He was serving as the Metropolitan of Raška when his forerunner, Gavrilo I, escaped to Russia fearing Ottoman reprisals for the contacts he held with Sultan's Catholic enemies.

Gavrilo's departure meant the downfall of the party within the Serbian Church which was set on establishing closer ties to the West.

In order to fortify the faith of his flock but also to gather money needed to pay off heavy Ottoman taxes, Maksim traveled a lot from his seat in Peć, visiting almost the regions of his Patriarchate.

Maksim I was a proponent of this policy and in 1661 upon his visit to Livno he was attacked by furious local Catholics and barely managed to save his life.

At his seat in the Monastery of Peć, Maksim ordered the Church of St Nicholas to be fresco painted (1672) after which he built the new dwellings for the monks (1674).