Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria - Legacy

Legacy

His character and stance are subject to controversy between the Oriental Orthodox Churches on one side, and the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches on the other.

Dioscorus I is considered a saint by the Coptic, Syriac, and other Oriental Orthodox churches, while the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches have frequently deemed him a heretic.

Certain modern theologians suggest that both Leo and Dioscoros were orthodox in their agreement with Saint Cyrill's Twelve Chapters, even though both have been (and still are) considered heretical by certain individuals in the opposing sides.

Some commentators like Anatolius and John S. Romanides argue that Dioscorus was not deposed for heresy but for "grave administrative errors" at Ephesus II, among which they mention his restoration of Eutyches, his attack on Flavian, and afterwards, his excommunication of Pope Leo I. Defenders of Dioscuros argue that Eutyches was orthodox at the time of his restoration and only later relapsed into heresy, that Flavian was a Nestorian and that Pope Leo had supported Nestorianism.

Another related matter of contention was the accusation, frequently levelled by Chalcedonian churches, that the Oriental Orthodox Churches accepted Eutychian doctrine. The latter deny this charge, arguing that they reject both the Monophysitism of Eutyches, whom they consider a heretic, as well as Dyophysitism espoused by the Council of Chalcedon, which they equate with Nestorianism, for a doctrine they term miaphysitism, or that in Jesus Christ, divinity and humanity exist as "one divinized nature" (physis), as opposed to the orthodox Chalcedonian teaching of a divine nature (physis) and a human nature (physis) united in in the one person (hypostasis) of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, with neither confusion nor division, a doctrine called the "hypostatic union".

In May 1973 Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria visited Pope Paul VI of Rome and declared a common faith in the nature of Christ, the issue which caused the schism of the church in the Council of Chalcedon.

A similar declaration was reached between the Oriental Orthodox and the Eastern Orthodox churches in the 1990s in Geneva, in which both Oriental and Eastern Orthodox churches agreed in condemning the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies and in rejecting interpretations of Councils which do not fully agree with the Horos of the Third Ecumenical Council and the letter (433) of Cyril of Alexandria to John of Antioch.

They also agreed to lift all the anathemas and condemnations of the past.

In the summer of 2001, the Coptic Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Patriarchates of Alexandria agreed to mutually recognize baptisms performed in each other's churches.