Fr. Maximos Constas

Distinguished Research Professor of the Humanities

Fr. Maximos Constas previously served as a professor and Interim Dean of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He completed his PhD in Patristics and Historical Theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (1993), after which he taught at Hellenic College and Holy Cross (1993-1998). In the fall of 1998, he was invited to join the faculty of Harvard Divinity School, where he was Professor of Patristics and Orthodox Theology from 1998-2004. Fr. Maximos resigned from his position at Harvard to respond to a life-long calling to monastic life and was tonsured a great-schema monk at the Holy Monastery of Simonopetra, where he lived from 2004-2011.

Fr Maximos is the author of Maximos the Confessor, On Difficulties in Sacred Scripture: The Responses to the Questions of Thalassios (2019); St John Chrysostom and the Jesus Prayer: A Contribution to the Study of the Philokalia (2019); and The Light of the World: Prayers to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2020). He has also written numerous scholarly articles, including “Dionysius the Areopagite and the New Testament” in the Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite (2022); “Attentiveness and Digital Culture,” in Theology and Praxis from Late Byzantium to Modernity (2022); “The Theology of the Icon” in The Icon; and “Saints and Elders of Mount Athos” in the Routledge Handbook of Mt Athos (both forthcoming in 2023). His most recent book is a critical edition and English translation of the tenth-century Life of the Virgin Mary by John Geometres published by Harvard University Press, earlier this year.