The Council of Ephesus was the third ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It met in the summer of AD 431 in the Church of Mary at Ephesus, near today's Selçuk in western Turkey, at the call of the Roman emperor Theodosius II. It condemned the teaching of Nestorius, Archbishop of Constantinople, and declared that the Virgin Mary may rightly be called Theotokos, the "God-bearer" or Mother of God.
Most of the great church councils met in buildings that have vanished or been rebuilt beyond recognition. At Ephesus the ruins of the council church still stand inside the ancient city. This guide explains what the bishops decided and why it mattered, then shows you what is left of the building. For the rest of the site, see our Ephesus ancient city complete guide.
What Did the Council of Ephesus Decide?
In one sentence: Jesus Christ is one person, fully God and fully human, so Mary, who gave birth to him, can be called the Mother of God. Everything else the council did followed from that. Its main decisions were:
- Nestorius deposed. The Archbishop of Constantinople was condemned and removed from office on the first day, 22 June 431.
- Mary is Theotokos. The title "God-bearer" was upheld against Nestorius's preferred Christotokos, "Christ-bearer".
- The Nicene Creed confirmed. The council read the creed of 325 and, in its seventh canon, forbade anyone to put forward a different creed in its place.
- Pelagians condemned. Caelestius, a follower of Pelagius already condemned in the West, was condemned again with his supporters.
- Cyprus independent. The eighth canon upheld the right of the bishops of Cyprus to run their own church without interference from Antioch. The Church of Cyprus still dates its independence to this ruling.
Eight canons were passed in all. The first six deal with Nestorius, Caelestius and anyone who refused to accept the council's decisions.
Theotokos or Christotokos: What Was the Argument About?
The quarrel began in Constantinople soon after Nestorius, a monk and preacher trained in Antioch, became archbishop of the imperial capital in 428. He objected to the popular title Theotokos for Mary. God, he argued, existed before time and could not be born of a woman; Mary gave birth to the human Christ, so she should be called Christotokos, Christ-bearer.
Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, saw this as splitting Christ in two: a divine Son and a human son sharing one body. If the child born of Mary was truly God the Son made man, Cyril argued, then his mother is the Mother of God, and the title protects the truth about Christ more than it praises Mary. Pope Celestine I sided with Cyril in August 430 and gave Nestorius ten days to recant. Instead Nestorius asked the emperor for a council, expecting to be cleared.
| Nestorius | Cyril of Alexandria | |
|---|---|---|
| Office | Archbishop of Constantinople from 428 | Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 |
| Tradition | Antioch: stressed that Christ's divine and human natures stay distinct | Alexandria: stressed that Christ is one single person |
| Title for Mary | Christotokos, Christ-bearer | Theotokos, God-bearer |
| What he feared | Making God subject to birth, suffering and death | Dividing Christ into two persons |
| Support in 431 | John of Antioch and the Syrian bishops; at first, the emperor | Pope Celestine I, the bishops of Egypt and Asia, the people of Ephesus |
| Outcome | Deposed in 431, exiled to Egypt in 435, died around 451 | Confirmed after a short detention; agreed a formula of union with Antioch in 433 |
Many historians now think the two men were closer than their rhetoric suggests. A long defence Nestorius wrote in exile, The Bazaar of Heracleides, was rediscovered in a Syriac translation at the start of the 20th century, and it has led some scholars to reassess him.
What Happened at Ephesus in the Summer of 431?
The council was due to open at Pentecost, 7 June 431. It turned into a summer of rival meetings, arrests and appeals to the emperor. The bishops from Syria under John of Antioch were held up on the road for weeks, and Cyril refused to wait any longer.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 19 Nov 430 | Emperor Theodosius II summons the bishops to Ephesus for Pentecost |
| 7 Jun 431 | The opening date passes; John of Antioch and the Syrian bishops are still on the road |
| 22 Jun 431 | Cyril opens the council in the Church of Mary: 160 bishops in the morning, 198 by evening. Nestorius ignores three summonses and is deposed in one long session |
| Late Jun 431 | John of Antioch arrives, holds a rival council and declares Cyril and Bishop Memnon of Ephesus deposed |
| 10–11 Jul 431 | The pope's legates arrive and confirm the sentence on Nestorius |
| 16–17 Jul 431 | John is summoned, refuses to come and is excommunicated with 34 of his bishops |
| 22 Jul 431 | The council forbids any creed other than that of Nicaea |
| 31 Jul 431 | Last session: the Church of Cyprus is declared independent of Antioch |
| Aug 431 | The emperor confirms the depositions made by both meetings; Cyril and Memnon are held under guard |
| Oct 431 | The council is dissolved and the emperor sides with Cyril's majority; Nestorius retires to his monastery near Antioch |
| Apr 433 | Cyril and John of Antioch agree the Formula of Reunion |
| 3 Aug 435 | An imperial edict sends Nestorius into exile at the Great Oasis in Egypt |
On the evening of 22 June, when the verdict against Nestorius was announced, the people of Ephesus escorted the bishops back to their lodgings with torches and incense. The title Theotokos was already popular in the city, and its bishop, Memnon, had the crowds on his side, which did Nestorius no favours.
