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A Christian gravestone in Frunze, Kirghistan from 8-13th century. The Eastern church was widespread and influential. Roman Catholicism has attempted to down play this size and influence by labelling the Eastern Christians as Nestorians. Nestorius (circa. 382-451 AD), Archbishop of Constantinople, was deposed in 431 AD following the Council of Ephesus. He was driven from the Byzantine empire and his followers persecuted. He believed that Christ had divine and human natures but that these natures did not join to form a single personality. He therefore rejected the Catholic belief that Mary was the "mother of God" because he believed that Jesus' divine nature was derived from God and not Mary, as Jesus was born as a man. In Kirghiztan two Christian cemeteries were discovered at Semiryechensk, mute testimony to this once-flourishing church. Inscriptions on the tombstones were written both in Syriac and Turkish. There lay, side by side, 'Terim the Chinese', 'Banus the Uigurian', 'Sazik the Indian', 'Kiamata of Kashgar', 'Tatt the Mongol', and 'Shah Malison of George of Tus'. People from China, India, East and West Turkestan, Mongolia, manchuria, Siberia and Persia. The inscriptions mentioned their occupations: Zuma, priest, general and famous amir; Shliha the celebrated commentator and teacher, who illuminated all the monasteries with light; Pesoha the renowned exegetist and preacher; the charming maiden Julia, the betrothed of the bishop Johanan; Sabrisho, the archdeacon, the blessed old man and the perfect priest. "This is the grave of Chorepiscopus Ama. In the year 1566, (or 1255 according to our time), he departed from this world in the month of July on Sabbath. May our Lord unite his spirit with those of the pious and upright. Amen" Mingana, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 39-42. Yohannon, Death of a Nation, p. 102. See also Aziz Atiya, Eastern Christianity, pp. 260, 261. Stewart, Nestorian Missionary Enterprise, pp. 198-213.
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