Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Doctor of the Church. St. Cyril has his feast in the Western Church on the 28th

of January; in the Greek Menaea it is found on the 9th of June, and (together with

St. Athanasius) on the 18th of January.

He seems to have been of an Alexandrian family and was the son of the brother

of Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria; if he is the Cyril addressed by Isidore of

Pelusium in Ep. xxv of Bk. I, he was for a time a monk. He accompanied

Theophilus to Constantinople when that bishop held the "Synod of the Oak" in

402 and deposed St. John Chrysostom. Theophilus died 15 Oct., 412, and on the

18th Cyril was consecrated his uncle's successor, but only after a riot between

his supporters and those of his rival Timotheus. Socrates complains bitterly that

one of his first acts was to plunder and shut the churches of the Novatians. He

also drove out of Alexandria the Jews, who had formed a flourishing community

there since Alexander the Great. But they had caused tumults and had

massacred the Christians, to defend whom Cyril himself assembled a mob. This

may have been the only possible defence, since the Prefect of Egypt, Orestes,

who was very angry at the expulsion of the Jews was also jealous of the power of

Cyril, which certainly rivaled his own. Five hundred monks came down from Nitria

to defend the patriarch. In a disturbance which arose, Orestes was wounded in

the head by a stone thrown by a monk named Ammonius. The prefect had

Ammonius tortured to death, and the young and fiery patriarch honoured his

remains for a time as those of a martyr. The Alexandians were always riotous as

we learn from Socrates (VII, vii) and from St. Cyril himself (Hom. for Easter, 419).

In one of these riots, in 422, the prefect Callistus was killed, and in another was

committed the murder of a female philosopher Hypatia, a highly-respected

teacher of neo-Platoism, of advanced age and (it is said) many virtues. She was

a friend of Orestes, and many believed that she prevented a reconciliation

between the prefect and patriarch. A mob led by a lector, named Peter, dragged

her to a church and tore her flesh with potsherds til she died. This brought great

disgrace, says Socrates, on the Church of Alexandria and on its bishop; but a

lector at Alexandria was not a cleric (Scr., V, xxii), and Socrates does not

suggest that Cyril himself was to blame. Damascius, indeed, accuses him, but

he is a late authority and a hater of Christians.

Theophilus, the persecutor of Chrysostom, had not the privilege of communion

with Rome from that saint's death, in 406, until his own. For some years Cyril

also refused to insert the name of St. Chrysostom in the diptychs of his Church,

in spite of the requests of Chrysostom's supplanter, Atticus. Later he seems to

have yielded to the representations of his spiritual father, Isisdore of Pelusium

(Isid., Ep. I, 370). Yet even after the Council of Ephesus that saint still found

something to rebuke in him on this matter (Ep. I, 310). But at last Cyril seems to

have long since been trusted by Rome.

It was in the winter of 427-28 that the Antiochene Nestorius became Patriarch of

Constantinople. His heretical teaching soon became known to Cyril. Against him

Cyril taught the use of the term Theotokus in his Paschal letter for 429 and in a

letter to the monks of Egypt. A correspondence with Nestorius followed, in a

more moderate tone than might have been expected. Nestorius sent his sermons

to Pope Celestine, but he received no reply, for the latter wrote to St. Cyril for

further information. Rome had taken the side of St. John Chrysostom against

Theophilus, but had neither censured the orthodoxy of the latter, nor consented

to the patriarchal powers exercised by the bishops of Constantinople. To St.

Celestine Cyril was not only the first prelate of the East, he was also the inheritor

of the traditions of Athanasius and Peter. The pope's confidence was not

misplaced. Cyril had learnt prudence. Peter had attempted unsuccessfully to

appoint a Bishop of Constantinople; Theophilus had deposed another. Cyril,

though in this case Alexandria was in the right, does not act in his own name,

but denounces Nestorius to St. Celestine, since ancient custom, he says,

persuaded him to bring the matter before the pope. He relates all that had

occurred, and begs Celestine to decree what he sees fit (typosai to dokoun--a

phrase which Dr. Bright chooses to weaken into "formulate his opinion"), and

communicate it also to the Bishops of Macedonia and of the East (i.e. the

Antiochene Patriarchate).

