Saint Cyril I
The Pillar of the Faith (A.D. 444)
In the year 412, after the
departure of Abba Theophilus, his
nephew,
Abba Cyril the
First, the 24th Pope of the See of Saint Mark, succeeded
him. He received
various descriptive titles
of honor such as ``the
Daring Lion,'' ``the Burnished Lamp,'' ``the Second Athanasius,'' and
more specifically ``the
Pillar of the Faith.'' He was 36 years
old when
he was unanimously
elected to take the helm of his Church.
Throughout
his life he made it a
rule never to advance any doctrine
which he had
not learnt from the
ancient fathers.
His Enthronement
As a lad, Cyril
was sent to the monastery
of Saint Macari, where he
assimilated the wisdom
of the desert Fathers. After having
acquired all
the education the
desert could give, he returned to
Alexandria where he
was ordained a priest
and then a Pope.
He began to exert his
authority by causing the churches of the Novatians
to be closed and their sacred vessels to be seized.
He next drove out
the Jews, who were numerous and who had enjoyed privileges in the city
since the
time of Alexander the
Great. Their generally
seditious
attitude and the several acts of violence committed by
them decided him
to take this step, which incensed Orestes the governor, although
it was
approved by the
Emperor. During this period, Hypatia, a pagan
woman of
noble character, was the most influential teacher of
philosophy at that
time in Alexandria, and her
reputation was so great that
disciples
flocked to her
from all parts. Among
these was the
great Bishop
Synesius, who submitted
his works to her
criticism. She was much
respected by the governor,
who used to consult her even on
matters of
civil
administration. Acting upon a suspicion
that Hypatia had incensed
the governor against
their bishop, the crowd in 417 attacked
her in the
streets, pulled her out
of her chariot, and killed her.
His Christian Zeal
As soon as he was
consecrated Pope of Alexandria, he dedicated all his
power to defend the
Church against the apostasies of Emperor
Julian and
the rise of the Nestorian heresy. Abba Cyril
directly set himself to
refute them in terms
that were clear, strong and convincing.
In the year 428
Nestorius, a priest-monk of Antioch, was made archbishop
of Constantinople; and he
there taught with some of his clergy
that
there were two distinct persons in Christ.
According to the Nestorian
concept, Christ was two separate persons, the one
divine and beyond the
reach of human
frailty, and the other human and susceptible to all the
fragility of the
flesh. The divine Christ could neither suffer or die,
and therefore, on the Cross it was the human Christ
alone who suffered
and died apart from the
divine Christ. Nestorius had spoken out
against
calling the blessed
Virgin Mary the ``Theotokos'' or ``Mother-of-God.''
Abba Cyril strongly
contested these views
expounding the Orthodox
doctrine of the
indivisible union of the divine and human
natures of
Christ, and arguing that if Jesus Christ is God, it follows that his
mother is the ``Mother-of-God'' who bore Him forever. This is what the
Apostles taught us and the
doctrine of our Fathers. And
just as the
human mother, has no
share in creating the soul of her
child, yet is
considered the mother
of the whole person, and not merely the
mother of
his physical
nature; so it is with Mary who is the Mother of Christ in
His entirety.
Saint Cyril wrote letters to Nestorius urging him to stop promoting an
idea which is
equivalent to blasphemy, but the later obstinately refused
to be convinced that he had fallen into a
heretic way of thinking. A
situation developed
that was somewhat
similar to that
which had
developed between Saint
Athanasius and Arius. Saint Cyril was as full of
faith and fiery
zeal in his tenacious stand against Nestorius as Saint
Athanasius had been against Arius. Just as Saint Athanasius had saved
the Faith concerning the Logos in the Nicene
Creed, so did Saint Cyril
in defending the Theotokos
maintaining the Orthodox Doctrine concerning
the incarnation of the
Logos in the Introduction to the
Creed which he
wrote in this regard.
Saint Cyril sent Nestorius a mild expostulation, but was answered with
haughtiness and
contempt. He also sent a number of
letters to the Heads
of other Churches (Antioch,
Jerusalem, Rome and Aleppo),
and to the
imperial family. He received
several replies lauding his
efforts and
siding with him. Saint
Cyril also wrote another letter to Nestorius with
an exposition of the Nicene Creed and a second part, an affirmation of
the true faith, followed by
12 anathemas. Nestorius, however, showed
himself more obstinate than ever,
refused to sign, and exerted
every
effort to antagonize
Emperor Theodosius against Saint Cyril.
