St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechist and Doctor of the Church

St Cyril of Jerusalem was the bishop of the Holy City in the fourth century, the catechist who prepared converts for Baptism in the basilica built over Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre, and a confessor of the faith who spent sixteen of his thirty-five years as bishop in exile. His Catechetical Lectures, which Butler calls "the earliest example extant of anything in the shape of a formal system of theology", are among the most precious witnesses of the teaching of the early Church, and Pope Leo XIII declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1882. In the calendar of 1962 his feast is kept on 18 March, in the heart of Lent, the very season in which he gave his instructions.

Who was St Cyril of Jerusalem?

Cyril was born about 315, if not in Jerusalem then certainly brought up there, of parents who were probably Christians and gave him an excellent education. Butler notes his wide knowledge of Holy Scripture: some of his instructions are woven almost entirely out of biblical texts. The lessons of his feast in the Roman Breviary add that he was formed in the monastic life and bound himself to perpetual continence.

St Maximus, bishop of Jerusalem, ordained him priest and entrusted him with the instruction of the catechumens, a weighty charge in the city to which pilgrims came from the whole Christian world. When Maximus died, around 350, Cyril was consecrated by the bishops of the province to succeed him. The circumstances are obscure and his enemies later told contradictory stories about them, but, as Butler says, it is certain that he was properly consecrated.

The cross of light over Golgotha

The first year of his episcopate was marked by a sign that made a deep impression on the city, and which Cyril himself reported to the Emperor Constantius in a letter that has been preserved:

"On the nones of May, about the third hour, a great luminous cross appeared in the heavens, just over Golgotha, reaching as far as the holy mount of Olivet, seen, not by one or two persons, but clearly and evidently by the whole city."

The whole city, the letter continues, ran to the church to give praise to Christ. The Breviary counts this apparition among the heavenly signs by which God honoured the holiness of the bishop.

Three exiles for the faith

Cyril lived in the worst years of the Arian crisis, a contemporary of St Athanasius, and like him he was driven from his see again and again.

• The first exile. Acacius, metropolitan of Caesarea and an Arian, quarrelled with him over the rank of the see of Jerusalem and over the faith. A council of his party condemned Cyril, adding the charge that he had sold church goods during a famine to feed the poor, as St Ambrose and St Augustine would also do. Cyril took refuge at Tarsus. The Council of Seleucia reinstated him.
• The second exile. Acacius won over the Emperor Constantius and obtained a new sentence within a year. When Constantius died in 361, Julian the Apostate recalled all the exiled bishops, and Cyril returned.
• The third exile. In 367 the Emperor Valens banished the bishops recalled by Julian. Only under Theodosius was Cyril restored for good, and he governed his church in peace for the last eight years of his life.

Under Julian, the Apostate tried to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem to give the lie to our Lord's prophecy. The Breviary relates, and even the pagan historian Ammianus Marcellinus confirms, that an earthquake and globes of fire bursting from the ground put an end to the work, as Cyril had calmly foretold.

In 381 Cyril sat at the Council of Constantinople, the second ecumenical council, which completed the Creed that we sing at Mass, the creed explained on our page on the Nicene Creed. He subscribed to it with the other bishops, together with the word consubstantial that he had long been hesitant to use. The bishops of the council, writing to Pope St Damasus, praised him as one who had often fought for the true faith against the Arians.

How did St Cyril of Jerusalem die?

He died peacefully at Jerusalem, probably in 386, at the age of nearly seventy, in the thirty-fifth year of his episcopate, sixteen of which had been spent in exile. He was not a martyr; the Church honours him as a confessor, a bishop who suffered for the faith without shedding his blood.

