Holy Juvenal, Patriarch of Jerusalem

Life

A contemporary of the great luminaries of the Orthodox Church: Euthymius, Theodosius, Gerasimus, Simeon the Stylite, and others. He participated in two Ecumenical Councils — the Third in Ephesus and the Fourth in Chalcedon — and with great power and zeal he battled against blasphemous heresies: in Ephesus against Nestorius, who called the Theotokos "Christotokos," and in Chalcedon against Eutyches and Dioscorus, who taught that in Christ there was only one nature, namely, the divine, without the human. After the triumph of Orthodoxy at both of these Councils, Juvenal returned to his throne in Jerusalem. But though the heresies had been condemned, the heretics had not been eradicated. Through the plotting and violence of a certain Theodosius, a friend of Dioscorus, Juvenal was driven from his throne, and Theodosius arbitrarily elevated himself to his place. This heretical Theodosius was at first supported by Empress Eudocia, the widow of Emperor Theodosius the Younger, who had settled in Jerusalem. The vacillating and impetuous Eudocia at last went to Saint Simeon the Stylite to ask him where the truth lay. The saint of God exposed all the heretical teachings and directed the empress to hold fast to the Orthodox teaching as confirmed at the Councils. The empress obeyed him, repented, and herself turned against the false patriarch Theodosius. At that time Marcian and Pulcheria reigned in Constantinople. A letter came from the emperor to Commander Athanasius, ordering him to expel Theodosius and restore Juvenal to his throne, which the commander promptly did. For thirty-eight years Juvenal governed the Church of Jerusalem as its hierarch, and in deep old age he presented himself before the Lord, in the year 458, to receive from Him the reward for his many sufferings and sorrows that he had endured for the truth. In the time of Saint Juvenal, the celebration of the Nativity of Christ on December 25 was established.