Patriarch Sophronius

c.560-638. Patriarch of Jerusalem. Born in Damascus, he is probably to be identified with Sophronius “the Sophist.” He was a monk in Egypt (c.580), then in the Jordan area, and from 619 in Theodosius Monastery, Jerusalem. He opposed the doctrinal compromise concocted by Emperor Heraclius, Cyrus of Alexandria, and Sergius I of Constantinople which endeavored to reconcile the Monophysites* by a Monothelite formula. When elected patriarch of Jerusalem (634), he issued the customary encyclical which included his own statement of faith, holding that the Chalcedonian doctrine of two natures necessarily implied two wills. Shortly after, Jerusalem was captured by the Saracens under Caliph Omar (637), hastening his death. He wrote sermons and poems, and lives of Cyrus and John, Alexandrian martyrs.