Cyril of Jerusalem
author: Sebastian P. Brock
source date: 2011
edition published: 2016-09-22-16:00
availability: Copyright ©2011 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute Distributed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

Cyril of Jerusalem

https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Cyril-of-Jerusalem http://syriaca.org/bibl/153 144 http://syriaca.org/person/431 [person] [Bp. of Jerusalem and Greek Church Father.]

(ca. 315–387)

Bp. of Jerusalem and Greek Church Father. Cyril became bp. ca. 349, but was exiled on various occasions for his opposition to Arianism. Only excerpts from his main work, the Catechetical Homilies, survive in Syriac translation. (Fragments of a complete translation are preserved in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, ed. C. Müller-Kessler and M. Sokoloff, 1999).

Three extracts from the Mystagogical Catecheses (IV.1, 2, 4) are given in the Syr. Catholic Fenqitho (VI., 371–2. 273–4, 376–7) for Corpus Christi.

Syriac translations of two letters are preserved: 1. on the vision of the Cross, ed. with ET, J. F. Coakley, in AB 102 (1984), 71–84; and 2. on the attempted rebuilding of the Temple in 363, ed. with ET, S. P. Brock, in BSOAS 40 (1977), 267–86 (repr. in Syriac Perspectives on Late Antiquity [1984], ch .X). The second letter probably dates from after Cyril’s death (though Wainwright considers it genuine); its list of towns affected by the earthquake of 363 has proved important for Palestinian archaeology of that period.

A series of short hymns for Good Friday are found in four medieval mss., two of which attribute them to Cyril of Jerusalem (ed. A. Baumstark, in OC III.4 [1930], 232–47); they are also extant in Greek (where they are attributed to Sophronius of Jerusalem [d. 638], or Cyril of Alexandria , or anonymous), and in Georgian (anonymous).

For the Anaphora of Cyril, see under Cyril of Alexandria.

His commemoration is given as either 17 or 18 March.

Sources

CPG 3585–3618.
J. W. Drijvers, ‘Cyril of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple’, in Ultima Aetas: Studies in Honour of J. den Boeft, ed. C. Kroon and D. den Hengst, (2000), 125–35.
J. W. Drijvers, Cyril of Jerusalem: Bishop and city (2004). (for the wider background)
S. Janeras, Le vendredi saint dans la tradition liturgique byzantine (Studia Anselmiana 99; 1988), 235–77. (on hymns attributed to Cyril)
P. Wainwright, ‘The authenticity of the recently discovered Letter attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem’, VC 40 (1986), 286–93.

Sebastian P. Brock