The pope's reply was of astonishing severity. He had already commissioned

Cassian to write his well known treatise on the Incarnation. He now summoned a

council (such Roman councils had somewhat the office of the modern Roman

Congregations), and dispatched a letter to Alexandria with enclosures to

Constantinople, Philippi, Jerusalem, and Antioch. Cyril is to take to himself the

authority of the Roman See and to admonish Nestorius that unless he recants

within ten days from the receipt of this ultimatum, he is separated from "our

body" (the popes of the day had the habit of speaking of the other churches as

the members, of which they are the head; the body is, of course the Catholic

Church). If Nestorius does not submit, Cyril is to "provide for" the Church of

Constantinople. Such a sentence of excommunication and deposition is not to

be confounded with the mere withdrawal of actual communion by the popes from

Cyril himself at an earlier date, from Theophilus, or, in Antioch, from Flavian or

Meletius. It was the decree Cyril has asked for. As Cyril had twice written to

Nestorius, his citation in the name of the pope is to be counted as a third

warning, after which no grace is to be given.

St. Cyril summoned a council of his suffragans, and composed a letter which

were appended twelve propositions for Nestorius to anathematize. The epistle

was not conciliatory, and Nestorius may well have been taken aback. The twelve

propositions did not emanate from Rome, and were not equally clear; one or two

of them were later among the authorities invoked by the Monophysite heretics in

their own favour. Cyril was the head of the rival theological school to that of

Antioch, where Nestorius had studied, and was the hereditary rival of the

Constantinopolitan would-be patriarch. Cyril wrote also to John, Patriarch of

Antioch, informing him of the facts, and insinuating that if John should support

his old friend Nestorius, he would find himself isolated over against Rome,

Macedonia, and Egypt. John took the hint and urged Nestorius to yield.

Meanwhile, in Constantinople itself large numbers of the people held aloof from

Nestorius, and the Emperor Theodosius II had been persuaded to summon a

general council to meet at Ephesus. The imperial letters were dispatched 19

November, whereas the bishops sent by Cyril arrived at Constantinople only on 7

December. Nestorius, somewhat naturally, refused to accept the message sent

by his rival, and on the 13th and 14th of December preached publicly against

Cyril as a calumniator, and as having used bribes (which was probably as true as

it was usual); but he declared himself willing to use the word Theotokos. These

sermons he sent to John of Antioch, who preferred them to the

anathematizations of Cyril. Nestorius, however, issued twelve propositions with

appended anathemas. If Cyril's propositions might be might be taken to deny the

two natures in Christ, those of Nestorius hardly veiled his belief in two distinct

persons. Theodoret urged John yet further, and wrote a treatise against Cyril, to

which the latter replied with some warmth. He also wrote an "Answer" in five

books to the sermons of Nestorius.

As the fifteenth-century idea of an oecumenical council superior to the pope had

yet to be invented, and there was but one precedent for such an assembly, we

need not be surprised that St. Celestine welcomed the initiative of the emperor,

and hoped for peace through the assembly. (See EPHESUS, COUNCIL OF.)

Nestorius found the churches of Ephesus closed to him, when he arrived with the

imperial commissioner, Count Candidian, and his own friend, Count Irenaeus.

Cyril came with fifty of his bishops. Palestine, Crete, Asia Minor, and Greece

added their quotient. But John of Antioch and his suffragans were delayed. Cyril

may have believed, rightly or wrongly, that John did not wish to be present at the

trial of his friend Nestorius, or that he wished to gain time for him, and he opened

the council without John, on 22 June, in spite of the request of sixty-eight

bishops for a delay. This was an initial error, which had disastrous results.

The legates from Rome had not arrived, so that Cyril had no answer to the letter

he had written to Celestine asking "whether the holy synod should receive a man

who condemned what it preached, or, because the time of delay had elapsed,

whether the sentence was still in force". Cyril might have presumed that the

pope, in agreeing to send legates to the council, intended Nestorius to have a

complete trial, but it was more convenient to assume that the Roman ultimatum

had not been suspended, and that the council was bound by it. He therefore took

the place of president, not only as the highest of rank, but also as still holding

the place of Celestine, though he cannot have received any fresh commission

from the pope. Nestorius was summoned, in order that he might explain his

neglect of Cyril's former monition in the name of the pope. He refused to receive

the four bishops whom the council sent to him. Consequently nothing remained

but formal procedure. For the council was bound by the canons to depose

Nestorius for contumacy, as he would not appear, and by the letter of Celestine

to condemn him for heresy, as he had not recanted. The correspondence

between Rome, Alexandria, and Constantinople was read, some testimonies

where read from earlier writers show the errors of Nestorius. The second letter of

