The Bishops who agreed to Ephesus and Chalcedon ─ Oriental Orthodox Veneration

Veneration of the Bishops at the Council of Ephesus 431

The Council of Ephesus (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EcumenicalCouncil_3rd_09-07.jpg)

The Oriental Orthodox Church today venerates the 200 bishops who attended Ephesus in 431. This is shown by the official Synaxaria of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. 

The Coptic Synaxarium commemorates on the 9th of Hator the "318 fathers assembled at Nicea" but does not positively identify the fathers as bishops {CopticChurch.net, 'Commemorations for Hator 9'}. The Coptic Synaxarium on the 1st of Amshir commemorates the "one hundred and fifty fathers" of the Second Ecumenical Council, but also does not positively identify the 150 fathers as bishops {CopticChurch.net, 'Commemorations for Amshir 1'}.

The Coptic Synaxarium on Tout 12th, however, does equate the 200 fathers of Ephesus as the bishops. The Synaxarium states:

On this day of the year 431 A.D., the Holy Council at Ephesus which was attended by 200 bishops was convened. It was the third of the Ecumenical Councils. That was in the twentieth year of the reign of Theodosius II, son of Arcadius, son of Theodosius the Great. They assembled because of the heresy of Nestorius who was Archbishop of Constantinople. He believed that St. Mary did not give birth to the incarnated God, but only to a human being, and that afterwards the Son of God dwelt in him, not the dwelling of unity but just the dwelling of will, and therefore, Christ because of that reason, had two natures and two wills. So these fathers convened, debated with Nestorius, and proved to him that He, who was born of the Virgin, was the incarnated God, as the angel said, "The Lord is with you; that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1: 28-32) And according to the saying of Isaiah, "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel," (Isaiah 7:14) and also, "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor [sic], the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father" (Isaiah 9:6) {CopticChurch.net, 'Commemorations for Tout 12'}.

That these two hundred bishops are considered to be continually saintly is attested by hymns that are chanted by the Coptic Church to this day. On the Sunday Midnight Praises, the Coptic Orthodox Church chants:

Pray to the Lord on our behalf, O the one hundred and fifty at Constantinople, and the two hundred at Ephesus, that He may forgive us our sins {Tabesha.org, 'Midnight Praises Sunday: The Commemoration of the Saints'}.

 Likewise, during the Anaphora of Saint Basil, we hear the Coptic Orthodox Church chanting:

O Lord, remember all the Saints who have pleased You since the beginning [...] the three hundred and eighteen assembled at Nicea; the one hundred and fifty at Constantinople; and the two hundred at Ephesus {Tabesha.org, 'St. Basil Anaphora: The Commemoration of the Saints'}.

Supporting the Copts in their veneration of the two hundred bishops is the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The Ethiopian Synaxarion on the 12th of Maskaram says "And on this day took place the General Council of the Saints, two hundred bishops, in the city of Ephesus" {Budge, Book of Saints, Vol. 1, p. 44}. Whilst the Liturgy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church says the following during the Preparatory Service:

May thy servants who serve on this day, the priest and the deacon and the clergy and all the people, and I myself they poor servant, be absolved and set free and cleansed out of the mouth[s] of the Holy Trinity [...] the one holy apostolic church [...] the fifteen prophets [...] the twelve apostles [...] the seventy-two disciples [...] the evangelist Mark [...] the honoured Patriarchs St. Severus and St. Dioscorus and St. Athanasius and St. John Chrysostom and St. Cyril and St. Gregory and St. Basil [...] the 318 orthodox that assembled in Nicaea [...] the 150 that assembled in Constantinople [...] and out of the mouths of the 200 that assembled in Ephesus to condemn Nestor[ius] {Daoud, tr., Liturgy, pp. 26─27}.

It is clear that the Oriental Orthodox Church venerates as holy men the two hundred bishops of Ephesus.

The Bishops who were Members of the Council of Ephesus

The next question to ask is who are these bishops. In contrast to Nicaea and Constantinople, which did not have signature lists, Ephesus did. 

