Barsanuphians (Or Barsanuphites)
were an obscure subdivision of the Monophysites, taking their name from Barsanuphius, an Egyptian pretender to the episcopal rank. They separated from the Jacobites in the reign of the emperor Zeno, at the latter part of the 5th century, and were reunited to them in the time of the patriarch Mark, about 810. At that time they had two bishops, whom Mark at first refused to recognise, but afterwards acknowledged, and appointed them to the first vacant sees. The founder of this sect was a different person from the Palestinian anchoret. See Fleury, Hist. Eccl. 10:116; Neale, Pair. of Alexand. ii, 137, 221.