St. Cyril of Alexandria

Their story

Cyril was born around 376 in Egypt and was trained in theology by his uncle Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria. In 412 Cyril succeeded his uncle as patriarch of that great city, one of the most important centers of the early Church. His early years as bishop were marked by fierce and sometimes violent conflicts in Alexandria, and historians still debate his part in them. Over time he grew into one of the Church's great teachers. Around 428, Nestorius, the archbishop of Constantinople, began teaching that Mary should not be called the Mother of God, but only the mother of Christ, as though Jesus were two separate persons, one divine and one human. Cyril saw that this teaching threatened the heart of the faith: that the eternal Son of God truly became man. He wrote to Nestorius and to the pope, and he defended the truth that Jesus is one Person, fully God and fully man, and that Mary is truly the Theotokos, the Mother of God. In 431 Cyril presided at the Council of Ephesus, which upheld this teaching, and the people of Ephesus celebrated in the streets. Afterward Cyril worked to make peace with those bishops who had opposed him. He wrote many works on the Incarnation and the Trinity. He died in 444, and in 1882 he was declared a Doctor of the Church.