Collithus

Collithus is the name of several persons in the early Church:

1. A martyr under Maximian in the Thebaid, commemorated on May 19.

2. A presbyter and founder of a sect at Alexandria early in the 4th century. He assumed to exercise episcopal functions, but the Council of Alexandria, under Hosius (A.D. 324), decided that he was only a presbyter and consequently Ischyras and others ordained by him were to be accounted mere laymen (Athanas. Apol. Coitr. Arian. 12:75-77, 80, 106, 152). Colluthus was regarded as a schismatic rather than a heretic. Epiphanius mentions in general terms (Haer. 69:728) that Colluthus taught some perverse things, and founded a sect, which was soon dispersed (Tillemont, 6:231).

3. A monophysite, extracts from whose writings were read at the Lateran Council, A.D. 649.