St Cyril of Jerusalem

 

12kb jpg icon of Saint Cyril and Methodius, author unknown; if you have information on this iamge, please email me; please do not write to ask about the imageFeastday 18th March                                              

born 315AD                          

Died 386 AD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raised a Christian in Jerusalem. Well educated, especially in religion. Priest. Great instructor of catechumens, his instructions are still source documents for the Church's early teachings. Bishop of Jerusalem in 348. Exiled three times by the Arians. Greek Father of the Church. Doctor of the Church. 1

 

1. Taken from Patron Saints Index at http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintc16.htm

 

“Since the true Christ is to come a second time, the adversary makes use of the expectations of the simple and especially of those of the circumcision [the Jews]; and he brings in a certain  man who is a magician, and who is quite expert in sorceries and enchantments of beguiling craftiness. This one shall seize the power of the Roman Empire and shall falsely style himself Christ. By the name Christ he shall deceive the Jews who are expecting the anointed and he shall seduce the Gentiles by his magickal illusions.” 1

 

"This aforementioned Antichrist is to come when the times of the Roman Empire shall have been fulfilled, and the end of the world is drawing near. There shall rise up together ten kings of the Romans, reigning in different parts, perhaps, but all reigning at the same time. After these there shall be an eleventh, the Antichrist, who by the evil craft of his magic shall seize upon the Roman power. Of the kings who reigned before him, three shall he humble [Dan. 7:24], and the remaining seven he shall have as subjects under him. “ 2

 

“At first he shall feign mildness—as if he were a learned and discreet person—and sobriety and loving kindness. Having beguiled the Jews by the lying signs and wonders of his magical deceit, until they believe he is the expected Christ, he shall afterwards be characterized by all manner of wicked deeds of inhumanity and lawlessness, as if to outdo all the unjust and impious men who have gone before him. He shall display against all men, and especially against us Christians, a spirit that is murderous and most cruel, merciless and wily. For three years and six months only shall he be the perpetrator of such things; and then he shall be destroyed by the glorious second coming from heaven of the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus, the true Christ, who shall destroy him with the breath of his mouth [2 Thess. 2:8], and deliver him over to the fire of Gehenna” 3

 

“Antichrist will exceed in malice, perversity, lust, wickedness, impiety, and ruthlessness and barbarity all men that have ever disgraced human nature.  Hence St. Paul emphatically calls him `the man of sin the son of perdition, the wicked one, whose birth and coming is through the operation of Satan, in all manner of seduction and iniquity.'  (2 Thess., 2).  Through his great power, deceit and malice he shall succeed in decoying or forcing to his worship two thirds of mankind; the remaining third part of men will continue true to the faith and worship of Jesus Christ most steadfastly.  But in his satanic rage and fury, Antichrist will persecute these brave and devout Christians during three years and a half, and torture them with such an extremity of barbarity, with all the old and newly invented instruments of pain, as to exceed all past persecutors of the Church combined.  He will oblige all his followers to bear impressed upon their foreheads or right hands the mark of the Beast and will starve to death all those who refuse to receive it.” 4

 

“Now these things we teach not of our own ingenuity…that this kingdom is that of the Romans, has been the tradition of the Church interpreters…” 5

 

References

1. St Cyril, Catechetical Lectures 15:2 (A.D. 350) The Faith of the Early Fathers  Vol I, Jurgens (The Liturgical Press 1970) p 357-358 as quoted by Desmond A. Birch Trial Tribulation and Triumph: Before, During and After Antichrist, (Queenship Publishing. 1996) p 227

2. Ibid p227

3. St Cyril, Catechetical Lectures 15:2 (A.D. 350)

4. Yves Dupont Antichrist World Trends Magazine, September, 1975.

5. The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, A Library of the Fathers, (Oxford) p 90 as quoted by Desmond A. Birch Trial Tribulation and Triumph: Before, During and After Antichrist, (Queenship Publishing. 1996) p 227