Saint Cyril of Alexandria

The bishop and his inheritance

Cyril succeeded Theophilus as bishop of Alexandria in 412 and remained in office until his death in 444. The Patriarchate's account identifies him as Theophilus's nephew. He inherited a powerful see whose responsibilities included teaching the faith, governing churches and taking part in wider ecclesiastical disputes.

Cyril was a sustained reader of Scripture. His theological arguments grew within a larger body of biblical commentary and instruction, including his Commentary on John.

Sources: Patriarchate of Alexandria — Cyril I (412–444) · Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Book I

A commentator on the Gospel

The opening book of his Commentary on John explores the Gospel's confession of the Word who was with God and was God. Cyril interprets the Son as eternal, divine by nature and active with the Father in creation. He distinguishes the Son's divine sonship from the participation in divine gifts received by creatures.

This is theology developed through reading the biblical text. The commentary repeatedly asks what a verse means, how it belongs with other scriptural passages and what it excludes. It reveals why the identity of the incarnate Word matters so deeply in his later controversy: the one who appears among us is the same Son proclaimed in John's opening verses.

Sources: Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Book I

Why he defended the name Theotokos

Theotokos, commonly translated 'Mother of God', confesses that the child born from Mary is the eternal Word truly become human. The title gives expression to the unity of Christ: the Son eternally begotten of the Father is the same Lord born from the Virgin according to the flesh.

In Against Nestorius, Cyril argues that the Word's union with humanity is personal and complete. He insists on one Lord and one Son, to whom the Gospel's divine and human sayings alike belong. This concern for the unity of Christ shaped his opposition to Nestorius.

Sources: Cyril of Alexandria, Five Tomes Against Nestorius, Book I

One Christ, with real humanity

That Christ Is One develops the argument through a dialogue. Cyril opposes a merely external association between the Word and an independently conceived human son. The divine and human sayings of the Gospel belong to one and the same Christ.

For Cyril, the Word makes a body with a rational soul His own. Christ's humanity is complete and His suffering real. The same Son suffers in His flesh while remaining impassible in His divinity. Cyril connects this union with salvation and with the life-giving character of Christ's flesh.

For Cyril, the Church worships and receives life from the incarnate Son Himself. His teaching joins the Incarnation, the Cross and participation in Christ within one account of salvation.

Sources: Cyril, That Christ Is One / On the Unity of Christ

Ephesus in 431

Emperor Theodosius II summoned the council at Ephesus in 431 to address the controversy. Cyril played a leading role in the assembly that condemned Nestorius. The events were also marked by disagreement about proceedings and authority.

John of Antioch and the bishops with him arrived after the opening and opposed the action taken against Nestorius. Negotiations and conflict continued until the reunion of 433. The Church honours Ephesus as the Third Ecumenical Council and receives its confession of the unity of Christ.

The reunion with John of Antioch

Cyril's Letter to John of Antioch is essential reading beside his polemical works. It welcomes reconciliation and incorporates a confession of Christ as perfect God and perfect man, with a rational soul and body. The same Christ is consubstantial with the Father in divinity and with us in humanity.

The letter speaks of the union of two natures and of one Christ, one Son and one Lord. It also explains how scriptural sayings can be considered with reference to his divinity or humanity while belonging to the one person. The reconciliation shows that the defence of unity could include a careful acknowledgment of difference.

The settlement of 433 is a major episode in Cyril's ministry. His correspondence shows the sustained work of explaining doctrine, clarifying disputed expressions and seeking reconciliation around the confession of one Christ.

Sources: Cyril, Letter to John of Antioch (Letter 39; reunion of 433)

The difficult history of his city

Cyril's episcopate also included grave civic conflict. Socrates, a fifth-century Christian historian, reports his expulsion of Jews from Alexandria, his conflict with the prefect Orestes and the murder of Hypatia by a Christian mob.

Socrates condemns the murder and records the disgrace it brought upon Cyril and the Alexandrian Church. His account describes the attack and the political hostility surrounding it; he attributes the violence to the group led by the reader Peter. The episode belongs to the troubled civic history of Cyril's episcopate.

Sources: Socrates Scholasticus, Church History VII.13–15

A Father honoured across a later division

Cyril died in 444, seven years before Chalcedon. The council of 451 received his letters as witnesses to the faith, while later disputes over the council's reception brought enduring division to Alexandria.

Cyril's teaching remains central to Alexandrian Christianity and to the wider Orthodox confession of Christ. His commentaries, doctrinal letters and conciliar work continue to be read as part of the Church's theological inheritance.

Sources: Patriarchate of Alexandria — Cyril I (412–444) · Council of Chalcedon (451), Definition of Faith