Maximus

The single name Maximus is not sufficient to identify one historical person. In late antique and medieval Christian sources the Latin name Maximus (Greek Maximos) was extremely common among martyrs, monks, bishops, and theologians. No Wikidata identifier, see, epithet, feast date, or century was supplied, so none of the biographical fields that require a unique individual can be filled from a reliable source without guessing.

Among well-attested holy men of this name, later tradition most often means Maximus the Confessor, a monk and theologian of the seventh century, associated with Constantinople and North Africa, who opposed Monothelitism and died in exile after mutilation; his birth year is not securely documented in contemporary sources. Other frequently commemorated figures include Maximus of Turin, a bishop and preacher of northern Italy in the fifth century whose homilies survive; Maximus of Riez, a fifth-century monk of Lérins who became bishop of Riez in Gaul; and Maximus of Jerusalem, a fourth-century bishop of that see. Roman, African, and Eastern martyrologies also list numerous martyrs named Maximus, often with companions, whose acts are of uneven historical value and whose dates and places of death are frequently legendary.

Patriarchs and other hierarchs named Maximus appear in the records of Constantinople and other Eastern sees in various centuries; they are not automatically identical with the saints of the same name, and holding the office of patriarch cannot be asserted for an unspecified Maximus. There was no Bishop of Rome of this name counted among the popes in the standard papal lists. Feast days, burial sites, and patronages in liturgical calendars attach to particular Maximuses (for example different Roman Martyrology entries on different dates) and cannot be collapsed into one list.

Because substituting the career of the most famous bearer of the name would violate the requirement not to guess, year of birth, year of death, places, order, marital status, papal or patriarchal office, feast day, patronage, and canonization data are left blank. A verified life can be written only after the subject is identified by a distinctive title, see, or independent source.