Cyril to Nestorius was approved by all the bishops. The reply of Nestorius was

condemned. No discussion took place. The letter of Cyril and the ten

anathemaizations raised no comment. All was concluded at one sitting. The

council declared that it was "of necessity impelled" by the canons and by the

letter of Celestine to declare Nestorius deposed and excommunicated. The papal

legates, who had been detained by bad weather, arrived on the 10th of July, and

they solemnly confirmed the sentence by the authority of St. Peter, for the

refusal of Nestorius to appear had made useless the permission which they

brought from the pope to grant him forgiveness if he should repent. But

meanwhile John of Antioch and his party had arrived on the 26th and 27th of

June. They formed themselves into a rival council of fourty-three bishops, and

deposed Memnon, Bishop of Ephesus, and St. Cyril, accusing the latter of

Apollinarianism and even of Eunomianism. Both parties now appealed to the

emperor, who took the amazing decision of sending a count to treat Nestorius,

Cyril, and Memnon as being all three lawfully deposed. They were kept in close

custody; but eventually the emperor took the orthodox view, though he dissolved

the council; Cyril was allowed to return to his diocese, and Nestorius went into

retirement at Antioch. Later he was banished to the Great Oasis of Egypt.

Meanwhile Pope Celestine was dead. His successor, St. Sixtus III, confirmed the

council and attempted to get John of Antioch to anathematize Nestorius. For

some time the strongest opponent of Cyril was Theodoret, but eventually he

approved a letter of Cyril to Acacius of Berhoea. John sent Paul, Bishop of

Emesa, as his plenipotentiary to Alexandria, and he patched up reconciliation

with Cyril. Though Theodoret still refused to denounce the defence of Nestorius,

John did so, and Cyril declared his joy in a letter to John. Isidore of Pelusium

was now afraid that the impulsive Cyril might have yielded too much (Ep. i, 334).

The great patriarch composed many further treatises, dogmatic letters, and

sermons. He died on the 9th or the 27th of June, 444, after an episcopate of

nearly thirty-two years.

St. Cyril as a theologian

The principal fame of St. Cyril rests upon his defence of Catholic doctrine against

Nestorius. That heretic was undoubtedly confused and uncertain. He wished,

against Apollinarius, to teach that Christ was a perfect man, and he took the

denial of a human personality in Our Lord to imply an Apollinarian

incompleteness in His Human Nature. The union of the human and the Divine

natures was therefore to Nestorius an unspeakably close junction, but not a

union in one hypostasis. St. Cyril taught the personal, or hypostatic, union in the

plainest terms; and when his writings are surveyed as a whole, it becomes

certain that he always held the true view, that the one Christ has two perfect and

distinct natures, Divine and human. But he would not admit two physeis in Christ,

because he took physis to imply not merely a nature but a subsistent (i.e.

personal) nature. His opponents misrepresented him as teaching that the Divine

person suffered, in His human nature; and he was constantly accused of

Apollinarianism. On the other hand, after his death Monophysitism was founded

upon a misinterpretation of his teaching. Especially unfortunate was the formula

"one nature incarnate of God the Word" (mia physis tou Theou Logou

sesarkomene), which he took from a treatise on the Incarnation which he

believed to be by his great predecessor St. Athanasius. By this phrase he

intended simply to emphasize against Nestorius the unity of Christ's Person; but

the words in fact expressed equally the single Nature taught by Eutyches and by

his own successor Diascurus. He brings out admirably the necessity of the full

doctrine of the humanity to God, to explain the scheme of the redemption of

man. He argues that the flesh of Christ is truly the flesh of God, in that it is

life-giving in the Holy Eucharist. In the richness and depth of his philosophical

and devotional treatment of the Incarnation we recognize the disciple of

Athanasius. But the precision of his language, and perhaps of his thought also,

is very far behind that which St. Leo developed a few years after Cyril's death.

Cyril was a man of great courage and force of character. We can often discern

that his natural vehemence was repressed and schooled, and he listened with

humility to the severe admonitions of his master and advisor, St. Isidore. As a

theologian, he is one of the great writers and thinkers of early times. Yet the

troubles that arose out of the Council of Ephesus were due to his impulsive

action; more patience and diplomacy might possibly even have prevented the

vast Nestorian sect from arising at all. In spite of his own firm grasp of the truth,

the whole of his patriarch fell away, a few years after his time, into a heresy

based on his writings, and could never be regained by the Catholic Faith. But he

has always been greatly venerated in the Church. His letters, especially the

second letter to Nestorius, were not only approved by the Council of Ephesus,

but by many subsequent councils, and have frequently been appealed to as tests

of orthodoxy. In the East he was always honoured as one of the greatest of the

Doctors. His Mass and Office as a Doctor of the Church were approved by Leo

XIII in 1883.

