St Cyril of Jerusalem

Cyril became bishop of Jerusalem around 350, shepherd of the holy places in the first generation of Christian pilgrimage. His fame rests on his Catechetical Lectures, delivered in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to candidates preparing for baptism — a warm, vivid course in the whole Christian faith, article by article of the Creed, that remains one of our clearest windows into the fourth-century Church. The Mystagogical Catecheses that follow, unveiling the meaning of baptism, chrismation, and the Eucharist to the newly illumined — 'you were led to the holy pool as Christ was carried to the tomb' — are traditionally his, though some scholars assign them to his successor John. Caught in the storms of the Arian controversy, he was driven from his see three times, spending years in exile, and returned finally to a city he described as torn by faction. He took part in the Council of Constantinople in 381, dying five years later in peace.