The of Saint Cyril of in Accordance with the 5th Century Holy Fathers’ Teaching

Rev. CONSTANTIN BĂJĂU University of Craiova, Faculty of Orthodox Theology

Saint Cyril, the patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, is one of the most distinguished personalities of early Christianity. His vast work complies with the theological exigencies of the 4th-5th centuries, especially in the domain of Christology and Pneumatology that he competently and seriously dealt with thus contributing to the establishment and formulation of Christian teachings. His dedication in the field of theology was equally fruitful in the field of missionary/pastoral activity as he confesses in one of his preaches: “Egypt used to be crammed with temples and alters… Now all these are gone. The Egyptians have now become Christ’s followers”.1 At that time, the fight against and constant confrontations with the Arian heretics and later on with the Pneumatomachi had got to a climax. It is well known that after Nestorius acceded to the patriarchal position in , on 10 April, 428, Saint Cyril started his fight against the Nestorian . His opposition stemmed from the conviction that a heretic holding the position of an ecumenical Patriarch represented a great danger for the entire . He had been preoccupied with fighting the Arian and Pneumatomachian even before this event, explaining the Holy Scripture and opposing the numerous heretics in Alexandria. As it is well known from his tumultuous life, even though Saint Cyril had suffered many wrongs from the heretics, he did not cease to oppose the heresies that were permanently evolving into new heresies. If the condemnation of at the first (381) encouraged the rise of the fighters against the , called Pneumatomachi, the consequent condemnation of the Pneumatomachi, at the Second Ecumenical Council, gave free vent to heresy once again, but this time it was directed against the Son of God, and bore the name of . The work entitled On the Holy and Consubstantial cannot be included among his polemical works, for the Holy Father aims at presenting, in an affirmative form, the theme of the of the Son and the Father and the consubstantiality of the Spirit with the other two Hypostases

1 Priest MATEI PÂSLARU, Sfântul Chiril, patriarhul Alexandriei şi filozoafa Hypatia (Saint Cyril, the Patriarch of Alexandria and Hypatia the Philosopher), in Mitropolia Banatului, year XX, no. 7-9/1970, p. 504. 78 of the Holy Trinity. This great Alexandrine Father’s firm position in establishing the Christian dogma made Reverend Professor Dumitru Stăniloae focus upon the above mentioned work. He praised Saint Cyril’s effort of explaining the correct meaning of the Holy Scriptures in a logical and subtle manner, and his attempt to facilitate the understanding of the deep significance of our salvation through the work of the Holy Spirit, consubstantial with the Father and the Son.2 In order to understand the Holy Father’s teaching we need to draw attention to the evolution of theological studies up to the moment before the appearance of the above mentioned work.

The teaching on the Holy Spirit before Saint Cyril of Alexandria also wrote a treatise entitled On the Holy Spirit, where he speaks about His essence, stating that: “This being is the most non- corporeal, the most immaterial, the uncomposed… thinking about it as the highest thing possible”,3 in the attempt to distinguish Him from the rest of the materially engendered existences. Saint Athanasius the Great wrote the famous “Letters to Serapion, Bishop of Tmuis”, where he rises against the Pneumatomachian heresy. He also teaches on the Holy Grace, understood as a power that is being communicated to us, the people, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Our participation to the divine grace comes through the love of the Father.4 The Holy Spirit is thus indivisible and active participant in this work. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem participated in the Second Ecumenical Council, when the Church, through his voice, as a remarkable theologian and hierarch, condemned the error of the fighters against the Holy Spirit. His teaching is formulated and can be found in his Catecheses delivered in Jerusalem, which are an expression of what the Church used to teach the candidates wishing to receive the . This Holy Father also bequeathed us the Symbol of faith of the Church of Jerusalem that confirms his orthodoxy.

