The life of St Juvenal of Jerusalem
His own path to that council was not straightforward: two years earlier, at the so-called Robber Synod of Ephesus, Juvenal had sided with Dioscorus of Alexandria and the Monophysite party, only to change course at Chalcedon itself, voting for Dioscorus's own condemnation and adding his signature to Pope Leo's letter affirming Christ's two natures.
That reversal cost him. Monophysite monks in Palestine, furious at his change of position, demanded he repudiate Chalcedon outright, and when he refused they installed a rival claimant, Theodosius, in his place. Tradition holds that the empress Eudocia, then residing in Jerusalem, was persuaded by Symeon the Stylite to withdraw her backing from Theodosius, and with the emperor Marcian's support the rival was deposed and Juvenal restored to his own throne, where he remained, governing fifty-nine bishops across the three Palestinian provinces, until his death in 458.
