Saint Cyril of Alexandria

“I find it very surprising that there are people who really wonder whether the Blessed Virgin should be called Mother of God. For if our Lord Jesus is God, how could the Virgin who bore him and brought him into the world not be the Mother of God? This is the faith that the Holy Apostles transmitted to us, even if they did not use this expression.”

Saint Cyril, Letter to the Monks of Egypt, in 431.

A nephew of Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria, Cyril, born around 375, studied theology and embraced monastic life for a time. Upon the death of his uncle, in 412, Cyril was elected to the seat of Alexandria, which he kept until his death, on June 27, 444, his feast day for the Christians of the West.  Pope Leo XIII proclaimed him Father and Doctor of the Church.

Saint Cyril worked immensely during his episcopate to drive heretics out of Egypt, to give his glory to the Lord and to prove the divine character of the birth of Christ and therefore to recognize the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God.

Life of Saint Cyril of Alexandria

The first part of the episcopate of Saint Cyril was marked by the fight against pagans and heretics. He was considered by his contemporaries to be a severe bishop. Gradually, he became calm and began to write many works of biblical and theological scholarship.

Just like Pope Saint Leo the Great Saint Cyril strongly opposed Nestorius, the Bishop of Constantinople and defended the Theotokos, the principle that admits that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God. In 430, it was the bishop of Rome, Celestine, who asked Cyril to obtain the repudiation of Nestorius. Then, in 431, Theodosius convened the Council of Ephesus to settle disputes between the bishops. During this Council, Nestorius was deposed from his functions and Saint Cyril definitively established Mary as the Mother of the Savior.

The Christological positions (a discipline of Christian dogmatic theology  that studies the person, doctrine and work of Jesus Christ) of the bishop of Alexandria are summarized in the Symbol of Union, or symbol of Ephesus, which he co-signed in 433 with the patriarch of Antioch, Saint John Chrysostom, to proclaim their agreement on theology concerning the person of Christ.

With the Guide to Saints, discover the Fathers and Doctors of the Church: Saint Augustine, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Basil of Caesarea, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus,Saint John Chrysostom, and more.

Two Beautiful Prayers by Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Prayer by Saint Cyril of Alexandria, at the Council of Ephesus in 431

“We greet you, Mary, Mother of God, sacred
 treasure of the whole universe, undiminished star, crown of virginity, scepter of the Orthodox faith, indestructible temple, abode of the immeasurable,
 Mother and Virgin, because of whom is called blessed, in the holy Gospels, the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We salute you, who have contained in your virginal womb that which the heavens cannot contain. You by whom the Trinity is glorified and adored throughout the earth, by whom heaven exults. So be it”

A prayer of protection by Saint Cyril of Alexandria

“Have mercy, Lord Jesus, on the faithful present here and, by the virtue of Your holy Cross and by the guardianship of the angels, free them from all dangers and all necessities: fires, floods, cold, brigands, snakes, wild beasts, obsessions, attacks and traps of the devil, diseases.” 

Continue your prayer to Saint Cyril with Hozana!

Like Saint Cyril, let us pray and acclaim the Blessed Virgin Mary, for whom nothing is impossible!
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