Nestorius
- a theologian who was condemned as a heretic at the Council of Ephesus.
- —Hence, Nestŏrĭāni, ōrum, m., the followers of Nestorius, the Nestorians, Cod. 1, 5, 8; 16, 5, 66.
(Νεστόριος). A native of Germanicia in Northern Syria, who from his eminence as a zealous and eloquent priest was made Patriarch of Constantinople (A.D. 428). He is famous for his views on the divine and human natures of Christ, and by his connection with the sect that took his name. He held that the Virgin was the mother of Christ (Χριστοτόκος), and that while the divinity of the Word (λόγος) is to be distinguished from the temple of his flesh enshrining it, yet there still remained but one true Person. His opponents charged him, however, with teaching the doctrine of a duality of Persons—the human person of Christ and the divine person of the Logos. He was denounced by Cyril of Alexandria in twelve anathemas, and at a grand council held at Ephesus in A.D. 431, Nestorius was condemned and deposed. He died in exile somewhere in Egypt, the date and place of his death being alike unknown. See Anderson's Oriental Churches (1872).