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Cyril of Alexandria (+444)

Cyril of Alexandria was born in Egypt in 376. 

As a young man, Cyril trained for six years at the monastery of Macarius in the Nitreia hills.  

From 385, Cyril's uncle on his mother's side was bishop Theophilus of Alexandria. Upon leaving the monastery, Cyril was ordained as a deacon by his uncle. Cyril attended the controversial "Synod of the Oak" along with his uncle in 403. When Theophilus died in 412, Cyril took on his role as bishop of Alexandria, which at the time was the fourth most important bishop in the Christian church. 

During his tenure as bishop between 412 and 444, Cyril was involved in many controversies. 

Cyril, as head of the mainstream church, closed down the rival assemblies of the Novatians, a break-away Christian group. 

In 415, he was involved in a standoff with the Jewish community, challenging the secular authority of the governor Orestes. A follower of Cyril, Ammonius, even attacked the Roman official, injuring him with a stone. When he was arrested and tortured to death, Cyril commemorated him as a martyr. 

In the same year 415, Cyril of Alexandria facilitated the actions of the "parabalani" monks who murdered the influential pagan woman, Hypatia. 

In 428, Nestorius, who had previously served at Antioch, become bishop of Constantinople, the second most senior cleric in the Christian church. Motivated in part by rivalry between the bishoprics of Alexandria and Antioch, from 429, Cyril entered into controversy with Nestorius, archbishop of Constantinople, over the latter's rejection of the title "Theotokos" for the Blessed Virgin Mary. Nestorius argued that, in respect of Christ, Mary was neither "bearer of man" nor "bearer of God" but "bearer of Christ". Cyril perceived Nestorius to be dividing Christ into two persons. He asserted, "One nature of the incarnate Word." Later, Cyril composed 12 anathemas condemning the teaching of Nestorius, and demanded these were agreed to. At the Council of 431, Nestorius was deposed and his teaching (or what he was alleged to have taught) was condemned. 

Cyril's many writings earnt him the accolades "Guardian of Exactitude and "Seal of the Fathers".

Cyril of Alexandria died in 444. 

On the occasion of Cyril's death, Theodoret of Cyrrhus wrote these words in private letter, "Great care must then be taken, and it is especially your holiness's business to undertake this duty, to tell the guild of undertakers to lay a very big and heavy stone upon his grave, for fear he should come back again, and show his changeable mind once more."

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