On this day, July 2 according to the Julian Calendar (July 15 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Juvenaly, Patriarch of Jerusalem, who reposed around the year 458.
Saint Juvenaly governed the Church of Jerusalem as its patriarch from approximately 420 to 458 — a span of nearly four decades. He was a close friend and fellow-ascetic of Saint Euthymius the Great. During his patriarchate, the Eastern Church was shaken by many heresies, and the holy hierarch fought them with courage and resolution.
In the year 431 the Third Ecumenical Council was held at Ephesus, which condemned the heresy of Nestorianism — the teaching of Nestorius, who refused to call the Virgin Mary Theotokos (Mother of God), asserting that she was only the mother of the human Christ. Saint Juvenaly took an active part in the Council and signed the condemnation of Nestorianism.
In the year 449 the so-called “Robber Council” was convened at Ephesus under the direction of Dioscoros of Alexandria. This false council sought to rehabilitate Nestorianism and to introduce Monophysitism, and by violence it compelled Juvenaly and other bishops to subscribe to it. But two years later, in 451, the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon condemned both Nestorianism and Monophysitism, and Juvenaly, repenting of his coerced subscription to the Robber Council, signed the true orthodox definition of the faith at Chalcedon.
When Juvenaly returned to Jerusalem after the Council of Chalcedon, he was met by a violent uprising of Monophysite monks who had been stirred up against the Chalcedonian definition. They seized the city and appointed a false patriarch in his place. Juvenaly was forced to flee and spent two years in exile. In 453, with the help of the imperial authorities, he was restored to his throne, and he governed the Jerusalem Church in peace until his blessed repose around 458.
May the intercessions of Saint Juvenaly, Patriarch of Jerusalem, be with us all.