Saint Maximus the Confessor (580-662) was the most remarkable theologian of his time. After the Arabs conquered Syria, Palestine and Egypt, many Orthodox monks, priests and bishops took refuge in Northern Africa, which became the Orthodox resistance centre against the Monothelite heresy, supported by the Imperial power and the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Among the refugees who arrived in the Orient was Saint Maximus the Confessor. In short time, he became the leader of the Orthodox opposition and the tenor of Byzantine theology. Starting from 634 until his arrest in 653, Maximus the Confessor got zealously involved in fighting monothelitism. In 655, Imperial authorities in Constantinople put Saint Maximus on a political trial.