Calling a General
Council in Ephesus
The people of Constantinople themselves
urged the Emperor to call a
Council of all the bishops
to deal with this subject. This
occasioned
the summoning of the
third general Council which was held at
Ephesus in
June 431, attended by
200 bishops who elected Saint Cyril to preside
over them on the authority of his
own dignity. The attitudes of the
Emperor and of
Nestorius towards him had not been
changed; they called
him ``the
proud pharaoh.'' Nestorius was
present in the town, but
refused to appear; so
after his sermons had been read and other evidence
received against
him, his doctrines were condemned, and a sentence of
excommunication and deposition was
pronounced by the 200 who proved
themselves to be indeed
the worthy successors of the Nicene Fathers. The
people of Ephesus who
had gradually gathered outside the Church,
and on
hearing the verdict of
the Council, they shouted for joy, lit torches,
brought their
incense-burners, and formed a long procession for the
bishops escorting them
to their abodes.
Six days later there
arrived at Ephesus Archbishop John of Antioch, with
several of his
bishops who had not been able to reach Ephesus in time.
They were in favor of
Nestorius, although they did not share his errors,
of which indeed
they deemed him
innocent. Instead of
associating
themselves with the council, they assembled by themselves and presumed
to depose Saint Cyril,
accusing him in turn
of heresy. Both sides
appealed to the
Emperor, by whose order Saint Cyril and Nestorius were
both arrested
and kept in confinement and the verdict of the Council
annulled. When three legates arrived from the Roman
Church, the matter
took another turn. After a careful consideration of what had
been done,
the legates condemned Nestorius, approved
Saint Cyril's conduct, and
declared the sentence
pronounced against him void.
With the
obstinacy of the
Emperor in this
regard, anger and
consternation seized the people of Ephesus who supported
the Ephesian
Council. At their head was the hermit Dalmatius
who had never gone out
of his cell for 48
years, and whom Emperor Theodosius
venerated highly.
Dalmatius broke his
habit and lead the people to the
imperial palace
chanting the
psalms in the
streets. The Emperor
afterwards was
completely changed
and vindicated Saint Cyril with honor
and ratified
the sentence
passed on Nestorius and ordered
his exile. Though the
bishops of the Antiochene province
continued their schism for a
while,
they made peace
with Saint Cyril in 433, when they condemned Nestorius
and gave a clear and
orthodox declaration of their own faith.
His Great Devotion
We have to thank Saint
Cyril for the firm and uncompromising stand he
took with regard to the
dogma of the Incarnation - an attitude which led
to the clear statements
of the great council over which he
presided. We
ought indeed to be
grateful that we, in our
generation, are left in no
doubt as to what we
should believe with regard to that holy mystery upon
which we base our faith as Christians. He was declared a doctor of the
Universal Church in
1882.
The great devotion of this Saint to the Blessed Sacrament is manifest
from the frequency with
which he emphasizes the effects it produces upon
those who receive it
worthily. Indeed, he says that by Holy Communion we
are made concorporeal with Christ.
And it must surely be difficult
for
those who profess to hold the same faith as that
defined in the first
six general
councils to shut their eyes to the vigour and
conviction
with which Saint Cyril
before the year 431 affirmed his eucharistic
doctrine. In a letter
to Nestorius, which received
the general and
formal assent of the
fathers at Ephesus, he had written:
``Proclaiming the death according to the flesh of the only
begotten Son of God, that is, Jesus
Christ, and confessing
His resurrection from the dead
and ascent into Heaven, we
celebrate
the bloodless sacrifice in our
churches; and
thus approach the
mystic blessings, and
are sanctified
by partaking of the holy
flesh and the
precious blood
of Christ
the Savior of us all. And we
receive it, not
as
common flesh (God
forbid), nor as the
flesh of a
man sanctified and associated with the Word
according to
the unity of merit, or as having
a divine indwelling, but
as
a really the life-giving and
very flesh of the Word
Himself.''
His Later Works
One of the noblest legacies bequeathed by
Saint Cyril to the Church is
the Liturgy which bears his name. According to tradition, it had been
given orally by Saint Mark himself, but Saint Cyril completed it
and
wrote it. This
Liturgy overflows with
deep spiritual insight
and
reverberates the inmost yearnings towards God. It is an ancient custom
in the Coptic Church
to chant it during Lent and during the month of
Koyahk.
His ceaseless activity
took heavy toll of his health. Worn out by labors
rather than by years,
he entered into the joy of his Lord after steering
the Church through
storm and calm for 31 years.
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