Maximus the Confessor, Life

38. But indeed, divine justice was not neglectful, although for the most part long-suffering; but

after a short time it exacted punishment from the lawless emperor, having driven him far away, and causing him to suffer a most wretched death in Syracuse in Sicily. For having been hated by the Byzantines for what the one deserving of hatred had done, and having become most hateful, fearing lest he might also suffer some evil from them, he arrived there with his wife and children. And indeed, when he entered a bath to wash, one of the attendants, giving a fatal blow to his head, both shattered his entire skull and took away the life of the wretched man. When his son, who was called Constantine, was established on the throne with his brothers Heraclius and Tiberius, he himself decided not to walk the same path as his father, lest he meet with the same fate. Hence, having gathered the Fathers from everywhere, and having convened a great synod, which is also called the Sixth of the Ecumenical ones, he accomplished in it many other things worthy of memory (108), and he proclaimed more clearly the two wills and energies of Christ, corresponding to the two natures, subjecting to a curse and anathema those who introduced and professed that monothelite dogma. And previously in Rome, its president Agatho, who was enthroned after Martin, did this, moved by the divine Spirit, he too having declared accursed and cast out from the Church those who had done lawless things. But these things later.

39. But when, as the account said, they took the divine Maximus to exile,

it happened that he suffered many things along the way, and endured many pains, as he was able to sit neither on a beast of burden nor on a litter, being completely worn out by his toils and afflicted with countless pains. Indeed, having placed him in a sort of basket woven from branches, carrying him with difficulty and labor, they led him away on that long road. And having imprisoned him in one of the forts in Alania, called Schemaris, they left him entirely neglected. And when they were driving the good disciple with his namesake along the same road, they separated them both from their teacher; and they also separated them from each other, one by one they passed through many places, and were led somewhere far away in the land of the Abasgians; whence also one of them, exhausted by much hardship, gave up his very breath, which was the only thing left to him; and not even the very day on which he departed from here was known precisely, as his namesake said; I mean Anastasius the apocrisiarius.

40. But indeed, to the divine Maximus, who was already imprisoned in the fort in Alania,

a certain divine vision from above came to him, both revealing to him the day of his death and calling him to the tabernacles there. And when that day arrived—and it was the thirteenth of the month of August—he leaves the things here and runs up to the heavens, he who is truly worthy of the heavens and of the dwelling there. And where his sacred body was laid, three brilliant torches from that time on shone upon the tomb on one of the nights, sending forth a wondrous radiance, and, as is likely, producing a more wondrous astonishment in those who saw, and showing the most abundant grace of the greatly-bounteous God concerning His own servant.

ΛΗ´. Ἀλλά γάρ ἡ θεία οὐκ ἡμέλει δίκη, καίτοι μακροθυμοῦσα ὡς τά πολλά· ἀλλά

τιμωρίαν μετά μικρόν τόν παρανομίσαντα βασιλέα εἰσέπραξε· πόῤῥω ἐκτοπίσασα, καί εἰς τήν ἐν Σικελίᾳ Συράκουσαν τόν οἴκτιστον δοῦσα θάνατον ἀπενέγκασθαι. Τοῖς γάρ Βυζαντίοις δι' ἅ ἔδρασεν ὁ μίσους ἄξιος μισηθείς, καί ἔχθιστος μάλα γεγενημένος· δείσας μήτι καί πάθοι πρός τούτων κακόν, μετά συζύγου καί παίδων ἐκεῖσε ἀφίκετο· ᾧ δή καί ἐν βαλανείῳ λούσασθαι εἰσελθόντι, τῶν τις ὑπηρετούντων καιρίαν δούς κατά κεφαλῆς, τό τε κρανίον ἅπαν συνέτριψε, καί τῷ δυστήνῳ τήν ζωήν προσαφείλετο. Ἐπεί δ' ὁ τούτου υἱός Κωνσταντῖνος ὅς ἐκαλεῖτο, μετά Ἡρακλείου καί Τιβερίου τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἐπί τῶν σκήπτρων κατέστη, ἔγνω δεῖν αὐτός μή τήν ἴσην πατρί πεπορεῦσθαι, ἵνα μή τῶν ἴσων καί ἀντιτύχοι· ὅθεν καί τούς ἀπανταχῆ συναθροίσας Πατέρας, καί σύνοδον μεγάλην κροτήσας, ἤ καί ἕκτη τῶν οἰκουμενικῶν λέγεται· πολλά μέν καί ἄλλα ἐν αὐτῇ μνήμης ἄξια (108) κατεπράξατο, καί διττάς δή τοῦ Χριστοῦ θελήσεις καί ἐνεργείας, ἐπί τῶν δύο φύσεων τρανώτερον διεξήρυξεν· ἀρᾷ καί ἀναθέματι καθυποβαλών τούς τό μονοθέλητον ἐκεῖνο δόγμα παρεισάγοντας καί πρεσβεύοντας. Τοῦτο δέ πρότερον ἐνῬώμῃ καί ὁ ταύτης πρόεδρος Ἀγάθων, ὅς καί μετά Μαρτῖνον τῷ θρόνῳ ἐπικαθιδρύθη, θείῳ κινούμενος Πνεύματι ἔπραξεν· ἐπαράτους καί τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ἐκπτύστους τούς τά παράνομα δεδρακότας καί οὗτος καταστησάμενος. Ἀλλά ταῦτα μέν ὕστερον.

