CRISTOLITI. - (From the Greek χριστός = "Christ" and λύω = "I separate"). Name of an obscure sect of heretics who lived between 650 and 750, whose existence is attested for us solely by St. John Damascene (Haereses, XCIII: PG 94, 757) and by Constantine Copronymus in a passage cited by Nicephorus of Constantinople (Antirrhetica, I, 34: PG 100, 288).

They held that Jesus Christ, after his resurrection, had abandoned soul and body and had ascended into heaven with his divinity alone: the Incarnation was therefore reduced to a purely temporary union of the person of the Word with human nature. Theodoret of Cyrrhus informs us that certain Eutychians professed doctrines of this kind (Dial., II: PG 83, 164-63): it is not impossible that these were the same C. of whom Damascene speaks. In that case these heretics would have to be placed around the middle of the 5th century.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: W. Smith and H. Wace, Dictionary of Christian biography, I, London 1877, p. 495; G. Barville, Christolytes, in DTHC, II, coll. 2417-18.

Guglielmo Zannoni

@incollection{ec4_cristoliti, author = {Zannoni, Guglielmo}, title = {Cristoliti}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {926--927}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cristoliti} }

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