2 SAINT CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, Writings, Third Part, On the Holy Trinity, in the collection Fathers and Writers of the Church (Romanian abbreviation PSB), volume 40, translation, introduction and notes by Reverend Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, PhD, The Biblical and Missionary Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Bucharest, 1994, p. 8. 3 Reverend Professor IOAN G. COMAN, Sensul ecumenic al lucrării Sfântului Duh în teologia Sfinţilor Părinţi (The Ecumenical Meaning of the Holy Spirit’s work in the Holy Fathers’ Theology), in OrtoIdoxia, no. 2/1964, p. 223. 4 Magistrand VASILE BRIA, Contribuţia Sfântului Atanasie la fixarea dogmei hristologice (Saint Athanasius’ Contribution to the establishment of Christologic dogma), in Ortodoxia, year XIII, no. 2/1961, p. 302. 79 We have to look for the origins of the Pneumatomachian heresy among the Arians who also denied the eternal and divine essence of the Holy Spirit, considering Him lesser than the Father and the Son, a being engendered by the Son, serving both Father and Son. The fact that the First Ecumenical Council condemned the Arians without correcting any of their teachings on the Holy Spirit somehow encouraged the Pneumatomachi in their heresy.5 The arguments brought by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem are primarily scriptural. He places the Spirit above creation, above the angels and the celestial armies, and he maintains the impossibility of knowing the essence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is distinct from the other Trinitarian Persons but He exists within the Trinity. The Holy Father speaks about His works in the world and about the salvation of humankind. The Catecheses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem prove the “redeeming care towards the human beings of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, showing that Their work is “one, indivisible and of the same essence”.6 Saint Ambrose of Milan. In 381, when the Second Ecumenical Council was being held in Constantinople and when the Pneumatomachian heresy was condemned, Saint Ambrose of Milan was writing his treatise On the Holy Spirit, a work in three books addressed to Gracian and inspired by the work of Saint Basil the Great or of Didymus the Blind.7 This distinguished Holy Father of the Western world also adheres to the solidarity of ecumenical Christianity. Consequently, the Great Father of the western world treated the relationship between the Holy Spirit with the other two hypostases of the Holy Trinity, bringing arguments for His consubstantiality with the other Two Persons and thus proving His divine power. He also formulates his teaching on the divine attributes of the Spirit: the consubstantiality with the Father and the Son, His spirituality, omnipresence, eternity, immutability, almightiness, alknowingness, wisdom, holiness, righteousness and His kindness. For Saint Ambrose the Holy Spirit is the “river” that flows from God’s throne, a river whose water is “tasted by he who believes in God”, the author of our spiritual birth and the One that makes us Sons of God. That is

5 Reverend GHEORGHE A. NICOLAE, PhD Candidate, Învăţătura despre Sfântul Duh în Catehezele Sfântului Chiril al Ierusalimului (The Teaching on the Holy Spirit in the Catecheses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem), in Studii Teologice, year XIX, no. 5-6/1967, p. 302. 6 IBIDEM, p. 303-307. 7 Reverend Magistrand MIRCEA NIŞCOVEANU, Învăţătura Sfântului Ambrozie despre Sfântul Duh (Saint Ambrose’s Teaching of on the Holy Spirit), in Studii Teologice, series II, year XVI, no. 7-8/1964, p. 459. 80 why we owe Him the same honour and dignity as to the other two hypostases of the Holy Trinity.8 He connects the faith in the of the Holy Spirit to the faith in the Father and the Son when he states: “Whoever denied the Holy Spirit denied both and the Son”.9 The most obvious proof is the fact that the sin committed against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.10 Saint Basil the Great. It is a well known fact that the First Ecumenical Council did not discuss the problem of the Holy Spirit which was tackled in fact by the Homiousious heretics, a group of moderate Arians lead by Eustace of Sebasta. They gave the third Person of the Holy Trinity the name of a “ministering spirit equal to the angels” and were considered promoters of the Pneumatomachian heresy. Even if, initially, Basil the Great was a friend of Eustace’s when the heretic statred to promote his erroneous ideas, the communion between the two simply stopped. In spite of all this, the Holy Father’s reserved attitude towards Eustace cast suspicions upon him. These are the circumstances in which he wrote his work On the Holy Spirit, released on 7 September 374 and which represented the starting point of the discussions carried on by the Second Ecumenical Council (381),11 eliminating all the suspicions formulated by the evil-minded people. In this seminal work, the Great Cappadocian Father highlights the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, based on scriptural and logical arguments. He shows the divinity of the Holy Spirit, relying on His names in the Holy Scripture and in the Holy Fathers’ unwritten tradition, on the sameness of dignity (homotimy) with the Father and the Son, as well as on His part in knowing God.12 Nobody else spoke in this way about the works of the Holy Spirit, which he compares to the benefices of the sun. This celestial body in the sky gives itself equally to all people through its rays, without entirely communicating itself. And when we think the sun only shines upon the one who enjoys its rays, it “shines upon the land and the sea”. And “while it exists in each of its receivers, as if they were one, it still shares its grace to

