Commemoration of the Third Ecumenical Council

Life

This Council assembled in the year 431 in Ephesus, during the time of Emperor Theodosius the Younger. Two hundred holy Fathers were at the Council. This Council condemned Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, for his heretical teaching about the most holy Virgin Mary and the birth of the Lord. Namely: Nestorius would not call the Holy Virgin the Theotokos but the Christotokos. The holy Fathers, having condemned the teaching of Nestorius, affirmed that the Holy Virgin is to be called the Theotokos. Besides this they confirmed the decisions of the First and Second Ecumenical Councils, especially the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, commanding that no one may either subtract anything from this Creed or add anything to it.