 deposed. Patriarch Mennas, who succeeded Anthimus, summoned a synod in May and June 536 to deal with the Chalcedon question. Severus and his two companions were cast out "as wolves", and once again anathematized (Labbe, v. 253-255). The sentence was ratified by Justinian. The writings of Severus were proscribed; any one possessing them who failed to commit them to the flames was to lose his right hand (Evagr. H. E. iv. 11; Novell. Justinian. No. 42; Matt. Blastar. p. 59). Severus returned to Egypt, which he seems never again to have left. The date of his death is said variously to be 538, 539, or 542. According to John of Ephesus, he died in the Egyptian desert.
Writing and theology
He was a very copious writer, but we possess little more than fragments. An account of them, so far as they can be identified, is given by William Cave and Fabricius. A very large number exist only in Syriac, for which consult the catalogue of the Syriac manuscripts in the British Museum by Prof. Wright.
Severus was successful in his great aim of uniting the Non-Chalcedonians into one compact body with a definitely formulated creed. For notwithstanding the numerous subdivisions of the Non-Chalcedonians, he was, in Dorner's words, "strictly speaking, the scientific leader of the most compact portion of the party," and regarded as such by the Non-Chalcedonians and their opponents. He was the chief object of attack in the long and fierce contest with the Chalcedonians, by whom he is always designated as the author and ringleader of Non-Chalcedonianism. Hoping to embrace as many as possible of varying theological color, he followed the traditional formulas of the church as closely as he could, while affixing his own sense upon them.
- In 1904 the Sixth Book of the Select Letters of Severus, in the Syriac version of Athanasius of Nisibis, were edited by G. E. W. Brooks (London). For a full statement of his opinions see the major work of Dorner, and the article "Monophysiten" in Herzog's Encyclopedia.
- This article uses text from A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies by Henry Wace.
- Pauline Allen and Robert Hayward, Severus of Antioch, Routlege, 2004.
- Frédéric Alpi, several recent articles in French devoted to the episcopate of Severus.
- Evagrius Scholasticus, H. E. 3.33.
- Evagrius 3.33; see also 3.22.
- Gillman, Ian and Hans-Joachim Klimkeit, Christians in Asia before 1500 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999), on p. 31 states he died in 538.
- Historia Literaria, vol. i.pp. 499 ff.
- Bibl. Graec. lib. v. c. 36, vol. x. pp. 614 ff., ed. Harless
- Dorner, Pers. of Christ, div. ii. vol. i. p. 136, Clark's trans.