Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Cyril succeeded his uncle Theophilus as bishop of Alexandria in 412 and led the Egyptian Church for thirty-two years. His early years there were marked by violent conflicts in the city. From 428 he opposed Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, who objected to calling Mary Theotokos, “Mother of God,” and taught a sharper distinction between the divine and the human in Christ.

At the Council of Ephesus in 431, which Cyril presided over, Nestorius was deposed and the title Theotokos confirmed. A bitter quarrel with the bishops of Antioch followed, until in 433 Cyril and John of Antioch agreed on a common statement of faith. He also wrote much on the Scriptures and on the Trinity. He died in 444, and Leo XIII named him a Doctor of the Church in 1882.