Some of our most influential Doctors of the Church were born in the 4th century. They include St Augustine, St Jerome, St Ambrose, St John Chrysostom, St Basil the Great, and St Gregory of Nazianzus. We celebrate on one the great Doctors of the Church from the 4th century today: St Cyril of Alexandria. Cyril became Bishop of Alexandria, one of the great centers of learning in the ancient world. He was involved in fighting many of the heresies in the Early Church. One of those heresies was Nestorianism; part of the teaching of that heresy was that Mary was not the Mother of God, because Jesus was fully divine and not human. Pope Celestine appointed Cyril to preside at the Council of Ephesus in 431, which declared Mary to be the God-bearer – the theotokos. Cyril was considered to be one of the greatest theological minds of his era. He spent the latter part of his life writing treatises that clarified the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation and that helped prevent Nestorianism and Pelagianism from taking root in Christianity.
We can build our lives on false beliefs and heresies like the parable in the Gospel of the man who built his house on sand. We have the teachings of the Church to help us build our faith on a strong foundation. We need to be cognizant of the foundation on which we stand.
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