BARSANIANI. – A Monophysite sect (v. MONOPHYSITISM) of the Acephali, who elected BARSANUFIUS (whence their name) as their leader, claiming to consecrate him as bishop by the laying on of hands of a recently deceased bishop.
The B., like the other Acephali, received communion in the species consecrated by Patriarch Dioscorus, but moreover sprinkled them with flour, and taking a little of this with the tip of the finger, they brought it to their mouth. They partook of this communion only at Easter. From this flour σησαμίδαλος they also received the name of semidalites. They did not make the oblation and neglected every other rite. In 815 they merged with the Jacobites.
BIBL.: Timotheus Const., De recept. haeret.: PG 86, 45; I. Damascenus, De haeres.: PG 94, 756 and note 63. Ignatius Ortiz de Urbina