Xenaeans a Monophysite sect which held a middle line between the Aphthartodcetae (q.v.) and the Phthartolatrae (q.v.), maintaining that Christ truly became maln, with the same capacities for suffering and the same human sensations as men in general, but that he did so of his own free will and choice, and not by the physical necessity of his human nature. This doctrine originated with Xenaias, of Tabal, in Persia, afterwards known as Philoxenus of Mabug (q.v.). The Xenean party was strongly opposed, in common with the other Monophysites, by Flavian, the patriarch who succeeded Peter the Fuller.