Why Was the Council Held in Ephesus?
The emperor chose the city. Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province of Asia, one of the largest cities in the eastern empire, and easy to reach by sea for bishops from Egypt, Rome and the Aegean. It also had deep Christian roots: Paul had preached there, the Letter to the Ephesians is addressed to its church, and the first of the seven letters in Revelation is written to it.
Local tradition adds that the Apostle John spent his last years in Ephesus, and a later tradition that Mary came with him. The Basilica of St. John stands over his traditional tomb, and the House of the Virgin Mary on the hill above the ruins is visited by Christian and Muslim pilgrims alike. Whether Mary really lived here is debated, but the choice of a city devoted to her, and of a church named after her, was lost on no one.
Where Did the Council Meet? The Church of Mary
The bishops met in the cathedral of Ephesus, which the council's own records call simply "the church called Mary". That phrase is the earliest known record of a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary anywhere. The building itself was unusual. The Christians of Ephesus had fitted it inside the long southern portico of the Olympieion, a vast precinct built around AD 130 for the worship of Emperor Hadrian as Olympian Zeus, which is why the church is so long and narrow: about 145 metres by 30.
What you see today is not quite the church the bishops knew. Around 500 the Ephesians rebuilt it as a larger cathedral, whose apse and piers still stand. Later, as the city shrank, a smaller domed church and then a second basilica were built inside the ruins, and the area became a cemetery. That is why the site can be confusing, and why it is sometimes called the Double Church. Not every session met here, either: the second, on 10 July, was held in Bishop Memnon's residence. Our article on where the Ephesian church actually stood explains how this building differs from St John's Basilica.
Ephesus hosted another council in 449, probably in the same church. That meeting, led by Dioscorus of Alexandria, restored the monk Eutyches and deposed Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople. Pope Leo I called it a latrocinium, a "robbery", and Western and Eastern Orthodox Christians have called it the Robber Council ever since, although the Oriental Orthodox churches reject the name. The Council of Chalcedon overturned it in 451. When people talk about the Council of Ephesus, they almost always mean the council of 431.
The First Four Councils Were All Held in Today's Turkey
The four councils whose decisions most churches still treat as foundational all met in what is now Turkey. At two of them, Constantinople and Ephesus, you can still stand where the bishops met.
| Council | Place today | Bishops | Main question | What you can see today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicaea, 325 | Iznik, Bursa province | 250–318 | Is the Son fully God? (against Arius) | Roman walls and gates; the ruins of the Basilica of St Neophytos in Lake Iznik, beside which Pope Leo XIV and Patriarch Bartholomew prayed on 28 November 2025 for the council's 1,700th anniversary |
| Constantinople, 381 | Istanbul | About 150 | Is the Holy Spirit fully God? The creed is expanded | Hagia Irene, rebuilt in the 6th century, now a museum and concert hall in the outer courtyard of Topkapı Palace |
| Ephesus, 431 | Selçuk, Izmir province | About 200 | Is Christ one person? May Mary be called Theotokos? | The ruins of the Church of Mary, inside the ancient city of Ephesus |
| Chalcedon, 451 | Kadıköy, Istanbul | More than 500 | How are Christ's divine and human natures united? | Almost nothing of ancient Chalcedon survives; the relics of St Euphemia, in whose church the council met, are kept at the Patriarchal Church of St George in the Phanar |
Who Accepts the Council of Ephesus Today?
Nearly all Christians do, at least in substance. The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches all count it as the third ecumenical council. The exception is the Church of the East, which grew up outside the Roman Empire, in Persia, and never accepted the condemnation of Nestorius.
| Church | Accepts it? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Catholic Church | Yes | The third ecumenical council; the feast of Mary, Mother of God, on 1 January celebrates the title it upheld |
| Eastern Orthodox churches | Yes | The third of the seven ecumenical councils; Theotokos is Mary's most common title in Orthodox prayer |
| Oriental Orthodox churches (Coptic, Armenian, Syriac, Ethiopian and others) | Yes | The last ecumenical council they accept; they reject Chalcedon (451) |
| Assyrian Church of the East | No | In 1994 its patriarch and Pope John Paul II signed a joint declaration on Christ, and each side accepted the other's title for Mary |
| Protestant churches | Its teaching on Christ, generally | Lutheran and Anglican traditions recognise the first four councils; many Protestants avoid the title Mother of God in everyday use |
The 1994 declaration shows where the argument finally ended up. The Assyrian Church of the East prays to Mary as "the Mother of Christ our God and Saviour"; the Catholic Church calls her "the Mother of God" and also "the Mother of Christ". Nearly 1,600 years after Ephesus, both sides agreed that these words express the same faith in Christ.
