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Catholic World News News Feature

St. Maximus and the limits of tolerance June 26, 2008

Continuing his series of weekly talks on the early Church, Pope Benedict XVI devoted his public audience on June 25 to a discussion of St. Maximus the Confessor.

Born in Palestine around 580, Maximus moved to Constantinople, and then-- as barbarians invaded that city-- to Africa. Fighting against the heresies of the day, "he did not accept the attenuation of Christ's humanity," the Pope said. At the Lateran Council of 649 he defended the doctrine that Jesus has two natures: human and divine.

St. Maximus continued to uphold the true Christian doctrine in defiance of an imperial ruling, and for his insistence he was tried for heresy and found guilty. The punishment, the Pope noted, was "to have his tongue and his right hand cut off: the two organs through which, in speech and writing." He was also exiled to Colchis, and died there in 662.

Pope Benedict said that St. Maximus earned the title "Confessor" by the "dauntless courage" with which he proclaimed "the integral truth of Christ, without reduction or compromise."

The adamant stand taken by this heroic Christian teacher should be an example to contemporary Christians, the Pope said, suggesting in particular that the saint knew when to insist on truth and reject error. Christians cannot accept every thought put forward in the modern world, the Pope said. "Tolerance that does not know how to distinguish between good and evil would become chaotic and self-destructive," he said. "Dialogue that does not know what to dialogue about becomes mere empty chatter."

Like St. Maximus, believers should make Christ their fixed point of reference, and "thus we also learn how to position all other values because we discover their true significance," the Holy Father concluded.