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From about 640 on, he became the determined opponent of [[Monothelitism]], the [[heresy|heretical]] teaching that [[Jesus Christ]] had only one will. In this, he followed the example of St. [[Sophronius of Jerusalem]], who was the first to combat this heresy starting in 634.
Maximus supported the Orthodoxy of [[Church of Rome|Rome]] on this matter and is said to have exclaimed: "I have the faith of the Latins, but the language of the Greeks." He argued for [[Dyothelitism]], the Orthodox teaching that [[Jesus Christ]] possessed two wills (one divine and one human), rather than the one will posited by Monothelitism.
After [[Pyrrhus of Constantinople|Pyrrhus]], the temporarily deposed Monothelite Patriarch of Constantinople, had declared his defeat in a dispute at Carthage (645), Maximus obtained the heresy's condemnation at several local [[synod]]s in Africa, and also worked to have it condemned at the [[Lateran Council of 649]]. He was brought to Constantinople in 653, pressured to adhere to the ''[[Typos]]'' of Emperor [[Constans II]]. Refusing to do so, he was exiled to Thrace. (Pope St. [[Martin of Rome]] was tried around the same time in Constantinople, and thus deposed and exiled to Crimea.)
In 661 Maximus again was brought to the imperial capital and questioned; while there, he had his tongue uprooted and his right hand cut off (to prevent him from preaching or writing the true faith), and then was again exiled to the Caucasus, but died shortly thereafter.
Ultimately, Maximus was exonerated by the [[Sixth Ecumenical Council]] and recognized as a [[Church Fathers|Father of the Church]].
==Writings==
