Nestorius (died c. 451)

Syrian ecclesiastic, patriarch of Constantinople 428–31. He developed the controversial Christine doctrine of Nestorianism, which distinguished two natures in Jesus, the human and the divine.

Cyril of Alexandria condemned the doctrine, as did Pope Celestine I with a threat of deposition and excommunication. Nestorius remained firm in his opinions and a council was convened at Ephesus in 431, at which he was condemned and deposed. He died in exile.

Nestorius was born in Germanicia, northern Syria, and probably studied under Theodore of Mopsuestia. He was ordained in Antioch. Soon after his consecration as patriarch of Constantinople, a priest called Anastasius, who had followed him to Constantinople, declared in a sermon (by some ascribed to Nestorius himself) that the Virgin Mary could not truly be called the mother of God as she was mother only of the man Jesus. Nestorius warmly defended this view, and elaborated it into the theory since known as Nestorianism.