Today is the feast of one of the most important theologians in Christian history, St. Cyril of Alexandria, confessor and Doctor of the Church, defender of the truth, consistent teacher of orthodoxy, glory of Alexandria, and many more titles. It's difficult to pin down a lot of details about Cyril's life, because he was born, was raised, and lived in Alexandria during a time of tumult that was unusual even for that famously tumultuous city. The Alexandrians were famous for rioting at the least notice, the politics was mean and ruthless, and the whole city constantly turned this way and that by political factions. Cyril seems to have become Patriarch of Alexandria in 412, and thrown himself into navigating the jungle of Alexandrian life and maintaining the eminence of Alexandria among other sees. There was not a single moment of his thirty-two year career as Pope of Alexandria that was not spent in some heated dispute or other. What is remarkable is how many of these disputes ended well, and in great measure this was due to Cyril's skill, indefatigability, and focus on argument. No one involved in Alexandrian politics, whether ecclesiastical or secular, could avoid making controversial decisions; Alexandrian politics was famously contentious, and it was notoriously difficult to make any decisions in that city without someone somewhere trying to incite people to a violent uprising over it. Even Cyril did not manage to keep things under control all the time. What is notable is how often he did. And his influence has been extraordinary, being found in the third, fourth, and fifth ecumenical councils (he was the major player in the third council, the Council of Ephesus).
From the
Scholia on the Incarnation of Christ, section 36:
Saint Paul sets forth to us the Saving Passion, for he saith at one time, By the Grace of God for all tasted He death and also, For
I delivered to you in the first place that which I too received, that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that He was
buried and that He rose again the
third day: moreover the most wise Peter also saith, Forasmuch as Christ suffered for us in the Flesh. Seeing
therefore we believe that One is our Lord Jesus Christ, i. e. God the
Word beheld in human form or made man as we, in what manner can we
attribute Passion to Him and still hold Him impassible, as God?
The Passion therefore will belong to the Economy, God the Word
esteeming as His own the things which pertain to His own Flesh, by
reason of the Ineffable Union, and remaining external to suffering as
far as pertains to His own Nature, for God is Impassible. And no wonder,
since we see that the soul itself of a man, if its body suffer
somewhat, remains external to the suffering as far as belongs to its own
nature, yet is it not conceived of as external to suffering, in that
the body which suffers is its very own: and albeit it be impalpable and
simple, yet is that which suffers not foreign to it. Thus will you
understand of Christ too the Saviour of all.
