ASKIDAS, TEODORO. - Origenist monk from Palestine. He appears for the first time in history as hegumen of the "New Laura" near Jerusalem, at the Council of Constantinople of 536. He enjoyed great credit with the Empress Theodora and was not only imbued with the errors of Origen, but secretly favorable to Monophysitism.
Perhaps as early as 537 he managed to have himself appointed metropolitan of Caesarea in Cappadocia, but he resided more often in Constantinople than in his diocese. Orthodoxy fortunately found illustrious defenders in Palestinian monasticism, and the Roman apocrisiary Pelagius acted so skillfully against the Origenist errors that both the Emperor Justinian and the Patriarch of Constantinople Menas resolved to condemn them, the one in a solemn edict, the other in a small council in 543. A., obliged to subscribe to the edict, pondered his revenge against the Chalcedonians. In agreement with Theodora, he suggested to the emperor that the best means of bringing the Monophysites back to unity was to condemn as infected with Nestorianism what came to be called the "Three Chapters." The emperor fell fully into the trap set for him, and as early as 543 condemned the "Three Chapters." This act raised in the Church, in the West as well as in the East, a storm that came to an end only at the Fifth Ecumenical Council, the Second of Constantinople (552-553). The "Three Chapters" were condemned again, but A. had no reason to rejoice, since five anathemas, which he too had to subscribe, also struck at Origenism, dealing it a blow from which it could never recover. During the rupture that arose between Justinian and Pope Vigilius, A., as was natural, sided with the emperor (550-51), which earned him a condemnation and deposition by the Pope. He made his submission in 552 and died in Constantinople in Jan. 558.