Maximus served in the imperial administration at Constantinople before leaving it for a monastery. He spent much of his life in North Africa and Rome, writing on the spiritual life, on the cosmic scope of the Incarnation, and on the liturgy.
He is remembered above all for the monothelite controversy. When emperor and patriarch alike settled on the formula that Christ had only one will, Maximus refused it — because a Christ without a human will has not fully become what we are, and what is not assumed is not healed. He was tried for treason, and when he would not recant his tongue and right hand were cut off so that he could neither speak nor write the argument again. He died in exile shortly afterwards. The Sixth Ecumenical Council vindicated his position twenty years later.