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Macedonia: Mural painting of Nestorius (386-451 CE), Church of St Demetrius, Marko's Monastery, Markova Sušica

Macedonia: Mural painting of Nestorius (386-451 CE), Church of St Demetrius, Marko's Monastery, Markova Sušica

Nestorius was Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to 22 June 431. Drawing on his studies at the School of Antioch he devised a doctrine that later bore his name, Nestorianism, which emphasized the disunity of the human and divine natures of Christ. His teachings, which included a rejection of the long-used title of Theotokos ('Mother of God') for the Virgin Mary, brought him into conflict with other prominent churchmen of the time; most notably Cyril of Alexandria, who accused him of heresy.

Nestorius sought to defend himself at the First Council of Ephesus in 431, but instead he found himself formally condemned for heresy and removed from his see. Thereafter he retired to a monaster, where he asserted his orthodoxy for the rest of his life. Despite his acquiescence, many of his supporters split with the rest of the church in the Nestorian Schism, and over the next decades a number of them relocated to Persia. Thereafter Nestorianism became the official position of the Church of the East.

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