Messalians

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Messalians. A Christian sect of the 4th–7th cents. Their name derives from Syriac mṣallyane, ‘praying people’; they were also known by the cognate Gk. name Euchites. They lived ascetically and by begging, in order to give themselves entirely to prayer. The Messalians were attacked by Orthodox writers including Epiphanius, and were condemned finally at the Council of Ephesus in 431.