St Cyril of Jerusalem

New Zealand Tablet, 24 April 1924, Page 41

St Cyril of Jerusalem

TWO MYSTAGOGIC CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS: ■;.. .-'!'■ --- (Translated by F.G.M.) :.*' ;,- APPENDIX A.— ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: bishop

OF JERUSALEM, AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH.

.Born about 315; died, probably March 18, 386. Ordained priest by St. Maximus, whom he succeeded in his- - See. Acacius, Metropolitan of Caesarea, in 357, caused him to 'be banished; St. Cyril took refuge with Silvanus,. Bishop = of Tarsus. Probably the real cause of enmity on the part - of;Acacius, and other Arian bishops, was St. Cyril’s correct . Christology, and attachment to the Nicenes formula. He appeared at the Council of Seleucia in 359, in which the . semi-Arian party was triumphant. Acacius was deposed I and St. Cyril seems to have returned to his See. In 360 he was again driven out, and only returned on the accession of Julian in 361. In 367 a decree of Valens banished all the bishops who had been restored, by Julian, and St. Cyril remained in exile until the death of the persecutor in 378. He attended the -Council of Constantinople, 381, at which Theodosius had ordered the Nicene Faith, now a law of the Empire, to be promulgated. St. Cyril then formally accepted the Homo-ousion, for at first, he seems to have thought the term (Consubstantial) liable to misunderstanding, although he had taught the Divinity of Christ with perfect plainness. ■ - ~ .His Writings. , His extant works include a sermon on the Pool of Bethesda, a letter to the Emperor Constantins, three small fragments, and the famous Catecheses. These Catechetical lectures are among the most precious remains of antiquity. They include an introductory address, eighteen instructions delivered in Lent to those who were preparing for Baptism, and five “mystagogical” instructions during Easter week to the same persons after their Baptism. They seem to have been spoken extempore, and written down afterwards. APPENDIX B.—THE SACRED LITURGY. The classical meaning of the word Liturgy, signified originally a public duty, a service to the state undertaken by a citizen. The Septuagint translators naturally adopted it, and its kindred forms, to express chiefly the Service of God in the Sanctuary. In the N.T. this religious meaning became definitely established. Thus, in Duke i. 23, Zachary goes home when “the days of his Liturgy” were ended. In Hehr. viii. 6, the High Priest of the New Law “has obtained a better Liturgy,” i.e. a better kind of public religious service than that of the Temple. In Acts xiii. the words, “as they : ministered (liturgised) - and fasted” evidently refer to the Eucharistic Consecration. (See Bp. Hedley, The Holy ■ Eucharist, p. 173.) Certainly in the fourth century the word Liturgy came to signify especially the celebration of the. Holy Eucharist. In this sense it has been adopted by the Greek Church, which speaks of the “Divine Liturgy” where we'would say the “Holy Mass.” Though Scripture tells us nothing or little of the way in which the Apostles celebrated the Holy Eucharist, yet from 150 A.D. onwards, we have abundant proof that the Church in all parts of the world’ had a fixed order, and, to a certain extent at least fixed words for this the greatest of all her services. For the first three centuries, it may be confidently asserted, there was no written Liturgy. “The memory of the ancients, who were obliged, before the invention of printing, to use this faculty much more than we are, must not be measured by oilr modern standard. It was a common thing for persons to know the Psalter by heart, and priests learned to repeat the . Canon of the Mass without book (even now no surprising --feat) long after it had been written.”' (Catholic' Dictionary.) ~ “St. Cyril gives a fairly : minute description of the Mass as said at Jerusalem in the latter half of the fourth century. (See again Bishop, Hedley). The “Liturgy,” thus • explained by St. Cyril, is known as the Liturgy of St. James, “the oldest member of the West Syrian Family”; though this again is, without doubt, a direct modification, nearly if not quite identical with the so-called Clementine (Catholic Dictionary). St. Cyril evidently begins his instructions bn the Liturgy after, the dismissal of the Cateehumefts, who were at the earlier part, the Lections and :

' Prayers, which were called the 'Missa-Catechumenorumiy his address being made at the "Missa fidelium." 0-;'■;'