ΛΘ΄ . Ἐπεί δ' ὡς ὁ λόγος ἔφη, πρός τήν ὑπερορίαν τόν θεῖον ἀπήνεγκαν Μάξιμον,

πολλά μέν συνέβη τοῦτον παθεῖν κατά τήν ὁδόν, καί πολλάς ὑπομεῖναι τάς ἀλγηδόνας, οἷα μήτ' εἰς ὑποζύγιον, μήτ' εἰς λεκτίκιον καθεσθῆναι δυνάμενον· τῷ πάντη κατειργάσθαι τοῖς πόνοις, καί ταῖς μυρίαις τετρυχῶσθαι ὀδύναις. Ἀμέλει καί εἴς τι χαλάδριον βέργεσι πεπλεγμένον τοῦτον ἐνθέμενοι, μόλις καί κόπῳ διαβαστάζοντες, τήν μακράν ὁδόν ἐκείνην ἀπήγαγον· ὅν καί εἰς ἕν τῶν κατά τήν Ἀλανίαν κάστρων, Σχίμαριν οὕτω λεγόμενον, ἔμφρουρον ποιησάμενοι, εἴασαν αὐτόν παντάπασιν ἀτημέλητον. Ἐπεί δέ καί τόν καλόν μαθητήν μετά τοῦ συνωνύμου αὐτοῦ τήν αὐτήν ὁδόν ἤλαυνον, διαιροῦσι μέν ἀμφοτέρους τοῦ διδασκάλου· διαιροῦσι δέ καί αὐτούς ἀπ' ἀλλήλων· ἕνα πρός ἕνα πολλούς διαμείβοντας τόπους, καί πόῤῤω που τῆς τῶν Ἀβασγῶν χώρας ἀπαγομένους · ἐξ οὗ καί τόν ἕνα αὐτῶν τῇ πολλῇ ἀπειρηκότα κακοπαθείᾳ, καί αὐτήν τήν πνοήν διαφεῖναι, ἤ μόνη τούτῳ περιελείπετο· καί μηδ' αὐτήν ἐγνῶσθαι ἀκριβῶς τήν ἡμέραν καθ' ἥν τῶν ὦδε μετέστη, ὡς ὁ τούτου εἰρήκει ὁμώνυμος· ἀποκρισιάριός φημι Ἀναστάσιος.

Μ´. Ἀλλά γάρ τῷ θείῳ Μαξίμῳ τῷ κατά τήν Ἀλανίαν ἤδη κάστρῳ ἐγκαθειρμένῳ,

θεία τις ἐπιφοιτᾷ ἄνωθεν ὄψις· τήν τε ἡμέραν αὐτῷ δηλοῦσα τῆς τελευτῆς, καί πρός τάς ἐκεῖθεν μετακαλουμένη σκηνάς· Ἐπεί δέ καί ἡ ἡμέρα καταλάβοι ἐκείνη· ἡ δέ ἦν ἡ τρισκαιδεκάτη τοῦ Αὐγούστου μηνός, ἀφίησι μέν τά ἐνταῦθα, πρός δέ τούς οὐρανούς ἀνατρέχει, ὁ τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀληθῶς καί τῆς ἐκεῖ κατοικίας ἄξιος. Ἐν ᾧ δέ τό ἱερόν αὐτοῦ σῶμα ἐναπετέθη, τρεῖς διαφανεῖς πυρσοί κατά μίαν τῶν νυκτῶν ἔκτοτε τῷ μνήματι ἐναυγάζουσι· θαυμαστήν μέν τήν αἴγλην ἐναφιέντες, θαυμαστοτέραν δ᾿, ὡς εἰκός, τοῖς ὁρῶσι τήν ἔκπληξιν ἐμποιοῦντες, καί τοῦ μεγαλοδώρου Θεοῦ περί τόν ἑαυτοῦ θεράποντα πλουσιωτάτην χάριν ἐμφαίνοντες.