sb. and a. [ad. med.L. collȳridiān-us, f. collȳrida = collȳris = Gr. κολλῡρίς, -ίδα (Vulgate and LXX) cake, dim. of κολλύρα roll of coarse bread.]
A. sb. A member of a sect of heretics in the 4th and 5th c. who worshipped the Virgin Mary, to whom their women are said to have offered cakes as ‘Queen of Heaven’ (cf. Jer. vii. 18).
1565. Calfhill, Answ. Martiall (1846), 377. A sect of heretics called Collyridians, which did offer to the Virgin Mary.
1667. Poole, Dial. betw. Protest. & Papist (1735), 146. The Fathers charged the Collyridians with Idolatry, for worshipping of the Virgin Mary.
1880. Littledale, Plain Reas., xxiv. 69.
1882–3. Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., II. 1423.
B. adj. Of or pertaining to this sect.
1827. G. S. Faber, Sacr. Cal. Proph. (1844), I. 101. Collyridian Heretics, who … had begun to worship the dead in the person of the Virgin Mary. Ibid. (1833), Recapit. Apostasy, 15. The idolatrously blasphemous Collyridian Heresy.