The Catechetical Lectures of St Cyril of Jerusalem

The Catecheses are what make Cyril a Doctor of the Church. They were delivered without a book, as Butler stresses, and are perhaps the only ones of his instructions ever committed to writing; they show the teaching and the rites of the Church of Jerusalem around the middle of the fourth century. They are in three parts:

1. The Procatechesis, an introduction addressed at the beginning of Lent to those who had given in their names for Baptism: "Already there is an odour of blessedness upon you, O you who are soon to be enlightened."
2. Eighteen Catecheses to the illuminandi, the candidates for Baptism, delivered during Lent in Constantine's basilica of the Holy Cross, the Martyrion, on penance, Baptism, and then article by article on the Creed of Jerusalem: God, Christ, His birth, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension, the Holy Ghost, the Church, the resurrection of the body.
3. Five Mystagogical Catecheses, given in Easter week to the newly baptized in the Anastasis, the church of the Holy Sepulchre: on Baptism, on Chrism (the sacrament we call Confirmation), on the Body and Blood of Christ, and on the Liturgy.

The authorship of the five mystagogical lectures is discussed: some manuscripts attribute them to John, Cyril's successor in the see of Jerusalem, and scholars are still divided. The tradition has always read them together with the others under Cyril's name, and the Breviary praises the catecheses for teaching "the real presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the wonderful sacrament of the Eucharist".

The lectures are the best guide we have to what the Church taught in the time of the Fathers to those entering the faith. If you want to understand what Baptism meant to those who received it at the Easter Vigil, read them alongside our page on Catholic Baptism.

St Cyril of Jerusalem on the Eucharist

On the Real Presence, the Fourth Mystagogical Catechesis is as clear as any text of the Fathers:

"Consider therefore the Bread and the Wine not as bare elements, for they are, according to the Lord's declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ; for even though sense suggests this to you, yet let faith establish you. Judge not the matter from the taste, but from faith be fully assured without misgiving, that the Body and Blood of Christ have been vouchsafed to you."

And a little further on: "the seeming bread is not bread, though sensible to taste, but the Body of Christ; and the seeming wine is not wine, though the taste will have it so, but the Blood of Christ." This is the faith the Church would later define in the word transubstantiation, explained in our page on the Real Presence and transubstantiation.

Did St Cyril of Jerusalem teach Communion in the hand?

The Fifth Mystagogical Catechesis describes how Communion was received at Jerusalem in the fourth century: "make your left hand a throne for the right, as for that which is to receive a King. And having hollowed your palm, receive the Body of Christ, saying over it, Amen." The same text then asks the communicant to hallow his eyes by the touch of the Holy Body and to take care that not a crumb is lost, "for whatever you lose, is evidently a loss to you as it were from one of your own members."

Two remarks keep the passage in its place. First, it describes a local usage of a particular time, surrounded by precautions of extreme reverence, and its authorship is itself discussed. Second, the Church, guided by that same reverence, came everywhere in the West to give Communion on the tongue, and that is the discipline of the Roman rite in 1962. The lesson of the passage for us is its awe: the Host is the King, and not a crumb of it is a small thing.

St Cyril of Jerusalem on the Antichrist

The Fifteenth Catechesis, on the article "He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead", is an early and full treatment of the Second Coming and of the Antichrist in Christian literature. It opens:

"We preach not one advent only of Christ, but a second also, far more glorious than the former. For the former gave a view of His patience; but the latter brings with it the crown of a divine kingdom."

Cyril then explains, from Daniel and from St Paul, the signs that will precede the end, warning his hearers not to be deceived by false Christs. For the teaching of Scripture itself, see our page What Does God Say About the Antichrist?

The prayer of St Cyril of Jerusalem (Missal of 1962)

The Collect of his feast is built on the words of our Lord in the Gospel of St John (17:3 and 10:27): to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and to be numbered among the sheep that hear His voice. It is the perfect prayer for a catechist.

Collect, 18 March

Da nobis, quǽsumus, omnípotens Deus, beáto Cyríllo Pontífice intercedénte: te solum verum Deum, et quem misísti Jesum Christum ita cognóscere; ut inter oves, quæ vocem ejus áudiunt, perpétuo connumerári mereámur. Per eúndem Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.

Grant us, we beseech Thee, almighty God, through the intercession of blessed Cyril, Thy Bishop, so to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent, that we may deserve to be numbered for ever among the sheep that hear His voice. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Secret

Réspice, Dómine, immaculátam hóstiam, quam tibi offérimus: et præsta; ut, méritis beáti Pontíficis et Confessóris tui Cyrílli, eam mundo corde suscípere studeámus. Per Dóminum nostrum.

