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Saint Maximus the Confessor

Witness to Christ’s complete humanity

Listen to this saint

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Life and witness

Maximus wrote on Scripture, worship, and the transformation of human life in Christ. His opposition to Monothelitism brought persecution. His teaching preserves the fullness of Christ’s humanity rather than treating the human will as erased by union with the divine.

Historical setting

Maximus lived through seventh-century attempts to settle disputes about Christ by teaching that He has only one will. Maximus opposed this solution because salvation requires Christ’s complete humanity, including a human natural will. His defense brought trial, exile, and bodily mutilation. His early biography has differing traditions, so a precise reconstruction of his childhood is not asserted here.

Legacy and remembrance

His works on love, biblical interpretation, and the liturgy place doctrine within the transformation of human life. The Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680–681 affirmed two natural wills and two natural operations in Christ, without opposition between His human and divine willing. Maximus is commemorated on January 21, with an additional commemoration on August 13.

More about the life

The church biography follows Maximus through North Africa and Rome as the controversy over Christ’s will spread. It recounts his debate with Pyrrhus and his opposition to the imperial Typos, which sought to stop discussion of one or two wills. The Lateran council of 649 condemned that policy and Monothelitism. Maximus’s subsequent prosecution shows how a theological dispute became a conflict with imperial authority. His correspondence and teaching continued to connect the doctrinal question with the salvation of the whole human person.

Quotes

A sourced selection, not a popularity ranking. Quote wording stays in the cited language; context notes are editorial.

No quotations have been approved for this collection yet. This does not mean that no authentic words survive. See the readings and sources below.

Readings

Selected reading

Maximus the Confessor, Four Hundred Texts on Love, First Century, 1 (Philokalia, vol. 2, trans. and ed. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware, Faber and Faber, 1984)

Love is a holy state of the soul, disposing it to value knowledge of God above all created things. We cannot attain lasting possession of such love while we are still attached to anything worldly.

English: cited historical translation. Modern Greek, Russian and Macedonian: LogosPharos translations through English, not direct translations from ancient Greek.

Editorial context

This is the opening text of the First Century of Maximus's Four Hundred Texts on Love, a collection of four hundred numbered sayings arranged in ten "centuries". It sets the standard for the rest: love of God must be preferred to everything created, and attachment to worldly things is what blocks it.

View source text

Source text and edition

Love is a holy state of the soul, disposing it to value knowledge of God above all created things. We cannot attain lasting possession of such love while we are still attached to anything worldly.

Philokalia, vol. 2, trans. and ed. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware, Faber and Faber, 1984, English translation of the original. Greek, Russian and Macedonian below are relay translations from this English edition, not the original.

https://orthodoxchurchfathers.com/fathers/philokalia/st-maximos-the-confessor-four-hundred-texts-on-love.html

Words recorded in the sources

Each quotation is reproduced from the cited source without changing its wording; its translation basis is stated in its source panel.

  • We do not know God from His essence. We know Him rather from the grandeur of His creation and from His providential care for all creatures. For through these, as though they were mirrors, we may attain insight into His infinite goodness, wisdom and power.

    Maximus the Confessor, Four Hundred Texts on Love, First Century, 96 (Philokalia, vol. 2, trans. and ed. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware, Faber and Faber, 1984)

    English: cited historical translation. Modern Greek, Russian and Macedonian: LogosPharos translations through English, not direct translations from ancient Greek.

    View source text

    Source text and edition

    We do not know God from His essence. We know Him rather from the grandeur of His creation and from His providential care for all creatures. For through these, as though they were mirrors, we may attain insight into His infinite goodness, wisdom and power.

    Philokalia, vol. 2, trans. and ed. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware, Faber and Faber, 1984, English translation of the original. Greek, Russian and Macedonian below are relay translations from this English edition, not the original.

    https://orthodoxchurchfathers.com/fathers/philokalia/st-maximos-the-confessor-four-hundred-texts-on-love.html

  • The person who loves God cannot help loving every man as himself, even though he is grieved by the passions of those who are not yet purified. But when they amend their lives, his delight is indescribable and knows no bounds.

    Maximus the Confessor, Four Hundred Texts on Love, First Century, 13 (Philokalia, vol. 2, trans. and ed. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware, Faber and Faber, 1984)

    English: cited historical translation. Modern Greek, Russian and Macedonian: LogosPharos translations through English, not direct translations from ancient Greek.

    View source text

    Source text and edition

    The person who loves God cannot help loving every man as himself, even though he is grieved by the passions of those who are not yet purified. But when they amend their lives, his delight is indescribable and knows no bounds.

    Philokalia, vol. 2, trans. and ed. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware, Faber and Faber, 1984, English translation of the original. Greek, Russian and Macedonian below are relay translations from this English edition, not the original.

    https://orthodoxchurchfathers.com/fathers/philokalia/st-maximos-the-confessor-four-hundred-texts-on-love.html

Translations and context are AI-assisted and editorially reviewed, not independently certified by a scholar. Compare the displayed source text; short selections are not complete works.

Writings and works

Checked against Eastern Orthodox sources. Written works, recorded teaching, and works about the saint are distinguished.

External sources may be in another language. Modern editions and translations can be copyrighted; full books are not copied here.

Miracles and testimony

These summaries distinguish Scripture, hagiographical accounts and later testimony. A source establishes that an event was reported, not independent proof of its supernatural cause. Miracles are attributed to God, not autonomous powers of saints. Reports of healing are not medical advice or a promise of recovery.

Research and reading notes

These are original editorial biographies, not copied source translations. Scripture, historical writing, and hagiographical tradition are distinguished in the text. This page is a study introduction, not an exhaustive critical edition or a personal spiritual rule.

The saints listed here are commemorated by Eastern Orthodox churches. These summaries and translations are independent editorial work, not official Church publications or Church-approved translations.

Church sources

https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2026/01/21/100249-venerable-maximus-the-confessor

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