Early Interest in Eastern Christian Theology

In 1900, Prince Max started his teaching role as Professor in Swiss Fribourg, and became outstandingly familiar with the Christian East. This interest of Prince Max had awoken almost overnight early on in his time teaching in Fribourg, but quickly became one of the most essential leading principles of his scientific work and life. At the same time, he voiced his hope for reconciliation and reunification of the churches – in a time in which a renewed interest in Eastern Churches grew in the West under Pope Leo XIII., strongly connected with thoughts of reunification of the Churches of East and West.

Prince Max’ reference point were Liturgical Studies. His method of comparing the liturgical texts and forms of expression of East and West was practiced by few at the time. Naturally, this required solid knowledge of Oriental Liturgical Studies and Philology, which Prince Max acquired early on. To this end, he learned Russian, Church Slavonic, Syriac and Armenian.

Oriental Journeys as Moments of Encounter

Enthusiasm for the life and spirituality of oriental churches, especially in experiencing liturgy and art, and primarily the question of overcoming the division of Christianity motivated Prince Max with great passion. Therefore, he undertook five major journeys into oriental and Eastern European countries between 1903 and 1909, in the course of which scientific aspects were combined with concrete experiences: He attended church services, maintained ecclesial and political contacts, explored public and private libraries and collections, and prayed for the unity of the church. His five journeys appear as five targeted expeditions to the most important sites of Eastern Christianity, in which the Saxon prince developed a particular liking for Armenia and Ukrainian Galicia. Methodically, he developed a broad, representative image of the many facets of the Christian East, which is without parallel, not just in its own time.

Ecclesial Experience

The Prince’s main interest during his journeys lay in the experience of Eastern Church liturgies, in which he learned to appreciate oriental expressions of faith in their various facets from an inside perspective. Before, he had explored Liturgical Studies based on editions of liturgical texts. The immediate experience of the beauty and difference of Eastern Church liturgies and their art is the key through which Prince Max found his way into Eastern Church theology. This differentiated him not just externally from the “study hall scholars” of his time. Without expressly reflecting upon that, he pursued a hermeneutical approach which only developed its full potential within Orthodoxy later on, where more modern Orthodox theology began to see itself as theological reflection of ecclesial experience. Even today, ‘experience’ does not simply mean individual incidents. Experience is understood to mean living the liturgies and asceticism which is practiced by the church. The holistic approach is therefore essential.

The Turning Point: “Thoughts on the Question of Church Unity”

Prince Max articulated his vision for the restauration of Christian unity in the journal of Grottaferrata Abbey in 1910. It garnered great attention because it seemed irreconcilable with Roman thought at the time, and held explosive power due to its ecumenical convictions – some of which began to be shared by the Catholic Church in the Second Vatican Council, whereas some are still not accepted. The Prince was far ahead of his times in this. Pope Pius X. distancing himself from Prince Max in a document, and prohibiting him from sharing certain convictions was seen as decisive, and interpreted by many as a revocation of his permission to teach. It is arguably the most tragic incision of his life.

Prince Max, however, was convinced of his intentions and also left no doubt about his loyalty to the Catholic Church. In retrospect, his thoughts can be understood as a "pre-ecumenical vision" that strove for the right understanding of church unity, although the Saxon prince also spoke of the mistakes of the Catholic Church in the past 1000 years with great frankness and to general displeasure. In doing so, he also expressed the remarkable conviction that Orient and Occident had never been completely separated anyway and that the divisions were ultimately due to political motives and misunderstandings fuelled by jealousy and hostility, so that the restoration of full unity was possible through repentance on both sides and reconciliation. Despite, or precisely because of, his excellent relations with the Greek-Catholic Metropolis of Lviv, Prince Max was a firm opponent of the Catholic Church's Uniatism, since it did not sufficiently respect the equal dignity of the other and curtailed the other's autonomy too much. Particularly noteworthy in this context is the use of the term "sister churches", which had already emerged in the 5th century, but later experienced little reception and only played a central role again in ecumenical efforts since the time of the Second Vatican Council, but here was used programmatically by Prince Max.

