Feast of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

(315 – 386 A.D.)

St. Cyril of Jerusalem was a well-educated man from Jerusalem and a scholar of Sacred Scripture.  He was ordained a priest by the bishop of Jerusalem shortly after the legalization of Christianity in the Roman Empire.  He was given the task of catechizing new Christians leading up to and immediately following their baptism.  Later he himself became bishop of Jerusalem, and soon after his ordination a miraculous apparition of a cross appeared in the sky, visible to the whole city.

Because St. Cyril defended Christ’s full humanity and divinity against the Arian heresy, he was exiled from his bishopric three times in twenty years due to misunderstandings, intrigue, and politics.  Saint Cyril of Jerusalem is one of the early Church Fathers and one of the most important sources for how the early Church celebrated the liturgy and sacraments during the first few decades after Christianity was legalized.  For St. Cyril’s work in catechesis he was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1883.

His feast day is March 18th.

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Let us, therefore, not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ; but though another may hide it, do though openly seal it upon thy forehead, that the devils may behold the royal sign and flee trembling far away. Make then this sign at eating and drinking, at sitting, at lying down, at rising up, at speaking, at walking: in a word, at every act.”

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, c. 350 A.D., Catecheses, Book IV, Ch. 10

Since Christ Himself said, ‘this is My Body’ who shall dare doubt that It is His Body.”

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Church Father and Doctor

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Church Father, Doctor of the Church, pray for us.

Be not afraid!  And may the peace of Christ be with you and your loved ones today and always.  Holy Family, pray for us.  Amen.