St. Sophronius of Jerusalem

A scholar of Damascus who wandered the monasteries of the East with his friend John Moschus, whose Spiritual Meadow records what they found. He was the first to see that the compromise of one energy in Christ, which the emperor hoped would reunite the Church, gave away His humanity, and as Patriarch of Jerusalem from 634 his Synodical Letter set out the answer the Sixth Council later gave. In 638, with the city besieged, he surrendered Jerusalem to the Caliph Umar and died within months. He wrote the Life of St Mary of Egypt, and prayers of the Great Blessing of the Waters are traditionally his. Feast: March 11.