Nestorius

Nestorius (c. 386–c. 451) was a monk and theologian of the Antiochene school who was appointed Archbishop of Constantinople by Emperor Theodosius II in 428. He became the center of a major Christological controversy when he objected to the title Theotokos ("God-bearer") for the Virgin Mary, proposing instead Christotokos ("Christ-bearer") and articulating a Christology that his opponents characterized as dividing Christ into two distinct persons. The Council of Ephesus (431), the third Ecumenical Council, condemned his teaching and deposed him from his see, after which he was exiled first to his monastery near Antioch and subsequently to the Great Oasis of Hibis in Egypt. His sole surviving complete work, the Bazaar of Heraclides, written in exile and composed c. 451, offers his own defense of his theology and argues that the Chalcedonian Definition of 451 vindicated his position — a claim disputed by the mainstream tradition. The theological tradition bearing his name, Nestorianism, continued in the Church of the East and shapes Syriac Christianity to the present day.