c. 376–444 CE · bishop of Alexandria · theologian
Cyril of Alexandria
Κύριλλος
In Alexandria: 412–444 CE
Theophilus's nephew and successor from 412. His feud with the prefect Orestes was the setting of Hypatia's murder in 415; how far he was responsible is disputed. He later wrote a long reply to the emperor Julian's Against the Galileans.
Their life and work
He came to the see after street fighting between his supporters and those of a rival candidate (Socrates 7.7), closed the churches of the Novatians, and drove many of the city's Jews out after a night attack on Christians, which deepened his quarrel with the prefect Orestes (7.13). His theology outlasted the quarrels: at the Council of Ephesus in 431 he had Nestorius deposed, and his formula of the one nature of the incarnate Word shaped the Christology of the Egyptian church.
Our device: Their emblem is a bishop's seal. No portrait of any of these people survives. The emblems are our devices.
Moments
- March 415 CE · The murder of Hypatia Known: attested
In the show
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Sources (5)
- Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History 7.13–15
- E. J. Watts, Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017)
- C. Haas, Alexandria in Late Antiquity: Topography and Social Conflict (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997)
- Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History 7.7; 7.13
- Acts of the Council of Ephesus ed. Schwartz, ACO I.1.2, 3–64 (the session of 22 June 431)