Today we celebrate the memorial of Saint Cyril of Alexandria.

Cyril, famous for being a great church teacher, started as the archbishop of Alexandria, Egypt, by acting rashly and frequently violently. He assisted in the removal of Saint John Chrysostom, pillaged and shuttered the churches of the Novatian heretics—who demanded that those who renounced the religion be re-baptized—seized Jewish property, and expelled the Jews from Alexandria in retribution for their attacks on Christians.

Cyril is significant in theology and church history because he fought for orthodoxy against Nestorius’ heresy, which claimed that Christ had two personalities—a human and a divine—and that Nestorius’ error was heretical.

The two natures of Christ attracted the most debate. Nestorius rejected using the phrase “God-bearer” for Mary. He favored “Christ-bearer,” contending that Christ is two separate persons—divine and human—joined only by a moral unity. According to him, Mary is not the mother of God but rather that of Christ, whose humanity serves as nothing more than a temple for God. The human nature of Jesus Christ was supposedly just a mask based on Nestorianism.

At the Council of Ephesus, which the pope presided over in 431, Cyril denounced Nestorianism, proclaiming Mary to be the “God-bearer”—the mother of the only person both fully God and truly human. Cyril was overthrown in the ensuing tumult and imprisoned for three months before being welcomed back to Alexandria.

In addition to having to temper some of his criticism of those who had sided with Nestorius, Cyril also had to deal with a few of his allies who felt he had gone too far by forsaking both language and doctrine. Until his passing, his moderate stance held his fanatical partisans in check. They told him to condemn the Nestorius instructor on his deathbed, but he refused.

source: franciscanmedia.org