HE was a native of Damascus, and made such a progress in learning that
he obtained the name of the Sophist. He lived twenty years near
Jerusalem, under the direction of John Moschus, a holy hermit, without
engaging himself in a religious state. These two great men visited
together the monasteries of Egypt, and were detained by St. John the
Almoner, at Alexandria, about the year 610, and employed by him two
years in extirpating the Eutychians, and in reforming his diocese. John
Moschus wrote there his Spiritual Meadow, which he dedicated to
Sophronius. He made a collection in that book of the edifying examples
of virtue which he had seen or heard of among the monks, and died
shortly after at Rome. Athanasius, patriarch of the Jacobites or
Eutychians, in Syria, acknowledged two distinct natures in Christ, the
divine and the human; but allowed only one will. This Demi-Eutychianism
was a glaring inconsistency; because the will is the property of the
nature. Moreover, Christ sometimes speaks of his human will distinct
from the divine, as in his prayer in his agony in the garden. This
Monothelite heresy seemed an expedient whereby to compound with the
Eutychians. The emperor Heraclius confirmed it by an edict called
Ecthesis, or the Exposition, declaring that there is only one will in
Christ, namely, that of the Divine Word: which was condemned by pope
John IV. Cyrus, bishop of Phasis, a virulent Monothelite, was by
Heraclius preferred to the patriarchate of Alexandria, in 629. St.
Sophronius, falling at his feet, conjured him not to publish his
erroneous articles--but in vain. He therefore {567} left Egypt, and came
to Constantinople, where he found Sergius, the crafty patriarch, sowing
the same error in conjunction with Theodorus of Pharan. Hereupon he
travelled into Syria, where, in 634, he was, against his will, elected
patriarch of Jerusalem.
He was no sooner established in his see, than he assembled a council of
all the bishops of his patriarchate, in 634, to condemn the Monothelite
heresy, and composed a synodal letter to explain and prove the Catholic
faith This excellent piece was confirmed in the sixth general council.
St. Sophronius sent this learned epistle to pope Honorius and to
Sergius. This latter had, by a crafty letter and captious expressions,
persuaded pope Honorius to tolerate a silence as to one or two wills in
Christ. It is evident from the most authentic monuments, that Honorius
never assented to that error, but always adhered to the truth.[1]
However, a silence was ill-timed, and though not so designed, might be
deemed by some a kind of connivance; for a rising heresy seeks to carry
on its work under ground without noise: it is a fire which spreads
itself under cover. Sophronius, seeing the emperor and almost all the
chief prelates of the East conspire against the truth, thought it his
duty to defend it with the greater zeal. He took Stephen, bishop of
Doria, the eldest of his suffragans, led him to Mount Calvary, and there
adjured him by Him who was crucified on that place, and by the account
which he should give him at the last day, "to go to the apostolic see,
where are the foundations of the holy doctrine, and not to cease to pray
till the holy persons there should examine and condemn the novelty."
Stephen did so, and stayed at Rome ten years, till he saw it condemned
by pope Martin I. in the council of Lateran, in 649. Sophronius was
detained at home by the invasion of the Saracens. Mahomet had broached
his impostures at Mecca, in 608, but being rejected there, fled to
Medina, in 622. Aboubeker succeeded him in 634 under the title of
Caliph, or vicar of the prophet. He died after a reign of two years.
Omar, his successor, took Damascus in 636, and after a siege of two
years, Jerusalem, in 638. He built a mosque in the place of Solomon's
temple, and because it fell in the night, the Jews told him it would not
stand unless the cross of Christ, which stood on Mount Calvary, was
taken away: which the Caliph caused to be done.[2] Sophronius, in a
sermon on the exaltation of the cross, mentions the custom of taking the
cross out of its case at Mid-Lent to be venerated.[3] Photius takes
notice that his works breathe an affecting piety, but that the Greek is
not pure. They consist of his synodal letter, his letter to pope
Honorius, and a small number of scattered sermons. He deplored the
abomination of desolation set up by the Mahometans in the holy place.
God called him out of those evils to his kingdom on the 11th of March,
639, or, as Papebroke thinks,[4] in 644. See the council of Lateran, t.
6, Conc. Fleury, b. 37, 38, and Le Quien, Oriens Christ. t. 3, p. 264.
Footnotes:
1. See Nat. Alexander, Saec. 7. Wittasse and Tourneiy Tr. de Incarn.
2. Theophanes, p. 284.
3. In medio jejunii, adorationis gratia proponi solet vitale lignun
venerandae crucis. Sophr. Serro. in Excalt. Crucis. Bibl. Patr. t. 12
p. 214, e. apud Gretser, t. 2 de Cruce, p. 88.
4. Papebr. Tr. praelim. ad t. 3 Maii n. 144, p. 32