MASSENZIO, Giovanni. — Among the anti-Monophysite monks of Tomi (province of Scythia) who in 519 went to Rome and Constantinople, defending the theopaschite formula “Unus ex Trinitate passus est” and requesting the condemnation of Faustus of Reji as a Pelagian, there was a certain John with the surname M.
He delivered to the legates of Pope Ormísa, who had arrived in 519 in Constantinople to reconcile the Acacian schism, an Epístola ad legatos Sedis Apostolicae (PG 86, 75-86). After the failure of this action and a personal intervention in Rome, the monks turned with greater success to the African bishops exiled in Sicily with the Epístola de Incarnatione et Gratia (PL 62, 83-92), a work not by M. but by Peter the Deacon. The Pope complained in 520, in an epistle, about the conduct of these monks, declaring that it was not Faustus but Augustine who was the teacher of grace. To this letter M. replied with a sharp Responsio (PG 86, 93-112). M. is the author of a dialogue Contra nestorianos (PG 86, 1, 115-58); he was a scholar equally well versed in Eastern and Western theology. He appears as the inspirer of canons 1-8 of the Synod of Orange (529).