aysor.am, Armenia
Aug 8 2009
Commemoration Day: 200 Pontiffs taking part in Ephesus St. Council
Today Armenian Holy Apostolic church is celebrating the Commemoration
Day of 200 Pontiffs participating in the Ecumenical Council of
Ephesus, reports the press department of the Araratyan Patriarchal
Diocese.
The Ecumenical Council of Ephesus was convened in 431 A. D., during
the reign of the King Theodosius Small. 200 Pontiffs participated in
the Council with the goal to criticize the false teaching of
Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople. According to his teaching
there were two independent – divine and human natures in Christ,
contrasting each other. Nestorius preached that Christ was born as a
simple man and only later Divinity was settled in His Person, and
therefore, the Holy Virgin Mary was not Godmother, but the mother of a
simple man.
The Ecumenical Council of Ephesus condemns the teaching of Nestorius
and adopts the teaching of St. Cyril of Alexandria as an orthodox
teaching, according to which the divine and human natures of Christ do
not exist separately, but are united unmixedly, without confusion –
one Lord, one Jesus, one face and one united divine and human
nature. St. Mary is not the mother of a simple man, but she is
Godmother as she gave birth to the Son of God. So, the formulation of
St. Cyril of Alexandria: `One is the nature of the Incarnate Word of
God’ was adopted.
The Armenian Church has not participated in that Ecumenical Council
but has adopted its resolutions and ecumenical authority together with
the previous Ecumenical Councils.