Our Righteous Father Maximos the Confessor. The Holy Martyr Neophytos

Commemorated January 21

The divine Maximos, who was from Constantinople, sprang from an illustrious family. He was a lover of wisdom and an eminent theologian. At first, he was the chief private secretary of the Emperor Heraclios and his grandson Constans. However, when the Monothelite heresy became predominant in the royal court, out of hatred for this error the Saint departed for the Monastery at Chrysopolis (Scutari), of which he later became the abbot. When Constans tried to constrain him either to accept the Monothelite teaching, or to stop speaking and writing against it neither of which the Saint accepted to do his tongue was uprooted and his right hand was cut off, and he was sent into exile, where he reposed in 662 AD. At the time only he and his few disciples were Orthodox in the East.

The Martyr Neophytos, who was from Nicaea in Bithynia, was the son of pious parents, Theodore and Florence. Led by grace from his childhood, he took up his dwelling in a cave upon Mount Olympus at the age of nine and lived there in asceticism and prayer. At the age of 15, during the reign of Diocletian, about the year 290 AD, he presented himself to the local Governor, named Decios. Roused to fury by his unexpected boldness, Decios had him scourged, then laid out on a bed of fire, and when he had been preserved by grace through these torments, he gave him up to wild beasts. However, since the Saint remained unharmed, a certain pagan fell on him with a sword and slew him.