JULY 28

Day 28: Memorial of the sixth ecumenical Council.

This ecumenical Holy Council was held in Constantinople, during the papacy of Pontiff Agaton (618-681), and the reign of King Constantine of the Beard the Devout. The Council aimed to reconcile the division between the Eastern and the Western Church; which had been caused by the monotheist heresy. Its fathers were 285 bishops, and the pope sent three mandates to represent him in it.

King Constantine attended it in person, and supported the Catholic faith, standing by the papal mandates. After careful examination of the Catholic faith, the Council confirmed that in Christ Jesus there are two natures and two wills: divine and human. Consequently it condemned monotheism and its followers, especially Makarius the patriarch of Antioch and his priest Steven, and established on the Cathedral of Antioch a new Patriarch, Theophilos. Pope Leo II confirmed the works of this council (682-683). The fathers of the Antiockian and Jerusalem churches could not attend that Council, because they were already under the Islamic occupation, which cut them off of Constantinople. King Constantine had a declaration of the decrees of the Council issued to the churches that fall under his authority. However, the churches now isolated under the Arab-Islamic occupation did not learn about this Council’s teachings. The Maronite Church, which was always adherent to the true belief of the Roman Church since the days of king Hercules, objected the monotheist heresy and its deceptions. Amen.