Who would have thought that the name “Cyril” would be such a popular one in the early Church? We had St. Cyril of Jerusalem before, and now we continue with our Doctors of the Church with St. Cyril of Alexandria.
Very little is known about Cyril’s early life, but he was probably born in Alexandria between 370 and 380. Cyril’s uncle Theophilus (also a popular name, apparently) was the bishop of Alexandria and well known for his strong leadership. With that in mind, Cyril was destined to follow in his footsteps, and at an early age, became involved with leadership of the Church. Eventually, Cyril literally followed in his uncle’s footsteps as they went together to Constantinople, where they helped the emperor depose a certain Bishop John, later known as “Chrysostom.” Woops!
When Theophilus died, Cyril became the bishop of Alexandria, where he served for 32 years. Despite his rocky relationship with the Church in Constantinople early on (deposing their bishop, and whatnot), Cyril worked hard to mend divisions. At least he did until a new bishop came to Constantinople.
Nestorius, a reputable Syrian priest known for his fantastic sermons, became famous for the heresy that later took on his name – Nestorianism. Nestorius divided Jesus Christ into two persons – the human Christ, and the divine Christ. At the time, people were growing in devotion to Mary, and had been referring to Mary as Theotokos, meaning “Mother of God,” or “God-bearer.” Nestorius refused to use that title, and preferred the term Christotokos, the “Mother of Christ.” It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but what he was doing was splitting the person of Jesus into two. We can even see this today when people say that they believe Jesus was a good teacher to follow (the human Christ), but not someone to be worshipped (the divine Christ).
Cyril went on the offensive, and wrote several letters to Nestorius to address these errors, and he later participated in the Council of Ephesus in 431. Cyril argued that Jesus is both true God and true man – two natures united in a single person. Because Jesus is one person (with both divine and human natures), and not two, Cyril reaffirmed that we truly can speak of Mary as the Theotokos, the “Mother of God.” The word “nature” in this case translates into Greek as hypostasis, and Cyril was the one to begin describing the unity of Jesus’ divine and human natures as the “hypostatic union,” a vocabulary word which you can use for your next round of Catholic Jeopardy.
St. Cyril of Alexandria devoted himself and his ministry to defending and explaining this doctrine of our faith until his death in 444. Let us thank God for being both eternal and born of a woman, Mary, and for sharing himself with us every day!
Aedificatio Dei 