The Council of Ephesus (431 AD) was assembled by Pope Celestine on request of St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, to refute the heresy of Nestorius, Patriarchs of Constantinople. Nestorius held that the Blessed Virgin should be called Christotokos, meaning "Mother of Christ," because she was the mother of Christ's humanity, not of his divinity. Against this heresy, which separated the two nature of Christ, the Council declared that Mary was the Theotokos, since she gave birth to Christ, who is God, therefore she could rightly be called Mother of God.
The dogmatic definition of Ephesus declared: " If somebody does not believe that the Emmanuel is God, and that therefore the Blessed Virgin is Theotokos, since she generated in the flesh the Word who is God, be excommunicated."
The Council also defined that the two natures of Christ ( Divine and Human) are "united in one divine person but not confused, are distinct but not seperated."
The dogma of the Theotokos was never meant to suggest that the Blessed Virgin was God, or Mother of God from eternity, but only Mother of the Incarnate Son of God. After the declaration of Mary as the Theotokos, the people of Ephesus, full of rejoicing, escorted the fathers to their houses with torches and incense. Nestorius requested permission to retire to his former monastery, and before his death accepted the decrees of Ephesus.
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