Middle East Information Resource
Religions/Belief Systems - Nestorianism
Nestorianism was the religious position of Nestorius, patriarch of Conststantinople in the 5th century. Nestorius objected to the orthodox habit of calling Mary the `mother of God.` He maintained that she was only the mother of the human Jesus and not of the divine nature of Christ. Nestorianism was much opposed and was declared a heresy in 451 at the council of chalcedon. The Nestorian Church later flourished in Egypt and Syria.
In 489 many of the supporters of Nestorius’s theology fled the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church to Persia. They formed their own church in Persia, but they were persecuted by the Zoroastrian majority in Persia. In the 7th century the Nestorians are granted protection by the Muslim rulers when they took control of Persia. For centuries the Nestorians engaged in large scale missionary campaigns throughout the Far East.
In the 14th century the Mongul invasions by Timurlane destroyed most of the Nestorian Church’s infrastructure, leaving only isolated communities of believers, often without contact with other Christians. In the 16th century the Nestorian community of India came into contact with Portuguese traders and colonists, and joined the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1551 many of the Nestorian congregations rejoined the Roman Catholic Church, and were called Chaldean, or Chaldean Catholic, or East Syriac. The congregations that did not join the Catholic Church became known as Assyrian Christians or Nestorians. in 1912 a number of Iranian Nestorians joined the Russian Orthodox Church.
Today there are approximately 300,000 adherents in Iraq and about 250,000 adherents who are Iraqis in exile.