8 IBIDEM, p. 39. 9 SAINT AMBROSE OF MEDIOLANUM, Despre Sfântul Duh (On The Holy Spirit), Priest Vasile Răducă (trans.), in Glasul Bisericii, year XLV, no. 5/1986, p. 42. 10 IBIDEM, p. 39. 11 Reverend ION POPESCU, PhD, Persoana şi lucrarea Sfântului Duh în scrierea Sfântului Vasile cel Mare “De Spiritu Sancto” (The Hypostasis and the work of the Holy Spirit in “De Spiritu Sancto” by Saint Basil the Great), in Studii Teologice, series II, year XLII, no. 4/1990, p. 27. 12 IBIDEM, p. 29-30. 81 everybody”,13 without circumscribing itself in time and space and without diminishing the richness of its blessing. Saint also wrote a work where he presented the attitude of the Church towards the heresy of the Pneumatomachi, stressing the fact that the acceptance to keep the silence on this abandonment of faith contributes to the spreading of this heresy like a “putrid gangrene” that corrupts “the sound teaching of faith”. The Pneumatomachi stated that the Holy Spirit is “distinct from the natural communion of the Father and the Son… that He is less important and on holds a lower rank in Their hierarchy”. On the contrary, the Holy Father places Him “on the same level with the Father and the Son” and gives Him His “own hypostasis”.14 He summarizes his entire teaching by highlighting the fact that the Holy Spirit is endowed with divine nature and this is the source of all the attributes of His Divinity such as: life-giving, inalterability and immutability, eternity, righteousness, wisdom, sincerity, kindness, power, and the capacity to “look into the depths of God’s infinity”.15 Saint Gregory the Theologian. Out of “The Five Theological Orations” of Saint Gregory of Nazianz, in the fifth one he extensively enlarges upon the Holy Spirit that he calls “The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Wisdom of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, the Lord Himself, the Spirit of goodness, of truth and of freedom, the Spirit of Wisdom, of good understanding, of good council, power, knowledge, faith, fear of God”. These denominations are taken directly from the Holy Scripture, also showing the aspects of the workings of the Holy Spirit.16 In this patristic context Saint Cyril of Alexandria gives preeminence to Tradition as witness. He proved to be the continuator of the Tradition of the Church, of the Fathers and writers before him, whose witness he uses in support of his teaching. He connects true, sound Christian tradition to the witness of the divinity of the Holy Spirit for “this is what the Holy Fathers taught us and it is becoming to the wise to know”.17