Teacher of Eastern Church Theology in Galician Lviv

While Prince Max suffers the greatest crisis of his life, he finds inner peace and human recognition again in Lviv in Galicia. There, Catholics of the Byzantine rite enjoyed high esteem under the Habsburg monarchy. For four years (1910-1914), Prince Max lectured in German on Eastern Churches at the Greek Catholic General Seminary in Lviv, at the invitation of the head of the Ruthenian Greek-Catholic Church, Metropolitan Andrej Scheptyzkyj, himself also a "prophet of ecumenism.” While his special interest in Eastern Church theology made him exotic in the Swiss Üechtland, and only a few students found their way to him, he met with lively interest among the seminarians in Lviv. At the same time, he also lectured at the Cologne seminary.

With the First World War, the tide turned again for the Saxon prince. He had to interrupt his teaching and was appointed field chaplain, but was interned in Wermsdorf Castle because of his outspoken expression of pacifist thoughts. This, however, benefited his scientific work. He had enough time until the end of the war and beyond to work on texts of the Church Fathers and the translation of ancient Eastern liturgies.

Fribourg again

The shattering impressions of the First World War led to Prince Max' areas of interest shifting. While Eastern Church theology receded somewhat into the background, he devoted himself all the more intensively to pacifist thinking, which he reflected in his distinctive ethics of peace and creation. In 1921, he returned to Fribourg, Switzerland, where he continued to teach at the Faculty of Philosophy. He received a teaching assignment for "Oriental Literature and Culture" and worked in this field until shortly before the end of his life in 1951. During this time, his subjects covered the history, culture and theology of the Christian East in its full breadth: Prince Max dealt with the individual Eastern Churches and their liturgies, Eastern Church Fathers and their works, ecclesiastical poetry of the East, regional geography and much more.

The Prince’s Legacy

What is fascinating about Prince Max of Saxony to this day is the uniqueness of his attitude towards the Churches of the East. Perhaps it is not the detail or the level of his scholarly erudition, which has sometimes been questioned, even though he was undoubtedly immensely well-read, possessed excellent linguistic skills and admirably compiled the available material. Rather, his entire life's testimony is a single authentic unity. This unity includes an irrepressible enthusiasm and love for the Churches of the East, their rich traditions and their spiritual depth. From this ecclesiastical experience he was able to develop – far more than many of his Orientalist colleagues – the passionate struggle for the unity of Christianity with which he far surpassed his contemporaries. Prince Max's impulses for a renewal of attitudes towards Oriental Christianity are extraordinary. His legacy is based on an existential mutual appreciation, testifies to the value of what he personally experienced and learned, inspires encounters with members of sister churches, encourages the study of the rich Eastern heritage in all its facets, and boosts the passionate ecumenical commitment to Christian unity.

This passage is the translation of an excerpt from:

Thomas Kremer / Miriam Raschka / Ruslan Stetsyk: Prinz Max von Sachsen und die Ostkirchen [Prince Max of Saxony and the Eastern Churches], in: Iris Kretschmann / André Thieme (Hgg.), Seiner Zeit voraus! Prinz Max von Sachsen – Priester und Visionär (Sonderausstellung im Schlossmuseum Pillnitz vom 13. April bis 3. November 2019) [Ahead of his time! Prince Max of Saxony –Priest and Visionary (Special Exhibition in the Palace Museum Pillnitz)], Dresden 2019, 76–99.

In addition to numerous handwritten and typed manuscripts that are only preserved in archives, the following works by Prince Max of Saxony are easily available in libraries:

• Die staatsrechtliche Stellung des Königlich Sächsischen Markgrafentums Oberlausitz, Dissertation, 1892. [60 S.]
• Vertheidigung der Moraltheologie des hl. Alphonsus von Liguori gegen die Angriffe Robert Grassmann’s, Nürnberg 1899 und weitere Auflagen. [58 S.]
• Der heilige Märtyrer Apollonius von Rom. Eine historisch-kritische Studie, Dissertation, Mainz 1903. [VI, 88 S.]
• Das Erlösungswerk Jesu Christi. Predigten geh. in d. röm.-kath. Kirche zu Thun, 23.–27. Febr. 1906, Fribourg/CH 1906. [109 S.]
• Die Vereinigung der Seele mit Jesus Christus. Geistliche Abhandlungen vom hl. Alfons Rodriguez, hg. von Max, Herzog zu Sachsen, Freiburg i. Br. 1907. [XV, 288 S.]
• Vorlesungen über die orientalische Kirchenfrage, Fribourg/CH 1907. [VIII, 248 S.]
• Übersetzung des griechischen Offiziums vom Karsamstag (Epitaphia) ins Französische, 1907.
• Missa Syriaca-Antiochena. Quam ex lingua Syriaca in idioma Latinum traduxit cum commentario praevio (Ritus missae ecclesiarum orientalium Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae unitarum; 5), Regensburg 1908. [XIV, 54 S.]
• Weitere Übersetzungen orientalischer (syrisch-maronitisch, chaldäisch, griechisch, armenisch) Messriten ins Lateinische, 1907/08.
• Was muß der Mensch tun, um sich der Erlösung Jesu Christi teilhaftig zu machen? Kanzelvorträge, Regensburg 1908. [IV, 92 S.]
• Predigten über das erste Buch Mosis von Max von Sachsen gehalten während der Fastenzeit in der Liebfrauenkirche zu Freiburg (Schweiz), 6 Bde., Bd. 1.: Von der Erschaffung der Welt bis zur Sündflut, Fribourg/CH 1908; Bd. 2: Von der Sündflut bis zum Bunde der Beschneidung, Fribourg/CH 1910; Bd. 3: Von der Verkündigung der Geburt Isaaks bis zu dessen Vermählung, Fribourg/CH 1910; Bd. 4: Von Abraham's Tod und der Geburt der Zwillinge Esau und Jakob bis zur Versöhnung Jakob's und Laban's, Fribourg/CH 1911; Bd. 5: Vom Einzug Jakobs ins gelobte Land bis zur ersten Reise seiner Söhne nach Ägypten ausschließlich, Fribourg/CH 1913; Bd. 6: Vom Einzug der Kinder Israels nach Ägypten bis zum Ende des ersten Buches Mosis, Fribourg/CH 1913. [226, 268, 267, 262, 260, 226 S.]
• Praelectiones de liturgiis orientalibus, habitae in Universitate Friburgensi Helvetiae a Maximiliano, principe Saxoniae, Bd 1: Continens: 1. Introductionem generalem in omnes liturgias orientales. 2. Apparatum cultus necnon annum ecclastiasticum Graecorum et Slavorum, Freiburg i. Br. 1908; Bd. 2: Continens liturgias eucharisticas Graecorum (exceptis Aegyptiacis), Freiburg i. Br. 1913. [VII, 241; VII, 362 S.]
• Pensées sur l’union des Eglises, in: Roma e l’Oriente 1 (1910) 13–29; deutsche Übersetzung: Gedanken des Prinzen Max, Königliche Hoheit, Herzogs von Sachsen, über die Vereinigung der Kirchen, in: [Natalie] Baronin von Uxkull [Uexküll]: Rom und der Orient [1.] Jesuiten und Melchiten, Pormetter 1916, 67–90.
• Des Heiligen Johannes Chrysostomus Homilien über das Evangelium des heiligen Matthäus, 2 Bde., Regensburg 1910/1911. [XII, 697, IV, 621 S.]
• Vorbilder Mariä. Maipredigten ... gehalten in der Liebfrauenkirche in Freiburg (Schweiz); neun Jahrgänge in einem Band, Fribourg/CH 1911.
• Des Heiligen Johannes Chrysostomus Homilien über die Genesis oder das erste Buch Mosis, 2 Bde., Paderborn 1913/14. [X, 966; 320 S.]
• Erklärung der Psalmen und Cantica in ihrer liturgischen Verwendung, Regensburg 1914. [528 S.]
• Das christliche Hellas. Vorlesungen gehalten an der Universität Freiburg (Schweiz) im Sommersemester 1910, Leipzig 1918. [362 S.]
• Dreifaltigkeitslieder, Dresden 1918. [168 S.]
• Messgesänge, Dreifaltigkeits- und Auferstehungslieder, Dresden 1918. [504 S.]
• Nerses von Lampron. Erklärung der Sprichwörter Salomos, 3 Bände, 1919–26.
• Ratschläge und Mahnungen zum Volks- und Menschheitswohle, Dresden 1921. [89 S.]
• Nerses von Lampron. Erklärung des Versammlers, Leipzig 1929. [187 S.]
• Der heilige Theodor. Archimandrit von Studion (Religio; 1), München 1929. [95 S.]

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