Barsanians

Barsanians

were one of the minor Egyptian sects of the Monophysites during the latter part of the 5th century. Joannes Damascenus identifies them with the Semidalitae (q.v.), and states that they had no valid consecration of the eucharist, but, having mixed a few crumbs of sacramental bread consecrated by Dioscorus, the Eutychian patriarch of Alexandria, with a measure of fine wheat flour, partook of the loaf made therefrom, and regarded it as am reception of the holy communion. Damascenus strangely attributes to them the tenets both of the Gajanitse (or Julianists) and of the Theodosiani (or Severians), who held opposite doctrines as to the corruptibility of Christ's body, adding thereto something of their own.