CYRIL, ST., of Jerusalem, was born in that city about sn. 315, and received among the clergy there an education for the church. In 345 he was ordained priest and catechist by Maximus, the Patriarch, or, which is in fact the same thing, Archbishop of Jerusalem. On the death of that prelate iu 350, Cyril was chosen to succeed him ; and the commencement of his episcopate is said to have been signalised by a wonderful luminous eppearance in the heavens, called the ' Appa rition of the Cron.' It is spoken of in the Chronicle of Alexandria, by Socrates (lib. ii. c. 23), by Philoetorgius (lib. iii. c. 26), and by several other ecclesistical historians. Tho letter immediately written by St. Cyril to the Emperor Constantine describing this miraculous phe nomenon, is quoted in proof of the fact by Sozomen, Glycas, Theo. plumes, John of Eutychius, and many subsequent writers : Dr. Cave, in his ' Life of St. Cyril,' inserts it entire. It is stated that on the none' (7th) of May, 351, at nine iu the morning, a great mass of light, far brighter than the sun, was observed over Golgotha, and extending to Mount Olivet (two English miles); that it assumed the form of a cross, and was seen during several hours by all the inhabit ants of Jerusalem.
The zeal with which St. Cyril enforced laud defended the doctrine of the consubatantiality of the Son, with the jealousy about precedence, and the ambitious encroachment of jurisdiction, which characterise the episcopal history of that age, occasioned Machin, the Arian bishop of amerce, to commence a course of persecution against him, which terminated iu his deposition by a council in 357. On this be retired to Tarsus until 359, when, by a council of Seloucia, he was re-mtab limbed in his tee, but through the party of Acaciva ho was deposed a second time by a council of Constantinople in 360. On the accession of Julian, who, to increase the broils of the church, recalled all the exiled bishops, Cyril returned to his bishopric, from which, under the Emperor Valens, he was in 367 expelled a third time by Eudoxua, the Arian bishop of Constantinople. Finally, under Theodosius, who favoured the Triuitariau sect, he was again restored by a council of Constantinople in 381 ; and notwithstanding the ambitious and schismatic contests of the bishops and clergy, be remained in his see until his death in 386. An incident noticed by all the biographers of St. Cyril, is the celebrated attempt of the Emperor Julian to rebuild the temple of the Jews at Jerusalem, ostensibly for the purpose of promoting their religion, but really with the siuieter view of falsifying the prophecies respecting its irreparable destruction. It is said that notwithstanding the enthusiastic expectations of the Jews, and the prodigious preparations and actual commoucemeut of the work, St. Cyril'' reliance on the infallibility of the Scriptures, induced him to perserero in predicting the failure of the project ; and that accordingly a series of earthquakes, storms of lightning, and subterrancous erup tions of fire and smoke destroyed all the materials and a multitude of workmen, the garments of thorn who escaped being impressed with shining phosphoric crosses, which even by washing could not be effaced. The particulars of this miraculous fulfilment of Cyril's prediction are related by St. Gregory Nazlau 4 advers. Julian') ; by Theo doret, Socrates, St. Chrysostorn, Philoatorgius, Sozomen, and St. Ambrose. See also Bishop Warburton's Dissertation on the subject, p. 88.
The extant writings of St. Cyril are in the Greek language, and consist of eighteen books of cateohesos, or sermons, delivered during Lent to the catechumens, called before baptism Illuminati ; five similar discourses delivered during Easter week to the neophytes after baptism, called Mystagogic, being explanatory of the mysteries of the Christian sacraments; a treatise on words, and the letter to Constantius; besides which, several homilies and epistles are sometimes improperly included.
Rival's, in his 'Critiens Sacer' (lib. iii., c. 8, 9, 10, 'De Cyrilli Catechesibus), considers the five Mystagogics, and the letter to Con atantius, as supposititious; but by Vossiue, Cave, Mill, Whittaker, and Bishop Bull, they are received as genuine. The books of Catecheses are crowded with quotations from Scripture, and the style is dull and tiresomely prolix ; but the facts they contain relating to the doctrines and discipline of the Eastern church in the 4th century are extremely interesting to the student of Christian antiquities. In the first Catechesis arc described the effects of baptism. The fourth gives an exposition of all the Christian doctrines, and treats of numerous questions concerning the body, soul, virginity, marriage, &c. The subsequent discourses exhibit and enjoin a belief in the miraculous virtues of the relics of saints, which are represented as worthy of all veneration; in the efficacy of prayers and sacrifices for the dead; in the powers of exorcism, consecrated unction, oil, and water. Christians are exhorted to cross themselves on every occasion and action throughout the day. The enthusiastic adoration of the cross displayed by St. Cyril was probably owing to his officiating in the church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, where, after the 'Invention of the Cross,' it was deposited in a silver case, and shown by the archbishop to thousands of pilgrims, who each took a little chip of it without occasioning any diminution of its bulk; hence one of his proofs of the truth of the gospel history of the Crucifixion is the fact of the world being full of chips of the cross. A description of this cross is given by Dom Tontt4e at the end of his edition of CyriTe works.
The doctrine of the uninterrupted and perpetual virginity of Mary is taught by CyriL The state of virginity in general is extolled as equal to that of angels, with an assurance that, in the day of judgment, the noblest crowns will be carried off by the virgins. The resurrection is proved and illustrated by the story of the Phccnix. That Cyril's superstitious credulity and love of the marvellous was remarkably great is apparent not only from such instances as the above, but by his relating. without suspicion of their truth, the most puerile and absurd stories. In the five 3Iyatsgogies are described the ceremonies which precede baptism ; the anointing with oil the forehead, face, ears, and nose; the forms of exorcism, the holy chrism, confirmation, the eucharist, liturgy, and communion. The dogma of transubstanti ation is most explicitly enforced : we are said to ye made concorporeal and consanguineal with Christ by his body and blood being distributed through onr bodies, and extremely minute directions are given for the mode of receiving the eucharist bread and wine.
31ille'e edition of the 'Opera Omnia,' Grmce et Latine, foL, 1703, contains notes, three indices, and the various readings ; but the editio optima is that by Augustus Toutt6e, a Maurist monk, Or. at Lat., fol., 1720.
(Lives of Saints, by the Rev. Alban Butler, vol. iii. ; Dr. Adam Clarke, Succession Sae. Lit., vol. i. ; Lardner, vol. iv. ; Grodecius, Vita St. Cyrilli; Tillemont, Guericke, &e.)