The powerful patriarch of Alexandria who championed the title Theotokos for Mary at the Council of Ephesus — a brilliant and combative, and contested, figure.
Life
Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444) led the Egyptian church and drove the condemnation of Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus (431), securing the doctrine of Christ's unity and the title Theotokos ("God-bearer") for Mary — a landmark of Christology for which he is a Doctor of the Church. His patriarchate was also marked by conflict: the expulsion of Jews from Alexandria and, in 415, the murder of the philosopher Hypatia by a Christian mob, an atrocity whose degree of connection to Cyril historians debate. The theological achievement and the violence are both part of the record; no verdict is offered on his personal culpability.