Cyril of Alexandria
Bishop of Alexandria who opposed Nestorius and led the Council of Ephesus in 431. He taught that the Word of God made human flesh his own, so that Christ is one and Mary is rightly called Mother of God.
Cyril was the nephew of Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, and succeeded him in October 412 after a contested election. Socrates remarks that from his time the bishops of Alexandria reached beyond their priestly office into the government of the city (Socrates, Church History 7.7).
When Nestorius rejected the title Theotokos for Mary, Cyril wrote to him that the Word of God had personally united flesh to himself, that there is therefore one Christ and one Son, and that the fathers were right to call the Virgin Mother of God (Council of Ephesus (431) Cyril, second letter to Nestorius). He opened the council at Ephesus in 431 before the bishops of Syria arrived, and it deposed Nestorius (Socrates, Church History 7.34) (Council of Ephesus (431) decree against Nestorius). In 433 he made peace with John of Antioch on a statement that speaks of a union of two natures in the one Christ (Council of Ephesus (431) Cyril to John of Antioch (433)). The Council of Chalcedon named him, with Celestine of Rome, as leader of the council of Ephesus and received his synodical letters to Nestorius and to the eastern bishops (Definition of Chalcedon). See the Council of Ephesus.
In the timeline
- June AD 431, firm dateThe Council of Ephesus
A council led by Cyril of Alexandria deposes Nestorius of Constantinople and upholds the title Theotokos, God-bearer, for Mary. The bishops of Antioch dissent until 433. The council long divides the Church of the East, beyond the Roman frontier, from the churches that receive it.