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Nestorius
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Nestorius (in Greek: ?est?????; c. 386–c. 451) was Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to 22 June 431. He was accused by his political enemy Cyril of Alexandria of a heresy that later bore his name, Nestorianism, because he objected to the popular practice of calling the Virgin Mary the "Mother of God" theotokos; he instead preached that "Mother of Christ" would be more fitting. He was condemned at the Council of Ephesus before his supporters could arrive and he was then dethroned.
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Nestorius (in Greek: ?est?????; c. 386–c. 451) was Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to 22 June 431. He was accused by his political enemy Cyril of Alexandria of a heresy that later bore his name, Nestorianism, because he objected to the popular practice of calling the Virgin Mary the "Mother of God" theotokos; he instead preached that "Mother of Christ" would be more fitting. He was condemned at the Council of Ephesus before his supporters could arrive and he was then dethroned. His views were widely held in the East, and the consequence was the separation of the Assyrian Church of the East from the Byzantine Church.
Early life
Nestorius was born in 386 in Germanicia in the Roman province of Syria (now Kahramanmaras in Turkey). He received his clerical training as a pupil of Theodore of Mopsuestia in Antioch and gained a reputation for his sermons that led to his enthronement by Theodosius II as Archbishop following the death of Sisinnius I in 428.
Controversy with Cyril
Nestorius is considered the originator of the Christological position known as Nestorianism, which was eventually declared heretical by the Council of Ephesus; it emerged when he began preaching against the title Theotokos (in Greek, Te?t????) or Birth-giver to God, God-Bearer, Mother of God, an appellation for Mary, the mother of Jesus. He quickly met with antagonism from the bishop, Saint Cyril of Alexandria. Alongside the Christological debate, other factors were to come into play in the controversy that would ensue, including a political struggle between the supporters of the See of Alexandria and the See of Antioch, the influence of the Emperor over the See of Constantinople, and the patriarchal primacy of the Pope.
The theological debate centered on the use of the title "Mother of God" (Theotokos/Te?t????) for the Virgin Mary, which Nestorius did not recognize, preferring in his sermons, "Mother of Christ" (Christotokos/???st?t????/) on the grounds that the former title compromised Jesus' humanity. Cyril countered that it was Nestorius who was actually denying the reality of the Incarnation, by making Jesus Christ into two different persons, one human and one divine, in one body. See Nestorianism.
The Emperor Theodosius II (401–450) was eventually induced to convoke a general church council, sited at Ephesus, itself a special seat for the veneration of Mary, where the theotokos formula was popular. The Emperor gave his support to the Archbishop of Constantinople, while Pope Celestine I was in agreement with Cyril.
Cyril took charge of the Council of Ephesus in 431, opening debate before the long-overdue contingent of Eastern bishops from Antioch could arrive.
The council deposed Nestorius and declared him a heretic. In Nestorius' own words,
When the followers of Cyril saw the vehemence of the emperor… they roused up a disturbance and discord among the people with an outcry, as though the emperor were opposed to God; they rose up against the nobles and the chiefs who acquiesced not in what had been done by them and they were running hither and thither. And… they took with them those who had been separated and removed from the monasteries by reason of their lives and their strange manners and had for this reason been expelled, and all who were of heretical sects and were possessed with fanaticism and with hatred against me. And one passion was in them all, Jews and pagans and all the sects, and they were busying themselves that they should accept without examination the things which were done without examination against me; and at the same time all of them, even those that had participated with me at table and in prayer and in thought, were agreed… against me and vowing vows one with another against me… In nothing were they divided.
But while the council was in progress, John I of Antioch and the eastern bishops arrived, and were furious to hear that Nestorius had already been condemned. They convened their own synod, at which Cyril was deposed.
Both sides then appealed to the emperor, or rather to the imperial eunuchs who controlled him. Initially the imperial government ordered both Nestorius and Cyril deposed and exiled. Letter 96 of Cyril's Letters contains a list of the bribes that he offered to various courtiers; and Cyril was allowed to return. -
In the following months, 17 bishops who supported Nestorius' doctrine were removed from their sees. Eventually the political position became so bad that John I of Antioch was obliged to abandon Nestorius in March 433. On August 3, 435, Theodosius II, who had supported Nestorius' appointment, bowed to the influence of his sister Pulcheria in issuing an imperial edict that exiled Nestorius to a monastery in the Great Oasis of Hibis (al-Khargah), in Egypt, securely within the diocese of Cyril. There he was at risk of attack by desert bandits, and was injured in one such raid.
In East and West, Nestorius' writings were burnt wherever they could be found. They survive mainly in Syriac.
The incident caused a split within the church, and led to the creation of separate Nestorian churches that would flourish throughout the Middle East and central Asia.
A recovered text, the Bazaar of Heracleides
After 1,500 years of Nestorius' stigmatization as a heretic, a handwritten 16th century book containing a copy of a text written by Nestorius was discovered by American missionaries in 1895, in the library of the Nestorian patriarch in the mountains at Konak, Hakkari, southeastern Turkey. This book had suffered damage during Muslim raids, but was substantially intact, and copies were taken secretly. The Syriac translation had the title of the . The original 16th century manuscript was destroyed in 1915 during the Turkish massacres of Assyrian Christians.
The Bazaar was written towards the end of Nestorius' life, and in it he explicitly denies the heresy for which he was condemned. Instead he affirms of Christ "the same one is twofold" — an expression that some consider similar to the formulation of the Council of Chalcedon. Nestorius's earlier surviving writings, however, including his letter written in response to Cyril's charges against him, contain material that seems to support charges that he held that Christ had two persons. Thus, whether Nestorius was actually a Nestorian is still a matter of debate.
Mar Nestorios
Nestorius is deeply venerated in the Assyrian Church of the East as a saint, the Syriac for 'Saint Nestorius' being Mar Nestorios.
See also
External links
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- by Stephen M. Ulrich, concentrates on the political pressures around the Council of Ephesus and analyzes the rediscovered Bazaar of Nestorius.
- by Mar Bawai Soro, a very complete and biased Nestorian presentation from the point of view of the Church of East.
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