Who did Cyril of Alexandria correspond with?

Pope Celestine I and Augustine of Hippo.

Who did Cyril of Alexandria meet?

Shenoute of Atripe and Melania the Younger.

Who did Cyril of Alexandria oppose?

Nestorius and Theodoret of Cyrus.

← Lineage

Cyril of Alexandria

c. 376 – 444 · b. Theodosiou · Bishop of Alexandria

bishoptheologian

Patriarch of Alexandria. Chief architect of Christological orthodoxy; presided over the Council of Ephesus (431) which condemned Nestorius.

Why Cyril matters

Cyril is the most brilliant and the most ruthless. His Christology — one person, two natures, a real unity in Christ — won at the Council of Ephesus in 431 and shaped Chalcedon twenty years later. Every later orthodox account of who Jesus is starts from Cyril. He's also the bishop in whose Alexandria the philosopher Hypatia was murdered by a Christian mob in 415, and he ran Nestorius into the ground with political tactics that were ugly even by fifth-century standards. The church canonised him anyway because his theology held. Read his On the Unity of Christ — it's the cleanest statement of how Christ can be one without being a blend.

Chain to Jesus

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Common questions

Who was Cyril of Alexandria?: Cyril of Alexandria (376–444) — Patriarch of Alexandria. Chief architect of Christological orthodoxy; presided over the Council of Ephesus (431) which condemned Nestorius.
Who did Cyril of Alexandria correspond with?: Pope Celestine I and Augustine of Hippo.
Who did Cyril of Alexandria meet?: Shenoute of Atripe and Melania the Younger.
Who did Cyril of Alexandria oppose?: Nestorius and Theodoret of Cyrus.
Who did Cyril of Alexandria succeed as bishop of Alexandria?: Athanasius of Alexandria.
Who succeeded Cyril of Alexandria as bishop of Alexandria?: Dioscorus of Alexandria.

Works

On the Unity of Christc. 438
Cyril's mature Christology defending the single subject of the incarnate Word.
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Sources for biography

Cyril, Epistulae (esp. 4, 17, 39) primary
Acta Concilii Ephesini (431) primary
Socrates Scholasticus, Hist. Eccl. 7 primary

documented connections(6)

opposed Nestorius
Cyril led the condemnation of Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus (431).
Cyril, Epistulae 4, 17 · Acta Concilii Ephesini (431)
opposed (incoming) Theodoret of Cyrus
Theodoret wrote a refutation of Cyril's Twelve Anathemas.
Theodoret, Reprehensio XII Capitum Cyrilli
corresponded (incoming) Pope Celestine I
Celestine commissioned Cyril to act on his behalf against Nestorius.
Acta Concilii Ephesini (431); letters of Celestine to Cyril
succeeded in see (incoming) Dioscorus of Alexandria
Dioscorus succeeded Cyril as patriarch of Alexandria in 444.
Liberatus, Breviarium 12
cited Athanasius of Alexandria
Cyril repeatedly invokes Athanasius as the standard of orthodoxy.
Cyril, Epistulae 1, 39
cited (incoming) Severus of Antioch
Severus appealed to Cyril's mia physis formula as the basis of his Christology.
Severus, Liber contra impium Grammaticum

tradition connections(4)

succeeded in see Athanasius of Alexandria
Cyril became Patriarch of Alexandria (412) several bishops after Athanasius (d. 373) — Peter II, Timothy, Theophilus all intervened. Not a direct succession.
Socrates Scholasticus, Hist. Eccl. 7.7
corresponded (incoming) Augustine of Hippo
Cyril sent Augustine documents on the Nestorian controversy shortly before Augustine's death.
Augustine, Epistula 4* (Divjak)
met (incoming) Shenoute of Atripe
Besa's Vita Sinuthii reports Shenoute accompanying Cyril to the Council of Ephesus in 431; this is attested in the hagiographic tradition rather than in conciliar acta.
Besa, Vita Sinuthii · ODCC s.v. Shenoute
met (incoming) Melania the Younger
Vita Melaniae reports a visit to Alexandria where she received Cyril; primary attestation rests on the Vita alone.
Gerontius, Vita Melaniae Iunioris 34

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