saint maximus patmos greece

Saint Maximos the Confessor

Commemorated on August 13 and January 21.

On 13 August 1990 Elina and Yiannis Scoutari named their new born son Maximos – Aristotle. It was in 2002 when they found out that Saint Maximos the confessor born in January 21, 580, a citizen of Constantinople and a nobleman, became a high-ranking courtier at the court of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, and later became a monk and the abbot of a monastery in Scoutari town, not far from the capital of Constantinople. He was the greatest defender of Orthodoxy against what was called the Monothelite heresy. A profound theologian of his time and a strict defender of Orthodoxy, Maximos successfully demonstrated the incorrectness of the Monothelite heresy, for the enemies of the church persecuted him many times. Venerable Maximos wrote many theological works in defense of Orthodoxy. Especially valuable are his instructions on the spiritual and contemplative life, some of which are included in the "Philokalia", a collection of patristic instructions on prayer and the ascetic life. In these ascetic instructions, the spiritual profundity and perceptiveness of Saint Maximos' thought is revealed. Also, an explanation of the Liturgy that has a great theological significance has come down to us from him.

St. Maximos died on August 13, 662, foreknowing his approaching death. In spring of 2003 Elina and Yiannis Scoutari built the chapel church of Saint Maximos inside the premises of Porto Scoutari Hotel. The architectural style of the building is Byzantine. The church was sanctified on August 13, 2003 by the abbot Antipas and the priests of Saint John the Theologian Monastery, in Patmos, where all the hotel guests and the people in the island were invited.