Was Nestorius Ever Excommunicated by the Catholic Church?

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Was Nestorius Ever Excommunicated by the Catholic Church?

It would seem that Nestorius, despite many anathematizes, was never officially excommunicated by the Church. Numerous bishops pronounced such against him. The pope even condemned his doctrines, but never officially excommunicated (anathema) him.

Cyril had to explain that he was not summarizing or defining the faith about the Incarnation, but simply putting together the principal errors of Nestorius in the heretic's own words. In his books against Nestorius he had occasionally misrepresented him, but in the twelve anathematisms he gave a perfectly faithful picture of Nestorius's view, for in fact Nestorius did not disown the propositions, nor did Andrew of Samosata or Theodoret refuse to patronize any of them. The anathematisms were certainly in a general way approved by the Council of Ephesus, but they have never been formally adopted by the Church. - Nestorius and Nestorianism

The Council of Ephesus was a council of bishops convened in Ephesus in AD 431 by the Emperor Theodosius II. This third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom, confirmed the original Nicene Creed, and condemned the teachings of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who held that the Virgin Mary may be called the Christotokos, "Christ-bearer" but not the Theotokos, "God-bearer". It met in June and July 431 at the Church of Mary in Ephesus in Anatolia.

Pope Celestine had died on July 26 and the Council of Ephesus ended on July 31 and thus he could not have confirmed the decisions of the council.

Nowadays only the Pope can excommunicate a bishop outside automatic excommunications as stated in Canon Law. Back then I guess the rules were not so clear.

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Evidently, in 431, Pope Celestine excommunicated Nestorius at the 2nd council of Ephesus.

So, a pope did excommunicate Nestorius. And it was ratified in an official synod. Those two details would make me conclude that the excommunication had staying power later on. However, to my knowledge, later popes have not made a condemnation of Nestorius ex cathedra. So this excommunication is subject to change.

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