We have almost no information on Cyril's life prior to
his election to the important See of Alexandria. He was a nephew of
Theophilus, who had governed the Diocese of Alexandria as Bishop since
385 A.D. with a prestigious and iron hand. It is likely that Cyril was
born in this Egyptian metropolis between 370 and 380 A.D., was initiated
into ecclesiastical life while he was still very young and received a
good education, both culturally and theologically. In 403, he went to
Constantinople in the retinue of his powerful uncle. It was here that he
took part in the so-called "Synod of the Oak" which deposed the Bishop
of the city, John (later known as "Chrysostom"), and thereby marked the
triumph of the Alexandrian See over its traditional rival, the See of
Constantinople, where the Emperor resided. Upon his uncle Theophilus'
death, the still young Cyril was elected in 412 as Bishop of the
influential Church of Alexandria, which he governed energetically for 32
years, always seeking to affirm her primacy throughout the East, strong
also because of her traditional bonds with Rome.
Two or three years later, in 417 or 418, the Bishop of
Alexandria showed himself to be realistic in mending the broken
communion with Constantinople, which had lasted by then since 406 as a
consequence of Chrysostom's deposition. But the old conflict with the
Constantinople See flared up again about 10 years later, when in 428
Nestorius was elected, a severe and authoritarian monk trained in
Antioch. The new Bishop of Constantinople, in fact, soon provoked
opposition because he preferred to use as Mary's title in his preaching
"Mother of Christ" (Christotòkos) instead of "Mother of God" (Theotòkos),
already very dear to popular devotion. One reason for Bishop Nestorius'
decision was his adherence to the Antiochean type of Christology,
which, to safeguard the importance of Christ's humanity, ended by
affirming the division of the Divinity. Hence, the union between God and
man in Christ could no longer be true, so naturally it was no longer
possible to speak of the "Mother of God".
The reaction of Cyril - at that time the greatest
exponent of Alexandrian Christology, who intended on the other hand to
stress the unity of Christ's person - was almost immediate, and from 429
he left no stone unturned, even addressing several letters to Nestorius
himself. In the second of Cyril's letters to Nestorius (PG 77,
44-49), written in February 430, we read a clear affirmation of the duty
of Pastors to preserve the faith of the People of God. This was his
criterion, moreover, still valid today: the faith of the People of God
is an expression of tradition, it is a guarantee of sound doctrine. This
is what he wrote to Nestorius: "It is essential to explain the
teaching and interpretation of the faith to the people in the most
irreproachable way, and to remember that those who cause scandal even to
only one of the little ones who believe in Christ will be subjected to
an unbearable punishment".
In the same letter to Nestorius - a letter which later,
in 451, was to be approved by the Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth
Ecumenical Council - Cyril described his Christological faith clearly:
"Thus, we affirm that the natures are different that are united in one
true unity, but from both has come only one Christ and Son; not because,
due to their unity, the difference in their natures has been
eliminated, but rather, because divinity and humanity, reunited in an
ineffable and indescribable union, have produced for us one Lord and
Christ and Son". And this is important: true humanity and true divinity
are really united in only one Person, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
the Bishop of Alexandria continued: "We will profess only one Christ
and Lord, not in the sense that we worship the man together with the Logos, in
order not to suggest the idea of separation by saying "together', but
in the sense that we worship only one and the same, because he is not
extraneous to the Logos, his body, with which he also sits at his
Father's side, not as if "two sons" are sitting beside him but only
one, united with his own flesh".
And soon the Bishop of Alexandria, thanks to shrewd
alliances, obtained the repeated condemnation of Nestorius: by the See
of Rome, consequently with a series of 12 anathemas which he himself
composed, and finally, by the Council held in Ephesus in 431, the Third
Ecumenical Council. The assembly which went on with alternating and
turbulent events, ended with the first great triumph of devotion to Mary
and with the exile of the Bishop of Constantinople, who had been
reluctant to recognize the Blessed Virgin's right to the title of
"Mother of God" because of an erroneous Christology that brought
division to Christ himself. After thus prevailing against his rival and
his doctrine, by 433 Cyril was nevertheless already able to achieve a
theological formula of compromise and reconciliation with the
Antiocheans. This is also significant: on the one hand is the clarity
of the doctrine of faith, but in addition, on the other, the intense
search for unity and reconciliation. In the following years he devoted
himself in every possible way to defending and explaining his
theological stance, until his death on 27 June 444.
Cyril's writings - truly numerous and already widely
disseminated in various Latin and Eastern translations in his own
lifetime, attested to by their instant success - are of the utmost
importance for the history of Christianity. His commentaries on many of
the New and Old Testament Books are important, including those on the
entire Pentateuch, Isaiah, the Psalms and the Gospels of John and Luke.
Also important are his many doctrinal works, in which the defence of the
Trinitarian faith against the Arian and Nestorian theses recurs. The
basis of Cyril's teaching is the ecclesiastical tradition and in
particular, as I mentioned, the writings of Athanasius, his great
Predecessor in the See of Alexandria. Among Cyril's other writings, the
books Against Julian deserve mention. They were the last great
response to the anti-Christian controversies, probably dictated by the
Bishop of Alexandria in the last years of his life to respond to the
work Against the Galileans, composed many years earlier in 363 by
the Emperor known as the "Apostate" for having abandoned the
Christianity in which he was raised.
The Christian faith is first and foremost the encounter with Jesus, "a Person, which gives life a new horizon" (Deus Caritas Est, n.
1). St Cyril of Alexandria was an unflagging, staunch witness of Jesus
Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, emphasizing above all his unity, as
he repeats in 433 in his first letter (PG 77, 228-237) to Bishop
Succensus: "Only one is the Son, only one the Lord Jesus Christ, both
before the Incarnation and after the Incarnation. Indeed, the Logos born
of God the Father was not one Son and the one born of the Blessed
Virgin another; but we believe that the very One who was born before the
ages was also born according to the flesh and of a woman". Over and
above its doctrinal meaning, this assertion shows that faith in Jesus
the Logos born of the Father is firmly rooted in history because,
as St Cyril affirms, this same Jesus came in time with his birth from
Mary, the Theotò-kos, and in accordance with his promise will
always be with us. And this is important: God is eternal, he is born of a
woman, and he stays with us every day. In this trust we live, in this
trust we find the way for our life.