The session of June 22 lists 197 bishop signatures who consented to the deposition of Nestorius on the grounds of heresy {Price and Graumann, trs., Ephesus, p. 291}. When we add the three Roman legates of Arcadius, Projectus, and Philip, who arrived at the session of July 10 we get the neat number of 200 bishops perfectly according with the contemporary veneration of 200 bishops (Arcadius and Projectus were bishops in their own right, whilst Philip represented Pope Celestine) {Price and Graumann, trs., Ephesus, p. 398}.

However, contemporary sources list that there were more than 200 bishops in attendance. Writing during the council, Cyril notes that the Council of Ephesus had "over two hundred holy bishops in number" {McEnerney, tr., Letters 51─110, p. 149}. The Third Report from the Council to Emperor Theodosius mentions that the council had "210 holy bishops" {Price and Graumann, trs., Ephesus, p. 404}.

By the time that Chalcedon came around in 451, most of the bishops that attended Ephesus had died. Yet some bishops who were a part of the council of Ephesus attended Chalcedon and accepted the decrees of that council. 

The following list from Ephesus is that of the signatures of the session of June 22, and that of Chalcedon is taken from the signatures of the Sixth Session that agreed to the definition of Chalcedon {Price and Graumann, trs., Ephesus, pp. 280─291; Price and Gaddis, trs., Chalcedon, Vol. 2, pp. 217─239}. These bishops attended both councils and accepted both councils.

Juvenal of Jerusalem [Ephesus (2), Chalcedon (6 / 115)]

Amphilochius of Side [Ephesus (9), Chalcedon (21 / 257)

Nicias of Megara [Ephesus (27), Chalcedon (230 / 25)]

Docimasius of Maronea in Rhodope, Thrace [Ephesus (28), Chalcedon (229 / 13)]

Eusebius of Clazomenae [Ephesus (63), Chalcedon (179 / 219)]

Paul of Anthedon [Ephesus (98), Chalcedon (79 / 119)]

Natiras of Gaza [Ephesus (99), Chalcedon (76 / 132)]

Callinicus of Apamea [Ephesus (159), Chalcedon (136 / 236)

Thomas of Valentinianopolis [Ephesus (187), Chalcedon (185 / 218)]

Eudoxius of Choma in Lycia [Ephesus (196), Chalcedon (340 / 265)]

Aristocritus of Olympus [Ephesus (197), Chalcedon (NA / 264) 

Hieracis of Aphnaeum [Ephesus (139)] and Isaac of Tava [Ephesus (195)] attended Chalcedon and accepted its decisions, but they claimed that they could not give written assent to the council without a new Pope of Alexandria appointed and signing before them. They said "let us have an archbishop, and we shall sign and assent" to the definition of Chalcedon {Price and Gaddis, trs., Chalcedon, Vol. 2, p. 152}. 

In total, we have 13 bishops who attended Ephesus and Chalcedon and agreed with both councils. Amphilochius might be an exception. It is said that after the council of Chalcedon that he recanted of his adherence to it, yet he may have eventually returned to agreeing with it {Lightfoot, 'Amphilochius',p. 25}.

It seems therefore that the Oriental Orthodox Church venerates as saints those that accepted the very council they fundamentally reject. 

Bibliography

Budge, E. A. Wallis, The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church, Volume 1 (Cambridge: 1928)

CopticChurch.net, 'Commemorations for Amshir 1'

'Commemorations for Hator 9'

'Commemorations for Tout 12'

Daoud, Marcos, tr., The Liturgy of the Ethiopian Church (London: 2005)

Lightfoot, 'Amphilochius (2)', in Henry Wace and William Coleman Piercy, eds., Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (London: 1911)

McEnerney, John I., St. Cyril of Alexandria: Letters 51─110 (Washington, D.C.: 2007)

Price, Richard, 

and Michael Gaddis, trs., The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, Volume 2 (Liverpool: 2005)

and Thomas Graumann, trs., The Council of Ephesus of 431: Documents and Proceedings (Liverpool: 2022)

Tabesha.org, 'Midnight Praises Sunday: The Commemoration of the Saints'

'St. Basil Anaphora: The Commemoration of the Saints'