Barsumas

d.458. Monophysite* leader. An archimandrite, he promoted in Syria the “one nature” heresy of Eutyches,* whose cause he supported at the Council of Constantinople (448) and, with 1,000 of his militant Monophysite monks, at the Robber Synod of Ephesus* (449). There, at the invitation of Emperor Theodosius II, he represented the Eastern monks and voted with the bishops. His promotion of Eutychian views and his subscription to the condemnation of Flavian and Eusebius of Dorylaeum at Ephesus earned for him at Chalcedon (451) the reputation “assassin” who “has upset all Syria.” Still loyal to Eutyches, he was exiled.