_Lat._ S. Cyrillus. _Ital._ San Cirillo. _Fr._ St. Cyrille. (Jan. 28,
A.D. 444.)
St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria from the year 412 to 444, was famous
in his time as deeply engaged in all the contests which disturbed the
early Christian Church. He has left a great number of theological
writings, which are regarded as authority in matters of faith. He,
appears to have been violent against the so-called heresies of that
day, and opposed Nestorius with the same determined zeal and inexorable
firmness with which Athanasius had opposed Arius. The ascendency of
Cyril was disgraced by the death of the famous female mathematician and
philosopher Hypatia, murdered with horrible cruelty, and within the
walls of a church, by the fanatic followers of the Patriarch, if he
did not himself connive at it. He is much more venerated in the Greek
than in the Latin Church. In the Greek representations he is the only
bishop who has his head covered; he wears a veil or hood, coming over
his head, falling down on his shoulders, and the front embroidered with
a cross, as in the illustration.
With the Greek Fathers I conclude the list of those saints who are
generally represented in their collective character, grouped, or in a
series.
St. Mary Magdalene, St. Martha, St. Lazarus, St. Marímín, St.
Marcella, St. Mary of Egypt, and the Beatified Penitents.