St. Cyril & Nestorius
St Cyril & Nestorius
- Visiting Bishop (student of the School in Antioch) gives a sermon (in the presence of Nestorius) cautioning the use of the word Theotokos.
- The people of Antioch write to St Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria.
- In those days, Alexandria has primacy in the East...
- There are conflicts & rivalry with Constantinople
- Alexandria deposed patriarch of Constantinople 7 times (Athanasius: 3 times?, Timothy deposed Macedonius, Theophilus deposed St John Chrysostom, Cyril deposes Nestorius, Dioscorus will depose Flavian
- Cyril's First Letter to Nestorius
- https://www.reformedhistory.com/Content/Letters/CyrilToNestorius1
- Cyril is very charitable, giving the benefit of the doubt
- He continues to go that way - even after making conclusions about Nestorius' heresy, he will continue to call him "Most Holy" and "Blessed" and "Minister of Christ" etc. because he is not deposed
- Nestorius' First Letter to Cyril
- https://www.fourthcentury.com/nestorius-of-constantinople-first-letter-to-cyril-cyril-letter-3-cpg-5666-8628/
- Short and not-so-sweet
- Greeting, complaint against the priest delivering the letter, then...
- "As far as we are concerned, although your reverence has done many things not in keeping with brotherly love (to put it gently), we write this salutation with patience and love."
- And salutation
- Cyril's Second Letter to Nestorius