His community broke up in 626 due to Persian invasion. Maximus fled to Alexandria, Egypt, then to Carthage, and then Rome, Italy. and worked with Pope Martin I against Monothelist heresy, and attended the Lateran Council of 649.
Falsely accused of treason due to his defense of orthodox Christianity, he was arrested and forcibly returned to Constantinople. He spent years in prison misery, and at age 82 received his final sentence: he was flogged, his tongue cut out, his right hand cut off, he was exhibited in the streets as an example to the people, and was sent into exile at Skhemeris on the Black Sea, where he died soon after on the 13th of August in 662 He is best remembered today for his mystical, ascetical, and theological writings, and for his steadfast belief that the purpose of all history was the Incarnation.