How the Council Changed the Way Mary Was Shown
The council gave Mary a new place in Christian art. In Rome, Pope Sixtus III dedicated the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore to her on 5 August 434, three years after Ephesus, and its mosaics, still in place, are widely read as a celebration of the council's decision. On the triumphal arch, Mary appears dressed like a Roman empress.
At Ephesus itself, the Church of Mary stayed the city's cathedral for centuries, until the bishop's seat moved, possibly in the 7th century, to the basilica built over St John's tomb on Ayasuluk Hill.
Visiting the Church of Mary Today
The Church of Mary is one of the quietest corners of Ephesus. It lies off the main route, so most groups walk straight past, and you may have the ruins to yourself.
Where it is: Inside the ancient city, north of Harbour Street and close to the lower (north) entrance. From the junction in front of the Theatre Gymnasium, a path leads about 300 metres north to the church. Our Ephesus walking route shows how the lower end of the site fits together.
Ticket: Covered by the standard Ephesus ticket (€40 in 2026), with no separate charge. See the Ephesus entrance fee guide.
Time needed: 20–30 minutes, including the baptistery.
What to look for: The apse of the cathedral of around 500; the round baptistery in the atrium, with the sunken pool where people were baptised by full immersion; marble blocks carved with crosses; and, in the apse, a marble plaque in Turkish and Latin recording that Pope Paul VI prayed here on 26 July 1967.
With a guide: Two of our tours include the Church of Mary: Shrines of Virgin Mary & Magdalene (7 hours), which also visits the House of the Virgin Mary and the Seven Sleepers Cave, and the Daily Pilgrimage Tour for Cruisers (8 hours), planned around your ship's times. On our other private Ephesus tours, tell us when you book and the guide can add it. For longer journeys, see our Christian tours in Turkey.
Want to see the Church of Mary on your Ephesus day? Send us your dates, group size and where you are staying, and we'll reply with an exact price.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the Council of Ephesus decide?
That Jesus Christ is one person, fully God and fully human, and that Mary can therefore be called Theotokos, Mother of God. It deposed Nestorius, Archbishop of Constantinople, confirmed the Nicene Creed and forbade any rival creed.
Why is the Council of Ephesus important?
It fixed the title Mother of God in Christian teaching, shaped how Mary has been honoured and depicted ever since, and led to one of the first lasting divisions among Christians, between the churches of the Roman Empire and the Church of the East.
Where was the Council of Ephesus held?
In the Church of Mary, the cathedral of Ephesus, near today's Selçuk in Izmir province, Turkey. Its ruins stand inside the ancient city near the lower entrance.
Do Catholics accept the Council of Ephesus?
Yes. The Catholic Church counts it as the third ecumenical council, and the feast of Mary, Mother of God, on 1 January celebrates the title the council upheld.
Do Protestants accept the Council of Ephesus?
Most accept its teaching about Christ. Lutheran and Anglican traditions recognise the first four councils, including Ephesus, though many Protestants prefer not to use the title Mother of God.
What is the difference between the Councils of Ephesus in 431 and 449?
The council of 431 condemned Nestorius and is accepted by most churches. The meeting of 449, which restored Eutyches and deposed Archbishop Flavian, was overturned at Chalcedon in 451; Pope Leo I called it the Robber Council.
Is the Council of Ephesus in the Bible?
No. It took place almost 400 years after the events of the New Testament. Ephesus itself appears in the Bible in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul's Letter to the Ephesians and the Book of Revelation.
Can you visit the place where the Council of Ephesus met?
Yes. The ruins of the Church of Mary are inside the ancient city of Ephesus and covered by the standard ticket. Allow 20–30 minutes; few groups go there, so it is usually quiet.
Part of the Ephesus ancient city complete guide. For the other Christian sites of Ephesus, see the House of Virgin Mary guide and the Basilica of St. John guide.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Marmaracalypso (CC BY-SA 4.0), Philippe Alès (CC BY-SA 3.0), Dosseman (apse, baptistery) (CC BY-SA 4.0), Fabrizio Garrisi (CC0), Rc1959 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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