south of Gaza. Two great ascetics lived in asceticism there who were shut up in their cells and had great spiritual experience, that is, Barsanuphios, who did not come into contact with people, but when they asked him written questions, he answered by dictating to his disciple Seridos; also shut up in his cell was John the Prophet.