13 IBIDEM, p. 37. 14 SAINT GREGORY OF NYSSA, Despre Sfântul Duh, împotriva ereticilor penvmatomahilor macedonieni (On the Holy Spirit against the Macedoneen Pneumatomachian heretics), Ana Maria Barbu (trans.) in Studii Teologice, series II, year XVL, no. 5-6/1993, p. 5. 15 IBIDEM, p. 8, 16-17. 16 Reverend Prof. IOAN G. COMAN, Sensul… (The Meaning…), Op. cit., p. 222-223. 17 SAINT CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, Despre Sfânta Treime, Cuvântul al VII-lea (On the Holy Trinity, The Seventh Word), P.G. (Patrologia Graeca, J. P. Migne), vol. 75, col. 1076- 1124, here column 1080. 82 The attitude of Saint Cyril of Alexandria towards heretics in general and the Pneumatomachi in particular The defense of true Christian teaching was a permanent preoccupation for him and represented a major aspect in his entire pastoral and theological activity. He fought against Nestorianism like nobody else, contributing to its condemnation, jus as he fought against Arianism, as we can see in his work entitled “The thesaurus on the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity” or, briefly, “On the Holy Trinity”. The above mentioned work enumerates those heretics preaching various delusions, who use their mind and tongue to teach wrong ideas on the Holy Spirit, in the attempt to control the weak minds. On the other side there are the preachers of “true, virtuous knowledge”, the true Christian faithful. The heretics’ teaching is “the venom of ignorance”. They forget that the Saviour told us in such clear words “Whoever deceives one of these little brothers of mine…, he would rather have a mill stone attached to his neck” (Matthew XVIII, 6). When leading to perdition the Christians with weak consciences, the heretics sin primarily against Christ, full of “untempered audacity” as they are. The Pneumatomachi, he states, show their lack of faith in the Holy Spirit, when they deny His divinity and rank Him among created beings. This category of anti-Trinitarian heretics is further divided into other groups separated by different opinions, even if all of them situated on the wrong side of the truth. Thus Saint Cyril of Alexandria speaks about the radical group but also about the moderate fraction, whose representatives were called “the refined ones”, and sustained that even if the Holy Spirit is not God, He presents attributes “of a unique kind”. Finally, the last category of Pneumatomachian heretics contained that the Holy Spirit had his own intermediary essence, “that does not reach the supreme height but rises much above the measure of created being”.18 The Holy Father’s demonstration aims at showing that there can be no other intermediary essence between God and the created beings. If what the Pneumatomachi taught about the essence of the Holy Spirit were possible and, as they said, it is separated from the created being, this would mean that such a being, by virtue of its superiority, is God Himself.19 Therefore logically and rationally the next step of the argument is the recognition of Divinity. That is why the heretics’ mistake of circumscribing the Holy Spirit within the narrow limits of creation is counteracted with such decisiveness. They do not separate Him from creation and they teach that the Father and

18 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1076. 19 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1077. 83 the Son are above all things created, thus reducing the Holy Spirit to the status of “a fallen, submitted essence”.20 The idea of an intermediary that, by nature, is neither God nor created being is firmly contradicted by Saint Cyril of Alexandria, as he knew there was a huge difference that separated the two existences. And if there were an entity separated from all creatures by nature, then this entity would not be created but “thanks to the superiority of its Essence we would recognize it as God”.21 Whatever is created is not God, and the absurdity of the idea of an intermediary that is both created and non-created leads to the pantheist heresy.22 The acceptance of the Pneumatomachian heresy entails many negative consequences in Christian life. One of these consequences is related to the Holy Sacrament of Baptism which, when performed in the name of the Holy Spirit, regarded as a created being, leads to the impossibility of forgiving the sins of the one who receives baptism, thus influencing the entire process of subjective redemption.23 In the attempt to justify their erroneous teaching, the heretics used to explain certain verses of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament in a tendentious manner. Saint Cyril of Alexandria quotes the prophet Amos’s words: “I am the Lord who strengthens the thunder and creates the wind and I announce people the coming of His Son” (Amos IV, 13). The heretics identified here the word “wind” with the idea of “spirit”. But the Holy Father draws attention upon the fact that the word “spirit”, simply used with the basic meaning of breath, does not refer to the third Person of the Holy Trinity. Moreover, we are reminded that quite often, the Holy Scripture uses identical terms to define separate existences.24 Another scriptural argument. The Pneumatomachian heretics tried to rely their teaching on a verse in the book of Psalms that says: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established; and all the power of them by the spirit of his mouth” (Psalm XXXII, 6). Saint Cyril of Alexandria emphasizes the psaltist’s words, drawing attention to the fact that what strengthens the heavens and gives them power can only be God. There is no creature that does not need God as any creature is alterable by nature. If the Holy Spirit is the one who strengthens the heavens, this happens “not by making them participate to a substance that has been created and engendered but by offering them His work, as the work of God”. The sustenance of all existences represents the specificity of His ruling essence.

