St. Cyril of Alexandria

St Cyril I, the 24th Pope of Alexandria, The Pillar of Faith; Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church. St Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, (June 27) was born at Alexandria, Egypt. He regarded the embodiment of God in the person of Jesus Christ to be so mystically powerful that it spread out from the body of the God-man into the rest of the race, to reconstitute human nature into a graced and deified condition of the saints, one that promised immortality and transfiguration to believers.

St Cyril is counted among the Church Fathers and the Doctors of the Church, and his reputation within the Christian world has resulted in his titles Pillar of Faith and Seal of all the Fathers. According to his theology, there were two states for the Son: the state that existed prior to the Son becoming enfleshed in the person of Jesus and the state that actually became enfleshed. His writings include the homily given in Ephesus and several other sermons. Some of his alleged homilies are in dispute as to its authorship. In several writings, St Cyril focuses on the love of Jesus to his mother. St Cyril is credited with creating a basis for all other mariological developments through his teaching of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as the Mother of God.