ABSTRACT
St Cyril of Alexandria, who occupied the throne of St Mark from 412 to 444, was one of the greatest of the church fathers. He presided at the Third Ecumenical Council (Ephesus, 431), which condemned the teaching of Nestorius and proclaimed the Blessed Virgin Theotokos. The Christology he formulated in response to Nestorius was recognized as normative by the Fourth Ecumenical Council (Chalcedon, 451). He left us some of the early church’s most important biblical exegesis. And his spiritual teaching, particularly on the deification of the Christian, continues to nourish the life of the church.
