Maximus I of Constantinople

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Maximus I of Constantinople, known as Maximus the Cynic, was the archbishop of Constantinople for a short time in 380. He came from Alexandria, born to a poor Christian family, and he defended orthodox belief while presenting himself in the style of a Cynic philosopher. He won respect from leading orthodox theologians; Athanasius of Alexandria praised his work defending the true faith.

In 374, during persecution under Valens, Maximus was flogged and banished to the Oasis for his zeal to help others who suffered for orthodoxy. He was released about four years later and, in Milan, presented to Emperor Gratian his work De Fide, written against the Arians.

After returning to the East, Maximus visited Constantinople, where Gregory of Nazianzus had just been named patriarch in 379. Gregory greeted him warmly, but their relationship soon turned into a rivalry. Some Egyptian clergy, under the direction of Peter II of Alexandria, helped Maximus seize the archbishop’s throne during a night when Gregory was ill. The ordination happened, but when dawn came the crowd and magistrates intervened. Maximus and the conspirators were driven from the cathedral, and his tonsure was completed later in a flute-maker’s house.

Maximus fled to Thessalonica to seek support from Emperor Theodosius I. The case was sent to the Western church for judgment. Ambrose of Milan and other Western bishops urged careful handling of the matter, while Ambrose and others pressed for Maximus to be restored. Pope Damasus I advised caution as well. Maximus then returned to Alexandria to seek help from Peter II, but Peter II asked the prefect to remove him from Egypt, and Maximus was driven out.

At the First Council of Constantinople in 381, Maximus’s claim to the see was rejected. A later synod in Italy under Ambrose sided with him, but a Rome council in 382 rejected his position. Gregory of Nazianzus had attacked Maximus, though he had also praised him in earlier writings. The work De Fide is now lost, though Jerome praised it.

Maximus is listed as having been predecessor Evagrius and successor Gregory of Nazianzus as Archbishop of Constantinople. He was born in Alexandria, died in 380, and was Orthodox in denomination.