Saint Cyril of Alexandria.

Pope Celestine I, his contemporary, dubbed him 'Good Defender of the Catholic Faith'; Anastasius Sinaiticus (7th-cent.) called him 'Seal of the Fathers'; the Greek Church revered his Christology; the Sacred Congregation of Rites (July 28, 1882) titled him 'Teacher of the Church'; for the Catholic scholar Joannes Quasten, he is "One of the greatest figures in early Christian literature."

Born c. 378 at Mahalla, Cyril succeded his uncle Theophilus, whom he had helped depose John Chrysostom at the Synod of the Oak (403), to the Alexandrian Patriachy on October 18, 413. Up to 428, he preached and wrote against Novatian heretics, Jews, and pagans.

Gibbon, likewise the novelist Charles Kingsley, seized on the insinuations of Socrates (Church History 7.15) to blame him for the lynching of pagan/mathematician/feminist Hypatia in 415; her murderers were in fact a band of fanatics outside Cyril's control. Then came the bitter struggle against Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, over Christ's nature and Mary's Mother of God title; with papal support, a Roman synod, and the Third Ecumenical Council (Ephesus, 431), Cyril prevailed, albeit a patched-up reconciliation (433) did not spare him the need to restate his Christology down to his death on June 27, 444.

Portraits emphasize Cyril's resemblance to St. Basil, adding the characteristic Alexandrian pointed bonnet, set off with crosses. The Byzantine painter Ulpius envisaged him as shortish, with prominent eyebrows and nose, of rude-looking health: Feast Days June 9 and 27. His writings occupy nine volumes (68-77) of Migne's Greek Patrology, seven in Pusey's Oxford (1868-1877) edition. From Photius to Quasten, his style has been deplored as diffuse and overly ornate, though the former allows that this is enforced by difficult subject-matter, while the latter observes that "Content reveals depth of thought, rich ideas, precision and clarity, making his writings first class sources for dogma and doctrine."

Cyril was a prolific Bible exegete, approaching the Old Testament allegorically (though more selectively than Origen), the New historically. Much effort was perforce expended on combatting Arians and Nestorians; Photius regarded his On the Holy Trinity as "The clearest of all his works, especially if you grasp his logical method." His correspondence (including 17 letters addressed to him by others) is a valuable source for ecclesiastical doctrine and church-state relationships; Letter 2, to Nestorius, was adopted as canonical at the crucial Council of Chalcedon (451). His twenty-nine Paschal Letters are equally informative. Only twenty-two of the many sermons he must have preached survive, some fragmented; the fourth, given at the Council of Ephesus (June 431) remains the classic exposition of Mariology. Finally, his need to pen a refutation of Julian's Against the Galileans shows equally that paganism in Egypt subsisted and that the Church had not suppressed the emperor's book; Cyril demolished it point-by-point, with ample quotation, as Origen had dealt with Celsus and Athanasius with Arius.

The importance of Cyril's thought rests m his Christology, which opposes the Nestorian God-Logos separation by insisting on the unity of what he preferred to call Logos and Flesh ('Sarx'), using the term 'Hypostasis', denoting Being or Substance. The Monophysite heretics claimed to detect nuances of their own beliefs in this. His corollary was that Mary had given birth to both Jesus and God, therefore she merited the title Theotokos, a term already current, now consolidated by Cyril as the essence of Christology: "The correct, sufficient, and irreproachable profession of faith in the the assertion of the divine motherhood of the Blessed Virgin"--Homily 15, On the Incarnation of the Word.

"The name of Cyril is famous, and the title of Saint is a mark that his opinions have prevailed"--Gibbon.

"There was happiness among the teachers of the faithful, all saying with one mouth, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism"--Cyril, Acts of the Ecumenical Councils, I, 1,5, p. 125.

FURTHER READING:

25.000 'Google' sites include: Cyril's Catholic Encyclopedia notice. His Letters are translated by J.I. McEnerney (Washington, DC, 1987), his On the Unity of Christ by J.A. MacGuckin (St. Vladimir's Seminary, Crestwood, 1995). Of the rich modern literature, see R. Wilken's A Study of Cyril of Alexandria: Exegesis and Theology (Yale, 1971), and L.J. Welch's Christology and Eucharist in the Early Thought of Cyril of Alexandria (Catholic Scholars, San Francisco, 1994).

FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN BY SAINT CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, BISHOP

Christ is the bond of unity

All who receive the sacred flesh of Christ are united with Him as members of his body. This is the teaching of Saint Paul when he speaks of the mystery of our religion that was hidden from former generations, but has now been revealed to the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit," namely, that the Gentiles are joint-heirs with the Jews, that they are members of the same body, and that they have a share in the promise made by God in Christ Jesus.

If, in Christ, all of us, both ourselves and He who is within us by his own flesh, are members of the same body, is it not clear that we are one, both with another and with Christ? He is the bond that unites us, because he is at once both God and man.

With regard to our unity in the Spirit, we may say, following the same line of thought, that all of us who have received one and the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit, are united intimately, both with one another and with God. Taken separately, we are many, and Christ sends the Spirit, who is both the Father's Spirit and His own, to dwell in each of us. Yet that Spirit, being one and indivisible, gathers together those who are distinct from each other as individuals, and causes them all to be seen as a unity in Himself. Just as Christ's sacred flesh has power to make those in whom it is present into one body, so the one, indivisible Spirit of God, dwelling in all, causes all to become one in spirit.

Therefore, Saint Paul appeals to us to bear with one another charitably, and to spare no effort in securing, by the bonds of peace, the unity that comes from the Spirit. There is but one body and one Spirit, just as there is but one hope held out to us by God's call. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and works through all, and is in all. If the one Spirit dwells in us, the one God and Father of all will be in us, and He, through His Son, will gather together into unity with one another and with Himself all who share in the Spirit.

There is also another way of showing that we are made one by sharing in the Holy Spirit. If we have given up our worldly way of life and submitted once for all to the laws of the Spirit, it must surely be obvious to everyone that by repudiating, in a sense, our own life, and taking on the supernatural likeness of the Holy Spirit, who is united to us, our nature is transformed so that we are no longer merely men, but also sons of God, spiritual men, by reason of the share we have received in the divine nature. We are all one, therefore, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are one in mind and holiness, we are one through our communion in the sacred flesh of Christ, and through our sharing in the one Holy Spirit.

Barry Baldwin is Emeritus Professor of Classics at the University of Calgary