Cyril of Alexandria

Cyril of Alexandria, St, one of the Fathers of the church, was born at Alexandria, and brought up under the care of his uncle Theophilus, whom, after some years spent as a monk in the Nitrian desert, he succeeded as patriarch of Alexandria in 412. Cyril forthwith closed the churches of the Novatians, and in 415 expelled the Jews from the city. With the shameful murder of Hypatia (q.v.) he was at least indirectly connected. The latter part of his life was spent in his relentless persecution of Nestorius (q.v.), against whom, in the name of a synod held at Alexandria in 430, he hurled twelve anathemas for his refusal to apply to the Virgin Mary the epithet Theotokos ('Mother of God'). The oecumenical council of Ephesus in 431 condemned Nestorius, with his doctrine of the two natures in Christ. After this, John of Antioch, with his adherents (numbering from 30 to 40 bishops), who had arrived at Ephesus too late to take part in the discussion, constituted a synod of their own, which condemned Cyril. The emperor confirmed both of these depositions, but Cyril, notwithstanding, kept his patriarchate till his death in 444. On hearing of his death, Theodore wrote, 'Envy is dead, and heresy is buried with her.' Among the extant works of Cyril are a defence of Christianity, in 10 books, written against the Emperor Julian in 433; a series of homilies and dogmatic treatises on the Trinity, the Incarnation, and on the Worship of God in spirit and in truth (17 books, written against the Anthropomorphites). The best edition of his works is that of Aubert (7 vols. Paris, 1638). See Neander's Church History, Newman's Historical Sketches (vol. ii.), Kingsley's Hypatia, Hefele's History of the Councils (vol. ii.), and Kopallik, Cyril von Alexandria (Mainz, 1881).