20 IBIDEM. 21 IBIDEM. 22 Reverend Prof. DUMITRU STĂNILOAE, notes to the translation included in the PSB collection, vol. 40, note 392, p. 277. 23 IBIDEM, note 394, p. 277. 24 On the Holy Spirit, P.G. 75, col. 1108. 84 The Spirit gives strength to the heavens and empowers them not as a created being summoned to help, but as One who is the Creator of all things, provider of perfect beauty and harmony.25

The teaching of Saint Cyril of Alexandria on the Holy Spirit The divine attributes. Saint Cyril of Alexandria speaks about the incorruption, the eternity and immutability of the divine essence. The Holy Spirit is characterized by these attributes, “like One who essentially shines through everything that comes from God”. There is nothing in Him to show Him less than the Father and the Son. Saint Peter, the Apostle, condemns Ananias’ sin (Acts B, 3-4). If the Holy Spirit were not of the same essence as God, then Ananias, who had sinned against the Spirit, by lying to Him, would have not sinned against God. For the Holy Spirit is all-knowing, a characteristic feature of God.26 The place of the Holy Spirit within the Holy Trinity. Speaking about the Persons of the Holy Trinity and about Their personal features, Saint Cyril of Alexandria teaches us that the Father is God not because He begat the Son and the Son is God not because He was begotten by God. Terminology is carefully established, in the attempt to show that the Father, who was God, begot, and the Son, Himself God, was thus begotten. As for the Holy Spirit, “He is of the divine essence, in it in essence and proceeding from it”. The word Spirit, referring to the third hypostasis of the Trinity, designates the One who emanated from God the Father, just like the human spirit, but conceived as having a distinct hypostasis from the other two. When referring to the nature of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Father states that it is of the same essence as that of the Father and of the Son, it is unfathomable, and “the glory that envelops divinity goes beyond the measure of the human mind and word”. Each divine hypostasis contains the divine essence in its entirety and its specific features.27 The teaching of Saint Cyril of Alexandria has always been in accordance with the teaching of the Christian Orthodox Church and presents the divine nature, as being one and uncomposed, as well as the Three Hypostases. On the one hand there is simplicity, endless richness and unity of being, and on the other, distinctness of hypostases.28 Beyond the distinction of each hypostasis there is unity of the divine nature, for “all things belong to all of them, the presence, the words, the participation, the work and the glory and everything else that embellishes divine nature”. The

25 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1112. 26 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1081-1084. 27 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1092. 28 Reverend Prof. DUMITRU STĂNILOAE, notes, in the translation included in the PSB collection, vol. 40, note 405, p. 285. 85 Holy Father argues against those heretics who assigned the Holy Spirit divine features considered as being acquired as a result of a relationship with God and not automatically given by His divine essence. He teaches about the beauty of the Spirit, which is the beauty of true divinity.29 The equality between the Holy Spirit and the other Trinitarian Persons is also clearly highlighted. The Holy Spirit is not inferior to the Son and the Son is equal to the Father. The fact that the Holy Spirit has a deifying power shows that He is not created, “for the lesser one cannot reach such height”. By deifying people, the Holy Spirit rises higher than all creatures.30 Together with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is also present, not like One that is part of them but as existent in His own hypostasis.31 He draws another distinction between the Holy Spirit’s proceeding from the Father and His being offered to people by the Son. The Spirit proves the “loving unity of the unmistakable divine Persons”.32 Through His union with God, the Spirit is God, and through His consubstantiality with the Lord, the Spirit is the Lord. The Holy Spirit is assigned the specific features of the divine nature, for He fills everything “together with the Father and the Son”. Moreover, “He exists together with Them in everything”. There is no place where the Holy Spirit is absent, as David exclaims: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (Psalm CXXXVIII, 7). In this way the Holy Spirit is God, “through union by nature with God”, He sustains everything is uncreated and, by nature, above all things created.33 The Holy Spirit is counted together with the Father and the Son. Speaking about this argument brought in support of the divinity of the Holy Spirit, Saint Cyril of Alexandria recalls the Saviour’s words uttered when He sent His Holy Apostles to preach: “Go therefore and make disciples…” (Matthew XXVIII, 19). In these words we recognize the counting together of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.34 The works of the Holy Spirit, proof of His divine essence. The works of the Holy Spirit on people’s lives are numerous. One of these is the restoration of the human bodies at the end of time and their bringing back to life.35 David’s words are once again recalled: “When you send your

