Background
Ethnicity:
Patriarch of Alexandria and Doctor of the Church, was a leader of the opposition to Nestorianism.
In his early life under the influence of his uncle, Theophilus, he opposed St. John Chrysostom. Becoming Patriarch in 412, Cyril closed the Novatian churches, confiscated their sacred vessels, and expelled the Jews from Alexandria. Against Nestorius he taught the personal union of Christ's divine and human natures, and at the Council of Ephesus (431) played a great part in the condemnation of Nestorius. He wrote both scriptural exegeses and dogmatic and apologetic works against Nestorius, Arianism, and Julian the Apostate. His feast is June 27. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1882.
