By Bishop Grigorios of Mesaoria
The Church today honors the memory of the Martyrs Neophytus and Agne and of Saint Maximus the Confessor, who by his word, his writings and the sacrifice of his own life confessed Christ in difficult times, when the Church was shaken by the heresy of Monothelitism.
The heretics taught that Christ had two natures, divine and human, but only one will, the divine one. This is a distortion of Orthodox teaching, and it also contradicts the potential for human salvation, since it teaches that all Christ’s actions did not contain the element of free human will. But God, who, in every comparable age, promotes guardians of the Faith and guides of the people, in the sixth century he proclaimed the Holy Maximus the Confessor.
From an aristocratic family in Constantinople, the Saint, born in the year 580 AD, received extensive and rich education and initially served as the Protoasecretis of the Emperor Heraclius. He abandoned his wordly career since his longing for Christ led him to a monastery where he practiced in exercise and writing. Because of his struggles for Orthodoxy, the heretical Emperor Constans II, with envy and malice, ordered his punishment, which included lashings and cuting off of his tongue and right hand.
The great Confessor and Martyr of our Faith, Saint Maximus, died in exile in 662 AD.
Source: Church of Cyprus
