St. Cyril of Jerusalem

St. Cyril of Jerusalem was born around the year 313, most likely in or near Jerusalem, just as the Edict of Milan was bringing the Church's long era of Roman persecution to a close. Raised in a Christian family and well educated in Scripture, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Maximus of Jerusalem and entrusted with the instruction of catechumens preparing for baptism. Around 350 he succeeded Maximus as bishop of Jerusalem, a see he would govern—often from exile—for some thirty-five years. Cyril's enduring gift to the Church is his series of catechetical lectures, delivered in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to candidates for baptism and to the newly baptized. These instructions, which survive nearly complete, walk step by step through the Creed, the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist, and the Christian life. Clear, scriptural, and warmly pastoral, they remain one of our best windows into how the fourth-century Church prepared converts and celebrated the liturgy in the very places of Christ's death and resurrection. Cyril's episcopate coincided with the height of the Arian controversy, and he paid dearly for his fidelity. Deposed and banished three times by Arian-leaning authorities, he spent roughly sixteen of his years as bishop in exile. He returned definitively under the emperor Theodosius and took part in the First Council of Constantinople in 381, which reaffirmed the Nicene faith in the full divinity of Christ. He died in peace in Jerusalem on March 18, 386. Venerated as a saint from antiquity in both East and West, Cyril was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1882. His feast is kept on March 18. Pilgrims to Jerusalem still pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where his voice once formed new Christians in the mysteries of the faith.