His writings

The exegetical works of St Cyril are very numerous. The seventeen books "On

Adoration in Spirit and in Truth" are an exposition of the typical and spiritual

nature of the Old Law. The Glaphyra or "brilliant", Commentaries on Pentateuch

are of the same nature. Long explanations of Isaias and of the minor Prophets

give a mystical interpretation after the Alexandrian manner. Only fragments are

extant of other works on the Old Testament, as well as of expositions of

Matthew, Luke, and some of the Epistles, but of that of St. Luke much is

preserved in a Syriac version. Of St. Cyril's sermons and letters the most

interesting are those which concern the Nestorian controversy. Of a great

apologetic work in the twenty books against Julian the Apostate ten books

remain. Among his theological treatises we have two large works and one small

one on the Holy Trinity, and a number of treatises and tracts belonging to the

Nestorian controversy.

The first collected edition of St. Cyril's works was by J. Aubert, 7 vols., Paris,

1638; several earlier editions of some portions in Latin only are enumerated by

Fabricius. Cardinal Mai added more material in the second and third volumes of

his "Bibliotheca nova Patrum", II-III, 1852; this is incorporated, together with

much matter from the Catenae published by Ghislerius (1633), Corderius,

Possinus, and Cranor (1838), in Migne's reprint of Aubert's edition (P.G.

LXVIII-LXVII, Paris, 1864). Better editions of single works include P. E. Pusey,

"Cyrilli Alex. Epistolae tres oecumenicae, libri V c. Nestorium, XII capitum

explanatio, XII capitum defensio utraquem schohia de Incarnatione Unigeniti"

(Oxford, 1875); "De recta fide ad principissasm de recta fide ad Augustas, quad

unus Christus dialogusm apologeticus ad Imp." (Oxford, 1877); "Cyrilli Alex. in XII

Prophetas" (Oxford, 1868, 2 vols.); "In divi Joannis Evangelium" (Oxford, 1872, 3

vols., including the fragments on the Epistles). "Three Epistles, with revised text

and English translation" (Oxford, 1872); translations in the Oxford "Library of the

Fathers"; "Commentary on St. John", I (1874), II (1885); Five tomes against

Nestorius" (1881); R. Payne Smith, "S. Cyrilli Alex. Comm. in Lucae evang. quae

supersant Syriace c MSS. apud Mus. Brit." (Oxford, 1858); the same translated

into English (Oxford, 1859, 2 vols.); W. Wright, "Fragments of the Homilies of

Cyril of Alex. on St. Luke, edited from a Nitrian MS." (London, 1874); J. H.

Bernard, "On Some Fragments of an Uncial MS. of St. Cyril of Alex. Written on

Papyrus" (Trans. of R. Irish Acad., XXIX, 18, Dublin, 1892); "Cyrilli Alex. librorum

c. Julianum fragmenta syriaca:, ed. E. Nestle etc. in "Scriptorum grecorum, qui

Christianam impugnaverunt religionem", fasc. III (Leipzig, 1880). Fragments of the

"Liber Thesaurorum" in Pitra, "Analecta sacra et class.", I (Paris, 1888).

The best biography of St. Cyril is, perhaps, still that by TILLEMONT in Memoires pour servir, etc.,

XIV. See also KOPALLIK, Cyrillus von Alexandrien (Mainz, 1881), an apology for St. Cyril's

teaching and character. A moderate view is taken by BRIGHT in Waymarks of Church History

(London, 1894) and The Age of the Fathers (London, 1903), II, but he is recognized as prejudiced

wherever the papacy is in question. EHRHARD, Die Cyril v. Alex. zugeschriebene Schrift, peri tes

tou K. enanthropeseos, ein Werdes Theodoret (Tubingen, 1888); LOOFS, Nestoriana (Halle, 1905);

WEIGL, Die Heilslehre des Cyril v. Alex. (Mainz, 1905). Of review articles may be mentioned:

LARGENT Etudes d'hist. eccl.: S. Cyrille d'Al. et le conc. d'Ephese (Paris, 1892); SCHAFER, Die

Christologie des Cyril v. Al. in Theolog. Quartalschrift (Tubingen, 1895), 421; MAHE, Les

anathematismes de S. Cyrille in Rev. d'hist eccl. (Oct., 1906); BETHUNE-BAKER, Nestorius and his

Teaching (Cambridge, 1908); MAHE, L'Eucharistie d' apres S. Cyrille d' Al. in Rev. d' Hist. Eccl.

(Oct., 1907); L. J. SICKING defends Cyril in the affair of Hypatia in , CXXIX (1907), 31 and 121;

CONYBEARE, The Armenian Version of Revelation and Cyril of Alexandria's scholia on the

Incarnation edited from the oldest MSS. and Englished (London, 1907).

John Chapman

Transcribed by Kenneth J. Pomeisl

In memory of Lois Jane Massaro

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IV

Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor

Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org