Look, O Lord, upon the spotless Victim which we offer Thee, and grant that, by the merits of blessed Cyril, Thy Bishop and Confessor, we may strive to receive It with a clean heart. Through our Lord.

Postcommunion

Sacraménta Córporis et Sánguinis tui, quæ súmpsimus, Dómine Jesu Christe: beáti Cyrílli Pontíficis précibus, mentes et corda nostra sanctíficent; ut divínæ consórtes natúræ éffici mereámur: Qui vivis et regnas.

May the Sacraments of Thy Body and Blood which we have received, O Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of blessed Cyril, Thy Bishop, sanctify our minds and hearts, that we may deserve to be made partakers of the divine nature: Who livest and reignest.

The Gospel of his Mass is fitting for a bishop driven three times from his see: "And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another. [...] And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul" (Matthew 10:23, 28, Douay-Rheims).

When is the feast day of St Cyril of Jerusalem?

The feast day of St Cyril of Jerusalem is 18 March, a feast of the third class in the calendar of 1962, in white vestments; the 1969 calendar kept the same date. Because 18 March always falls in Lent, the Lenten weekday, which ranks higher, takes precedence, and St Cyril is kept by a commemoration: his Collect is added to the prayer of the day. It is a happy coincidence that the great catechist of Lent is honoured in Lent, while catechumens in many places are still preparing for Baptism at Easter. See the dates in our traditional Catholic calendar of 1962.

Leo XIII ordered his Office and Mass to be celebrated by the universal Church, and in 1882 declared him a Doctor, together with St Cyril of Alexandria.

What is St Cyril of Jerusalem the patron saint of?

We have found no patronage attached to St Cyril of Jerusalem by the tradition that we could confirm, and we will not invent one. His life and his Collect show where his intercession belongs: catechists and those who teach the faith, catechumens preparing for Baptism, and all who wish to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Many parishes, both Catholic and Orthodox, bear his name.

He stands among the Greek Fathers whose stories you can read in our page of Catholic saints.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was St Cyril of Jerusalem?

He was bishop of Jerusalem from about 350 to 386, the author of the Catechetical Lectures, a defender of the faith against the Arians who was exiled three times, and a Doctor of the Church since 1882.

What did St Cyril of Jerusalem do?

As a priest he instructed the catechumens of Jerusalem; as bishop he governed the Church of the Holy City through the Arian crisis, fed the poor in time of famine, endured three exiles, and took part in the Council of Constantinople in 381.

Where was St Cyril of Jerusalem born?

Probably at Jerusalem, about 315. Butler writes that if he was not born there, he was certainly brought up there.

How did St Cyril of Jerusalem die?

He died a natural death at Jerusalem, probably in 386, nearly seventy years old, after thirty-five years as bishop. He is honoured as a confessor, not as a martyr.

What are the Catechetical Lectures of St Cyril of Jerusalem?

Twenty-four instructions: the Procatechesis, eighteen catecheses for the candidates for Baptism during Lent, explaining the Creed, and five mystagogical catecheses for the newly baptized in Easter week, on Baptism, Chrism, the Eucharist and the Liturgy.

When is the feast of St Cyril of Jerusalem?

On 18 March, both in the calendar of 1962 and in that of 1969. In the 1962 rite it always falls in Lent and is therefore kept as a commemoration.

What is the prayer to St Cyril of Jerusalem?

The Collect of his feast, Da nobis, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, given above in Latin and English with its Secret and Postcommunion: a prayer to know God and Jesus Christ, and to be numbered among Christ's sheep.

The Iter Fidei app carries the calendar of 1962 with every feast and commemoration, the Roman Missal and the Breviary in Latin and English. Join early access here.

Sources. Butler, Lives of the Saints, 18 March (St Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church). Roman Missal (1962), Proper of Saints, 18 March. Roman Breviary (edition before 1960), 18 March, lessons of the second nocturn (in the Breviary of 1962 this third-class feast has a single, contracted lesson). St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures (Procatechesis, Catechesis XV) and Mystagogical Catecheses IV and V. Holy Scripture, Douay-Rheims (Matthew 10).