29 On the Holy Trinity, P.G. 75, col. 1093-1096. 30 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1097. 31 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1080. 32 Reverend Prof. DUMITRU STĂNILOAE, notes, in the translation included in the PSB collection, vol. 40, notes 379-398, p. 278. 33 On the Holy Trinity, P.G. 75, col. 1105. 34 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1077. 35 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1108. 86 Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground” (Psalm CIII, 30). The restoration of man, the recreation of God’s image in him, is the Holy Spirit’s work, of “the same nature and work, for which He revealed Himself and what was silently created in the beginning”. That means that the Holy Spirit is the One through whom God fulfills His work as a Creator and He Himself cannot be created.36 Other works of the Holy Spirit were those accomplished during the time when Christ, the Son of God, was living among the people. For the Son was working through the Holy Spirit when he performed miracles that proved He was God. By denying the divinity of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s divinity is also denied.37 The Saviour’s acts reveal the divine nature that performs them, and the fact that they were performed through the work of the Holy Spirit, who cannot be a created being and cannot be bereft of life, as long as He creates and gives life. “The Spirit is life-giving, without being engendered by another and without being devoid of life”.38 It is the Spirit of life, by nature. How can He not be Life, He who has Life, this incorruptible nature, placed above everything ever created?39 The Holy Spirit thus gives people life not through participation, but through His nature, and not any kind of life but a divine and imperishable life.40 Saint Cyril of Alexandria starts from the act of man’s creation in God’s image and likeness. This image was imprinted in us and it received, “like a seal, the beauty beyond this world” by the Holy Spirit. In the work of the Holy Spirit the Pneumatomachian heretics did not see God Himself, but a servant of the divine grace. Restoring man to his initial state of beauty, reconstructing the image, now darkened and corrupted, of the Creator, through Christ, happen in the same way in which God once blew His life- giving breath over people. For the Lord blew over His Holy Apostles, saying: “Take the Holy Spirit…” (John XX, 22). In Christ people are transformed into new human beings who restore their likeness to God.41 The Saviour’s work is mainly that of making the Holy Spirit really dwell into the Christian believers’ souls. For the Spirit transforms people, restoring in them “the image from the beginning” and leads them to the “likeness to Him through holiness”. The work of the Holy Spirit means taking people back to the “archetype of the image which is the seal of the

