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The saints

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

The bishop of Jerusalem whose Lenten lessons for new converts we can still read.

Feast: 18 March · about 315 to 386 · The early Church · Jerusalem

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Fresco of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, white-bearded, blessing and holding a book.

AnonymousUnknown author. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Cyril of Jerusalem

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem

Cyril was bishop of Jerusalem in the generation after the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built.1

Every Lent he taught the people preparing for baptism, right there.1

Someone wrote his talks down, and they are one of the best windows we have into how the early Church taught.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church honors him as a Doctor of the Church for his lessons to new Christians.

01St. Cyril of Jerusalem

The catechetical lectures

He explained the Creed line by line and, after Easter, the sacraments the new Christians had just received.1

He taught plainly that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.1

02St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Exiled three times

Caught in the fights over Arianism, he was driven out of his city three times, and the Council of Constantinople later vindicated him.1

Live it this week

Sign up to learn the faith

Cyril’s lessons were for adults getting ready for baptism. This week, sign up for a Bible study, an adult faith class or OCIA at your parish, even just to sit in.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Cyril of Jerusalem”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.