ONE THOUSAND FIFTEEN HUNDRERD AND SIXTY SEVEN years ago St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376 - 444) died. He was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. He came to the Episcopate when Alexandria was at its height of influence and power within the Roman Empire. Cyril wrote extensively and was a leading supporter in orthodox Christology of the later 4th and 5th centuries. He was a central figure in the First Council of Ephesus in 431, which led to the deposition of Nestorius as Patriarch of Constantinople. He is a Doctor of the Church.
In his work titled “On Union with the Holy Trinity” he writes: “Our communion in the divinity of Christ means our union with the Trinity, which in its turn allows the divine nature to pervade and permeate us, just as fire heats a piece of iron and makes it glow. All we have to do after believing in Christ and discovering our communion with him is to give the divine, ineffable beauty of the nature of the Trinity the chance to dawn within us, to glow and to shine.
Ascetical struggle is nothing but an attempt to be in conformity with the Holy Spirit, which is actually within us, and to be in harmony with the thought of Christ, which actually fills us. The Holy Spirit, which God gives us as soon as he dwells in us, qualifies us for acquiring the likeness of Christ, and consequently, we become a real image of the Father. When we acquire the likeness of Christ by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us, we become “sons of partnership,” and when we partake of the divine nature as sons with Christ we become in union with God through the Holy Spirit."
St. Cyril of Alexandria, pray for us!