36 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1109. 37 Rev. Prof. DUMITRU STĂNILOAE, notes, in the translation included in the PSB collection, vol. 40, note 427, p. 299. 38 On the Holy Trinity, P.G. 75, col. 1116. 39 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1117. 40 Rev. Prof. DUMITRU STĂNILOAE, notes, in the translation included in the PSB collection, vol. 40, note 429, p. 301. 41 On the Holy Trinity, P.G. 75, col. 1088. 87 Father”, that is the Son Himself. And the “perfect and existential likeness of the Son is the Holy Spirit”. The endeavour of remoulding people through holiness translates as their becoming the Image of God.42 The restoring in man of the image of God, which is the Holy Spirit’s work, cannot be achieved through the mediation of a serving grace, but it is related to the divine nature. Man will be changed “in the image of the Holy Spirit”, in the image of God, through faith and holiness, making him sharer in the divine nature (II Peter I, 4). People’s hope to achieve deification, to become “temples of God”43 is connected to the divinity of the Holy Spirit and to the conviction that He shares the entire divine essence. Saint Cyril underlines the existential holiness of the Holy Spirit, for “through Him and in Him do we partake of the Holy God”. The Pneumatomachi regarded His holiness as being something additional and used to say that He “infuses creatures with a holiness that is not His”.44 The Spirit’s word is sanctifying, it is Christ’s Word; He is the One who utters the words of Christ, the One who partakes with His nature and His glory. The holiness of the Spirit does not reside in participation to it, but “in nature and truth”.45 The Holy Spirit is wisdom for He gives wisdom to whoever is worthy of it. He gives Himself to the people through holy sacrament, through His dwelling within us, He sanctifies people and accomplishes the divine work. He knows what is of God by nature, being above creation, consubstantial with the Father and the Son.46 The role of the Holy Spirit in people’s redemption. For Saint Cyril of Alexandria, the perfection of human nature, which is in fact the ultimate aim of our life, is connected to the imprint of God’s image in our souls through the Holy Spirit. He explained everything starting from the first people’s fall from divine grace that engendered the sickness of the human nature. If in the beginning, the Holy Spirit moulded this nature “in the image of God”, already imprinted in it “like a seal”, then the Holy Spirit deserted it, making room for corruption. For the Holy Father, salvation means restoring the initial harmony of the now corrupted nature fallen into “corruption, falsity and ugliness”. It is a work of restoration of the divine image, now darkened, and it facilitates people’s betterment. The Holy Spirit not only sustains people’s existence but He also leads them to the likeness of God. This work is possible only if He is consubstantial with God, if He “substantially

42 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1089. 43 IBIDEM. 44 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1120. 45 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1121. 46 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1124. 88 proceeded from God and resides in Him by nature”.47 The Spirit makes us become “sons of God”, through participation and grace.48 People’s freedom, the Holy Spirit’s gift. In the wake of his creation by God, the human being received a very precious gift, and this was his freedom. Saint Cyril of Alexandria connects the work of the Holy Spirit upon our inner selves precisely to the acquisition of freedom. For, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”, as He has the free divine substance. Through the Holy Spirit, all creatures, including us, the people, acquire the glory of freedom and get rid of what the Holy Father calls “the disgrace of the bondage”. By nature, the Holy Spirit enjoys the dignity of freedom, which is above creation. That is why, if “He partakes of the divine glory by nature, He does no longer serve, but rather offers us freedom like a gift that comes from Him, by nature”.49 The true Christian, a soldier of Christ. Speaking about the weapons of a Christian believer, this soldier of Christ, the Holy Father compares his girdle with the virtue of the utmost zeal, his armor with the shield of Christian virtue and righteousness, his faith with a helmet and, most powerful of all, his sharp sword with the Holy Spirit and having the word of God as his ally. Only by wearing all these is the Christian believer able to fight the delusions the heretics want to enforce upon their lives.50 The division of the Holy Spirit’s divine grace. Saint Cyril of Alexandria divides divine grace in pneumatic and somatic grace. He starts from the reality of the division being between sensitive body and spiritual soul within the human. Speaking about Christian Baptism he states: “Through the Holy Spirit the human soul is sanctified, and through water, the body”.51 Other works of the Holy Spirit upon people. For a human being, true wealth is God’s indwelling presence in his soul, which does not refer to “receiving an alien Spirit and existentially separated from Him, but the Holy Spirit that proceeds from Him and resides in Him and bearer of the same glory”.52 The Holy Spirit has the power to strengthen those who have sinned, as He is God, He offers freedom from disobedience and

