Barsumas
or BARSAUMAS, bishop of Nisibis (435-485 A. D.), was one of the most eminent leaders of the Nestorians. His efforts gained for Nestorianism in Persia numerous adherents, and the patronage of the king, Pherozes, who, at the instigation of Barsumas, expelled from his kingdom the opponents of the Nestorians, and allowed the latter to erect Seleuceia and Ctesiphon into a patriarchal see. He was the author of some polemical works, which are lost. He must not be confounded with Barsumas, an abbot, who was condemned for Eutychianism by the council of Chalcedon, and afterwards spread the tenets of Eutyches through Syria and Armenia, about A. D. 460. (Asseman, Biblioth. Orient. ii. pp. 1-10, and preliminary Dissertation, iii. pt. 1. p. 66.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.