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Nestorius

Nestorius (c.386 - c.451) was Patriarch of Constantinople (April 10, 428 - June 22, 431). He received his clerical training in Antioch, and gained a reputaitn for his sermons that led to his enthronement as Patriarch following the death of Sisinius I[?].

He started a theological debate by not recognizing the Virgin Mary as the mother of God, on the grounds that it compromised Jesus Christ's divinity. His views were condemned by Cyril, bishop of Alexandria and the Council of Ephesus (431), who deposed him and labelled him a heretic. In the following months, seventeen bishops that supported his doctrine were removed from their sees, and his principal supporter, John, bishop of Antioch succumbed to Imperial pressure around March, 433 and abandoned Nestorius. At the end, Theodosius II, who had supported Nestorius' appointment, bowed to the influence of his sister Pulcheria[?] to issue an Imperial edict (August 3, 435) that exiled him to a monastery in the Great Egyptian Owasis[?].

This led to a split within the church and to the creation of separate Nestorian churches[?] that flourished in the Middle East and central Asia.