Bishop Maxim (Vasiljević) of Los Angeles and Western America was born in Foča, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1968. He earned his doctorate from the University of Athens in the field of dogmatics and patristics in 1999 and was tonsured at the Monastery of Tvrdoš in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He entertained a one-year post-doctoral course on Byzantine History and Theology at the Sorbonne in Paris from 2003–4. At the same time, as a visiting professor at the French Academy of Fine Arts (Beaux-arts) in Paris, he dealt with the theory and practice of painting. In addition to his tenure at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University of Belgrade, Bishop Maxim has served as a member of the faculty of the University of East Sarajevo (1998–2006) and currently is teaching at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He has taught numerous courses on the writings of the Church Fathers and published widely in the field of patristics, hagiography, Church history, and iconography. From 2005 to 2010, he was the editor of the Theology magazine, the official journal of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade. In 2006, he was elected bishop of the Western American Diocese.

Bishop Maxim is the founder and editor of the publishing house St. Sebastian Press, which has published hundreds of books on theology, history, philosophy, and art (among others, by Justin Popović, John Zizioulas, Atanasije Jevtić, Christos Yannaras, Stamatis Skliris, etc.).

In addition to archpastoral and academic work, he is engaged in painting. His paintings have been exhibited in Athens, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Belgrade, Trebinje, Banjaluka, etc. He is the director and teacher at the Diocesan iconographic school inspired by Byzantine paintings and icons of Stamatis Skliris. Bishop Maxim is also one of the founders of the John Zizioulas Foundation and the president of the Committee for Theological Education of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA.

Besides numerous scholarly articles, his bibliography includes: History, Truth, Holiness (Los Angeles: Sebastian Press, 2011), Diary of the Council (Los Angeles-Crete, 2016), Holiness: Divine and Human (Belgrade, 2010, in Serbian), Theology as a Surprise (New York: St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 2018), Wonder as the Beginning of Faith (Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2022), Saved by Beauty: Dostoevsky and America (Los Angeles: Sebastian Press, 2022), Nicaea 325: A Council for History and Eternity (Los Angeles: Sebastian Press, 2025), Accomplishing the Future in Advance: Discernment and Interpretation in the Thought of St. Maximus the Confessor (Brepols, 2026 – forthcoming).