Jesus Christ is referred to as the way, the truth, and the life. The Saints who followed the way of Christ point out the single path that was marked out by Him. In as much as the universal Saints such as The Virgin Mary and St. Joseph hold a preeminent place among the communion of Saints, the Apostles had the duty of handing over Faith to the Church after the departure of the Saints ( Allen, 2015) . This paper will analyze Maximus the Confessor as the Saint, his spirituality, and engagement with his written text. It will also give the chance of thinking critically on the Saint's life and teaching, while on end, it will offer the chance of teaching and learning directly from the peers on the important aspects of University life.
The primary element of spirituality
I can attest that the spirituality of Maximus was seen when he resigned from his duties at the court and went to the shores of Bosphorus to serve as a monastery ( Rowland, 2015) . He is described to have had humility and wisdom that guided him to preach against the Monothelite heresy, which was the foundation of corruption for the emperor. This character earned him the rank of igumen in the monastery ( Rowland, 2015) . I find that the primary element of spirituality of Saint Maximus is that he openly defended the Orthodoxy against the Ekthesis when the emperor had an edict that decreed that each person must accept the teaching a single will in the two natures of the Savior. After realizing the effects of the turmoil of the heresy, Saint Maximus sought refuge in the West of Constantinople, where he preached to the Bishops in Africa while strengthening them in Orthodoxy.
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Impact of the Spirituality
The Saint strived towards strengthening the people in their faith in the adoption of Orthodoxy, while he encouraged them not to be deceived by the cunning arguments of heretics. For instance, The Fourth Ecumenical Council highly condemned the notion that the Monophysite heresy had on the nature of Christ ( Allen, 2015) . In this notion, the heretics falsely taught that the Lord Jesus Christ had only one nature in Him, which was the divine nature. They posited that in Christ, there was only a single divine will, called Thelema and only one divine energy called Energia. Many adherents of these teachings became a serious threat to the church unity in the East ( Jankowiak & Booth, 2015) . Saint Maximus had to face the struggle between Orthodoxy and heresy, where this proved to be a hurdle since adherents of heresy occupied three of the patriarchal thrones in the Orthodox.
In 647, Saint Marcus became condemned Monotheletism as heresy especially in the African continent. He helped in changing the lives of the people and their understanding of Christianity, where his teachings led to the new edict that was dubbed, “Pattern of the Faith”. This edict restricted any further disputes on a single will or two wills in the existence of Jesus Christ ( Jankowiak & Booth, 2015). Saint Maximus questioned Saint Martin the Confessor on the legality of Monothelitism at the Council of Churches.
This led to the convening of the Lateran Council that comprised of one hundred and fifty bishops from the West and the thirty-seven representative from the Orthodox. The results of the meeting were that the council gave a condemnation to Monothelitism and the typos, while the teachings of the patriarchs were anathematized. After the king received the recommendations from the council, he orders the arrest of Pope Martin and Saint Maximus, who would later be charged with treason. The Saint together with his disciples was subjected to all forms of cruel torments, where each had their tongue and right hand chopped off for supporting the Orthodoxy views.
References
Allen, P. (2015). Life and Times of Maximus the Confessor. In The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor .
Jankowiak, M., & Booth, P. (2015). A New Date-List of the Works of Maximus the Confessor. In The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor .
Rowland, S. (2015). Carl Jung and Maximus the confessor on psychic development: the dynamics between the ‘psychological’and the ‘spiritual’.
