PATRIPASSIANS, PATRIPASSIANI, in church history, a Christian sect, who appeared about the latter end of the second century; so called from their ascribing the passion to the Father; for they asserted the unity of God in such a manner as to destroy all distinctions of persons, and to make the Father and Son precisely the same; in which they were followed by the Sabellians and others. The author and head of the Patripassians was Praxeas, a philosopher of Phrygia in Asia. Swedenborg and his followers seem to hold the same faith.