As bishop of Scythopolis, Palestine (Bet She'an, Israel), Severian zealously defended the teachings of the Church at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, refuting the Monophysite heretics who denied that Christ had two natures (divine and human). The council defined the dogma that Christ is both true God and true man. About this time a Monophysite monk named Theodosius schemed to get himself chosen for the episcopacy of Jerusalem. Determined to protect his own diocese from heresy, Severian resisted Theodosius, incurring the latter's wrath. A mob of Theodosius' partisans ambushed Severian, dragged him outside his city, and slaughtered him.