47 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1113. 48 IDEM, Că unul e Hristos (For Christ is One), P.G. 75, col. 700A; LUCIAN TURCESCU, PhD Candidate, Hristologia Sfântului Chiril al Alexandriei (The Christology of Saint Cyril of Alexandria), in Studii Teologice, series II, year XLVI, no. 4-6/1994, p. 57. 49 IDEM, Despre Sfânta Treime (On the Holy Trinity), P.G. 75, col. 1100. 50 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1076. 51 IDEM, Comentar la Ioan III (Commentary to John, III), 5, P.G. 73, col. 244D; Magistrand DUMITRU POPESCU, Sfintenia după Sfântul Chiril al Alexandriei (Holyness according to Saint Cyril of Alexandria), in Ortodoxia, year XIII, no. 2/1961, p. 239. 52 IDEM, Despre Sfânta Treime (On the Holy Trinity), P.G. 75, col. 1093. 89 condemnation, as One who is God by nature. The Holy Father defines the knowledge of God as being the act of knowing the Father and the God of everything that is, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.53

Conclusion In his writings, Saint Cyril of Alexandria, this remarkable personality of early Christianity, met with the theological exigencies of the 4th and 5th centuries, especially in the domain of Christology and Pneumatology. His teaching on the Holy Spirit is on a par with the Holy Tradition and the Holy Fathers. In his work entitled “On the Holy Trinity”, the Holy Father attempts to present, in an affirmative form, the theme of the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father and the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit with the other two Persons of the Trinity. He aims at facilitating the understanding of the deep significance of man’s salvation through the work of the Holy Spirit, the One who is consubstantial with the Father and the Son. In the patristic context, the Holy Father gives priority to Tradition as a witness of faith. He proved to be a continuator of the Tradition of the Church, of the Fathers and the writers before him, whose witness he recalls in support of his teaching. Out of these we can enumerate: Didymus the Blind, Saint Athanasius the Great, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint Ambrose of Milan, Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory of Nyssa and Saint Gregory the Theologian. Concerning the attitude of Saint Cyril of Alexandria towards heretics in general and the Pneumatomachi in particular, we need to emphasize his permanent preoccupation in defending the true teaching, a major aspect of his entire pastoral and theological activity. When they lead the Christians with a weaker conscience down the path of perdition, the heretics sin against Christ, first of all. Further division could be applied to this category of anti- Trinitarian heretics, who confine the Holy Spirit within the narrow limits of the creation, speaking about an intermediary that is neither God in nature, nor created being. In their attempt to justify their erroneous teaching, the heretics interpreted certain verses in the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament in a tendentious manner. Out of all divine attributes, Saint Cyril of Alexandria enlarges upon incorruption, the eternal and unchangeable nature of God, on the equality between the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, or about all- knowingness. He underlines with precision the Trinitarian terminology. The nature of the Holy Spirit is the same with the nature of the Father and the Son and words cannot express it. Each divine hypostasis contains the

53 IBIDEM, P.G. 75, col. 1104. 90 indwelling nature of God and Its specific qualities. The teaching of Saint Cyril of Alexandria conforms to that of the Christian Orthodox Church, presenting the divine nature as being one and uncomposed, and the Three Hypostases. On the one hand there is simplicity, eternal wealth and unity of being, and on the other side, distinctness of hypostases. The fact that the Spirit has deifying power indicates that He is not created. As He deifies people according to their virtues, the Holy Spirit is placed higher than all creatures. Another distinction is made between the proceeding of the Spirit from the Father and His being offered to all human beings by the Son. The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity as the Father and the Son. The work of the Holy Spirit is proof of His divinity. The role of the Holy Spirit in people’s salvation is also mentioned. The perfection of human nature, the very purpose of our life, is related to the imprint of God’s image on our souls through the Holy Spirit, whose intercession help us become “sons of God”, through participation and divine grace. The Holy Father connects the work of the Holy Spirit in us, to our acquiring freedom. Speaking about the symbolic weapons Christian, this soldier of Christ, he compares the word of God with the Spirit. He makes divine grace fall into two categories - pneumatic and somatic. There are many other ways in which the Holy Spirit works upon the human soul.

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