Domnus II of Antioch

Who is Domnus II of Antioch?

Domnus II, Patriarch of Antioch of the heavily religious Eastern Roman Empire, and a friend of the influential Saint Theodoret Bishop of Cyrrhus. He was nephew of John I, Patriarch of Antioch, brought up under Euthymius the famous hermit of Palestine. He was ordained deacon by Juvenal of Jerusalem on his visit to the Laura of Euthymus in 429 AD. On the death of his uncle, in 441 AD, he was elected his successor, and almost at once ranked as the chief bishop of the Eastern world.

In 445 AD he summoned a synod of Syrian bishops which confirmed the deposition of Athanasius of Perrha. In 447 AD he consecrated Irenaeus to the see of Tyre; but emperor Theodosius II, commanded that the appointment should be annulled on the grounds that Irenaeus was both a digamus and a supporter of Nestorianism. He defended Ibas, bishop of Edessa, against charges of promulgating Nestorian doctrines, and summoned a council at Antioch which decided in favor of Ibas and deposed his accusers. Domnus's sentence, though revoked by Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, was confirmed by three episcopal commissioners to whom he and the emperor Theodosius II had committed the matter.

As a result, he was deposed at the Second Council of Ephesus on August 8, 449. Cowed by the authoritarian spirit of Dioscorus, and unnerved by the violence of Barsumas and his monks, Domnus revoked his former condemnation of Eutyches, and voted for the condemnation of Flavian, but in vain. He was the only bishop then deposed and banished who was not reinstated after the Council of Chalcedon—though this may have been by request so he could retire to his beloved monastery.