Maximus the Confessor

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Maximus the Confessor

Maximus Confessor ("Maximus the Confessor"; Greek Μάξιμος Ὁμολογητής Maximos Homologetes ) (* around 580 ; † 13 August 662 ) was a Greek monk and theologian and is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches .

Life

Maximus came from a wealthy Eastern Roman family and was born in Constantinople around 580 . From 610 he was a secretary to the emperor Herakleios . In 613/614 he retired as abbot to the neighboring monastery Chrysopolis near Chalcedon (today Skutari , part of Istanbul ), later (624/25) to Kyzikos . Maximus fled in 626 from the Persians advancing into Asia Minor, first to Crete and Cyprus and then in 628/630 to North Africa. There he fought monophysitism , which rejected the doctrine of two natures.

In 630 Herakleios was able to make peace with the Persians; but the respite was short-lived, as the attacks by the Muslim Arabs began shortly afterwards. In this situation Herakleios tried to unite the divided Christians by propagating monotheleticism . But this met with rejection, especially in Italy and Africa, as was the case with Maximus, who considered the new doctrine to be an indisputable compromise with the Monophysites. In 641, the only eleven year old Constans II ascended the Eastern Roman-Byzantine throne. At this time the Arabs had already conquered Egypt and Syria and were advancing against Constantinople (see Islamic expansion ). The first concern of Konstans and his senatorial advisers was therefore to secure the unity of the empire through the unity of faith and thus to strengthen its defensive power in the face of the crisis. Since it had never been possible to achieve dogmatic consensus in Christianity in the past three centuries, the imperial government relied on the strategy of simply forbidding religious disputes. In his Typos of 648 Konstans therefore officially forbade any discussion and quarrel between the “orthodox” Christians who followed the creed in the Council of Chalcedon (451), the Monophysites and the Monotheletes who believed despite the two natures in the person of Christ , the divine and the human, only one will ( thelos ) rules in him , namely the divine.

Maximus rejected the imperial edict and continued to persecute those he believed to be heretics relentlessly. As early as 645/46 he had gone to Rome and organized the convening of a council that was to condemn the two different doctrines again. At that time Theodor I was Pope. The latter refused to recognize Paul, a monothelite, as the new patriarch of Constantinople and deposed him in 649. His predecessor, Pyrrhus I, he excommunicated. These events, and especially the convocation of the Lateran Synod by Theodor's successor Martin I in 649, massively violated the will of the emperor. Maximus also took part in the Lateran Synod . Monotheletism and monophysitism were sharply condemned on it. Thereupon he and Martin were arrested by imperial excubitores for high treason and brought to Constantinople. In addition, Maximus was accused of supporting the usurper Gregorius , who had risen against the emperor around 646. In any case, Konstans II had never approved Martin's election as Pope. For him, Maximus and Martin were simply rebels who endangered national defense and internal peace and who had supported his enemies. Theological questions took a back seat in the face of these allegations - for Konstans it was about refused obedience and riot, not about religious differences.

Maximus was therefore tried in Constantinople in 653, imprisoned until 655 and then exiled to Thrace . In the same year, the Arab fleet under the Caliph Muawiya destroyed the Eastern Roman fleet. Konstans left Constantinople in early 662 and moved to Italy to organize the resistance there. That same year, Maximus again refused to obey the imperial typos of 648. As a punishment, his tongue was cut out and his right hand chopped off. A little later he was exiled to Lazika in what is now Georgia , where he died of his injuries on August 13, 662 in Shemarion Castle on the Black Sea.

plant

Maximus left about 90 writings. In addition to Greek, he also mastered Latin, had a basic knowledge of the Aristotelian dialectic and was strongly influenced by Neoplatonism . His commentary on Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita is important .

Around 636, in the face of the advancing Arabs, he noticed:

“What could be more terrible than the evils present that are now sweeping the civilized world? A barbaric desert nation overruns another country as if it were their property, our civilization is ravaged by wild and untamed beasts in human form. These beasts are Jews and disciples of the Antichrist . Christians must repent in order to repel the invaders. "

Mindful of Islamic historiography, one could have expected the mention of a new religion called Islam or a person Mohammed. Apparently he is not aware of any of these. He turns against the heretical Arabs who have been separated from the imperial church and who no longer worship Jesus as the Son of God. Without a divine Christ, for Maximus the Arabs are "Jews and disciples of the Antichrist".

According to the Martyrologium Romanum , August 13th is assigned to him as saint.

Text editions and translations

  • Maximos the Confessor: All-One in Christ . Selection, transfer, introduction by Endre von Ivánka . Einsiedeln 1961.
  • Capita theologica et oeconomica: Two Centuries on the Knowledge of God . Translated and commented by Andreas Wollbold . Freiburg im Breisgau 2016.
  • Three spiritual writings . Translated from the Greek by Guido Bausenhart , reviewed and revised by Johannes-Verlag. Freiburg im Breisgau 1996.
  • Wisdom that Prays: Maximus the Confessor 580–662 . German by Basilius Hermann. Wuerzburg 1941.

literature

  • Pauline Allen, Bronwen Neil (Eds.): Maximus the Confessor and His Companions. Oxford 2002.
  • Pauline Allen, Bronwen Neil (Eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor . Oxford 2015.
  • Hans Urs von Balthasar SJ: Cosmic Liturgy: Maximus' view of the world the Confessor . Einsiedeln 1961.
  • David Bradshaw: Maximus the Confessor. In: Lloyd Gerson (Ed.): The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity. Cambridge 2010, pp. 813-828.
  • Wolfram Brandes : “Legal” Crisis Management in the 7th Century? The trials of Martin I and Maximos Homologetes. In: Fontes Minores 10, 1998, pp. 141-212.
  • Peter Hauptmann : Maximus Confessor. In: Martin Greschat (Ed.): Gestalten der Kirchengeschichte. Stuttgart 1984, pp. 275-288.
  • Assaad E. Kattan: Embodiment and Synergy: Fundamentals of Biblical Hermeneutics in Maximus Confessor. Leiden / Boston 2003.
  • Frederick Lauritzen: Pagan Energies in Maximus the Confessor: The Influence of Proclus on Ad Thomam 5. In: Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 52, 2012, pp. 226-239 ( online ).
  • Andrew Louth: Maximus the Confessor. London 1996.
  • John Meyendorff: Imperial Unity and Christian Divisions. The Church 450-680 AD. Crestwood / NY 1989.
  • Klaus Heinrich Neuhoff: Theosis, Anakephalaiosis and Apokatastasis according to Maximos the Confessor in their meaning for Cosmic Christology . Bonn 2016.
  • Raymund Schwager SJ: The mystery of the supernatural teaching of nature: To the redemption teaching of Maximus Confessor . In: Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie 105/1, 1983, 32–57.

Web links

Commons : Maximus Confessor  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Maximus the Confessor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION theological scholar and imperial secretary in Constantinople
DATE OF BIRTH around 580
PLACE OF BIRTH Constantinople
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 662