Cyril of Jerusalem - Life and Character

Life and Character

Little is known of his life before he became a bishop; the assignment of his birth to the year 315 rests on conjecture. St. Cyril was ordained a deacon by Bishop St. Macarius of Jerusalem in about 335 and a priest some eight years later by Bishop St. Maximus. About the end of 350 he succeeded St. Maximus in the See of Jerusalem. Naturally inclined to peace and conciliation, St. Cyril at first took a rather moderate position but (like not a few of his undoubtedly orthodox contemporaries) was by no means eager to accept the homoousios (ὁμοούσιος) doctrine - that Jesus Christ and God are of the "same substance" and are equally God. Separating from his superior, Metropolitan Acacius of Caesarea, a partisan of Arius who taught that Jesus was a divine being created by — and therefore inferior to — God the Father, St. Cyril took the side of the Eusebians of the post-Nicene conciliation party and thus got into difficulties with his superior that were increased by Acacius's jealousy of the importance assigned to St. Cyril's See by the Council of Nicaea. A council held under Acacius's influence in 358 deposed St. Cyril and forced him to retire to Tarsus. At that time he was officially charged with selling church property to help the poor. The conciliatory Council of Seleucia, at which St. Cyril was present, deposed Acacius the following year. In 360 this was reversed through the Metropolitan's court influence and Cyril suffered another year's exile from Jerusalem until the Emperor Julian's accession allowed him to return. The Arian Emperor Valens banished him once more in 367. St. Cyril was able to return again at the accession of Emperor Gratian after which he remained undisturbed until his death in 386. St. Cyril's jurisdiction over Jerusalem was expressly confirmed by the First Council of Constantinople (381), at which he was present. At that council he voted for acceptance of the term homoousios, having been finally convinced that there was no better alternative.