MAXIMUS, ST. (c. 580-662), abbot of Chrysopolis, known as "the Confessor" from his orthodox zeal in the Monothelite (q.v.) controversy, or as "the monk," was born of noble parentage at Constantinople about the year 580. He became private secre tary to the emperor Heraclius in 61o. In 63o he entered the monastery of Chrysopolis (Scutari), of which he became abbot. In 633 he was one of the party of Sophronius of Jerusalem (the chief original opponent of the Monothelites) at the council of Alexandria ; and in 645 he was again in Africa, when he disputed with Pyrrhus, the deposed and banished patriarch of Constanti nople. In the following year several African synods, held under the influence of Maximus, declared for orthodoxy. In 649 he went to Rome, after the accession of Martin I., who in October of that year held the (first) Lateran synod, by which not only the Monothelite doctrine but also the moderating ecthesis of Herac lius and typos of Constans II. were anathematized.
About 653 Maximus was apprehended (together with the pope) by order of Constans and carried a prisoner to Constantinople.
In 655 he was banished to Byzia in Thrace, and afterwards to Perberis. In 662 he was again brought to Constantinople and was condemned by a synod to be scourged, to have his tongue cut out by the root, and to have his right hand chopped off. He was then banished to Lazica, where he died on Aug. 13, 662. He is venerated as a saint both in the Greek and in the Latin Churches.
The most important of the works of Maximus will be found in Migne, Patrologia graeca, xc., xci., together with an anonymous life ; an exhaustive list in Wagenmann's article in vol. xii. (1903) of Hauck-Her zog's Realencyklopadie where the following classification is adopted: (a) exegetical, (b) scholia on the Fathers, (c) dogmatic and controver sial, (d) ethical and ascetic, (e) miscellaneous. The details of the dispu tation with Pyrrhus and of the martyrdom are given very fully and clearly in Hefele's Conciliengeschichte,