sophronius was born in damascus around 560. he has been claimed to be of byzantine greek, as well as of syriac descent. a teacher of rhetoric, sophronius became an ascetic in egypt about 580 and then entered the monastery of st. theodosius near bethlehem. traveling to monastic centres in asia minor, egypt, and rome, he accompanied the byzantine chronicler st. john moschus, who dedicated to him his celebrated tract on the religious life, "leimõn ho leimõnon" (greek: “the spiritual meadow”) (and whose feast day in the byzantine rite, , is shared with sophronius'). on the death of moschus in rome in 619, sophronius accompanied the body back to jerusalem for monastic burial. he traveled to alexandria, egypt, and to constantinople in the year 633 to persuade the respective patriarchs to renounce monoenergism, a heterodox teaching that espoused a single, divine energy in christ to the exclusion of a human capacity for choice. lest his synodal letter for the second council of constantinople, sophronius' extensive writings on this question are all lost.