St. Cyril of Alexandria

Archbishop of Alexandria and the measure by which the Church judged Chalcedon. He presided at Ephesus in 431, and his Twelve Chapters against Nestorius forced the question the council answered: whether the one born of the Virgin is God, so that she is Theotokos and not merely Christotokos. Two years later he signed the Formula of Reunion with the Antiochenes, which is the part of him most often forgotten, and it shows a man who fought for a truth rather than for a victory. When Chalcedon met seven years after his death, the test applied to every phrase was whether Cyril would have owned it, and the Fifth Council later read Chalcedon through him on purpose. Feast: June 9.