Cyril of
Jerusalem
From
the Roman Breviary - Matins
Lesson Four
Cyril of Jerusalem was given to the study of the Holy
Scriptures from a child, and so learnt therein that he became an eminent
champion of the orthodox faith. He embraced the monastic institute in perpetual
continency, and all hardship of living. He was ordained Priest by holy Maximus,
Patriarch of Jerusalem, and undertook with eminent success the task of
preaching the word of God to the faithful and of instructing the catechumens.
Thus did he compose those truly wonderful Catechesis, wherein he has embraced,
clearly and fully, all the teaching of the Church, and stoutly defended every
one of her doctrines against the enemies of the faith. His treatment of these
subjects was such that he has overthrown therein, not only the heresies which
had then come into being, but, by a kind of foreknowledge, even those which
were to arise in later times. Of this an instance is his contention for the
real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the wondrous Sacrament of the
Eucharist. After the death of holy Maximus, the bishops of the province chose
Cyril in his place.
V. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
R. Thanks be to God.
In his office of Bishop he had for the faith's sake,
like his blessed contemporary Athanasius, to endure many wrongs and sufferings
at the hands of the Arian sect. The Arians could not bear that Cyril should
steadfastly withstand their heresy. They assailed him with calumnies, deposed
him in a pretended council, and drove him out of his see. To escape their rage
he fled to Tarsus in Cilicia, and as long as Constantius lived he bore the
hardships of exile. After his death and the accession to the imperial throne of
the Apostate Julian, Cyril was able to return to Jerusalem, where he set
himself with burning zeal to deliver his flock from false doctrine and from
sin. He was driven into exile a second time under the Emperor Valens. But when
peace was restored to the Church by Theodosius the Great, and the cruelty and
insolence of the Arians were restrained, Cyril was received with honor by the
Emperor as one of Christ's most eminent soldiers, and was restored to his see.
With what earnestness and holiness he fulfilled the duties of his exalted
office was made manifest by the flourishing state of the church of Jerusalem at
that time, of which a picture hath been left for us by holy Basil, who dwelt
there for a while when he went to worship at the holy places.
radition hath handed down that God Himself crowned
with signs from heaven the holiness of this venerable Patriarch. Among these
signs is numbered an apparition of a cross, more resplendent than the beams of
the sun, which appeared at the beginning of his Patriarchate. Not only Cyril
himself, but heathens and Christians alike were eye-witnesses of this marvel,
and Cyril first gave thanks to God therefore in the church, and then sent news
thereof by letter to the Emperor Constantius. A thing no less wonderful came to
pass when the Jews were commanded by the profane Emperor Julian to attempt the
restoration of the temple which had been destroyed by Titus. A great earthquake
arose, and great masses of fire broke forth from the earth and consumed all the
works, so that the Jews and Julian were dismayed and stayed their hand, all the
which it can be proved that Cyril had foretold. A little while before his death
he was present at the second Council of Constantinople; herein was condemned
the heresy of Macedonius, and once more the Arian heresy. After his return to
Jerusalem he died a holy death in the 69th year of his age and the 35 th of his
episcopate. The Supreme Pontiff Leo XIII. commanded that his office and Mass
should be celebrated throughout the universal Church.
The Saints, therefore, knowing these words of the
Lord, have obeyed them in their lives. What the Lord hath now commanded by His
Own Mouth He commanded through His Saints before that He Himself was come in
the flesh, and to obey this commandment worketh in a man perfection, since
whatever God commandeth is a thing which it behoveth man to do. For this cause,
that very Word of God Which was made flesh for our sake thought it meet when
they sought Him, even as at this present time they are seeking us, to hide
Himself, and, when they persecuted Him, to fly and escape from their laying in
wait for Him although when that time came which He had Himself decreed, and
wherein He willed, as touching the Body, to suffer for us all, He willingly
gave Himself up to His enemies.
Homily by St
Austin, Bishop of Hippo.
44th Tract on
John.
Dread and wondrous are all the things which our Lord
Jesus Christ did, both His works and His words; the works, because He wrought
them; the words, because they are deep. If, therefore, we consider the meaning
of this work of His, we see that that man which was blind from his birth was a
figure of mankind. This spiritual blindness was the consequence of the sin of
the first man, from whom we all inherit by birth, not death only, but depravity
also. For if blindness be unbelief, and faith, light, whom, when Christ came,
did He find faithful? May, the Apostle who had himself been born of the race of
which the Prophets came, saith We also were by nature children of wrath, even
as others. Eph. ii. 3. And if children of wrath, then children also of
vengeance, children of damnation, children of hell. And wherefore so by nature,
unless it were that the sin of the first man had made all his descendants to be
born in sin, in that they partook of his nature? If, then, our nature bring sin
with it, all men, according to the spirit, are born blind.
V. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
R. Thanks be to God.
Te Deum
We praise thee, O God, * we acknowledge thee to be the
Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee, * the Father
everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry aloud, * the Heavens, and all
the Powers therein.
To thee Cherubim and Seraphim * continually do cry.
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