Cyril of Alexandria: Festal Letters 1–12
Overview
St. Cyril of Alexandria is best known for his role in the Christological disputes of the fifth century. In recent years, however, scholars have turned their attention to Cyril the exegete. Cyril wrote extensive commentaries on nearly every book of the Bible; in fact, two-thirds of his extant corpus is devoted to biblical interpretation. Yet, despite this strong interest in Cyril as theologian and biblical interpreter, his activity as the Patriarch of Alexandria remains obscure. Doctrinal treatises and biblical commentary reveal little of the daily pastoral duties that occupied Cyril during his years as leader of one of ancient Christianity’s most important sees. This new translation of Cyril’s festal letters will help fill these gaps.
Twenty-nine in all, these letters cover all but three of Cyril’s years as bishop. In Alexandria, festal letters functioned primarily as a vehicle for announcing the beginning of Lent and the proper date for the celebration of Easter. They also served an important catechetical purpose by providing the patriarch with an annual opportunity to present his flock with a pastoral version of the theological issues that found more formal and complex expression elsewhere. Thus, Cyril’s Festal Letters offer the modern reader a glimpse into the issues that Cyril himself considered important enough to proclaim to the entire diocese and a sample of how he prepared these ideas for reception by a less sophisticated audience.
These letters illuminate other aspects of the ancient church in Alexandria, including that church’s complex relationship with the Jews and other religious groups, as well as the ways in which the ascetical movement wound its way into the patriarch’s pastoral program. In short, Cyril of Alexandria’s Festal Letters provides modern readers with a rare opportunity to enter the daily reality of the church in ancient Alexandria.
Key Features
- Contains a new translation of Cyril of Alexandria’s festal letters
- Provides insight into Cyril’s pastoral duties as bishop
- Offers a look at the ancient church in Alexandria
Top Highlights
“Let us rather act manfully, like Christ, that we may be found66 to be sharers in his life” (Page 188)
“For ‘he is the mediator between God and man,’19 as is written, mixing together in an ineffable combination that which is held in thought, being at once man and God.20 It is for this reason that he is by nature attached to the substance of the One who begot him, and to ours as man. For it was not otherwise possible for that which by nature perishes ever to be saved, and for that which has been shaken to rise to a firm desire for virtue, unless the reflection of the substance of God the Father,21 that is, the Son, who is above all corruption and change, or rather whose nature is quite inaccessible to such things, had come down to enter into communion with it.” (Page 178)
- Title: Festal Letters, 1–12
- Author: Cyril of Alexandria
- Series: The Fathers of the Church
- Volume: 118
- Publisher: Catholic University of America
- Print Publication Date: 2009
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Pages: 260
- Era: era:nicene
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Christian saints › Egypt--Alexandria--Correspondence; Christian life › Early works to 1800; Theology, doctrinal › Early works to 1800; Cyril, Saint, Patriarch of Alexandria, ca. 370-444 › Correspondence
- ISBNs: 9780813201184, 0813201187
- Resource ID: LLS:FSTLLTTRS112
- Resource Type: text.monograph.letters
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:50:57Z