The Anathemas of St.

Cyril of Alexandria -- Against Nestorius Page 1 of 1

The Anathemas of Cyril of Alexandria

(Against Nestorius)

1) If any one does not acknowledge that Emmanuel is in truth God, and that the holy Virgin is, in
consequence, 'Theotokos (Mother of God) for she brought forth after the flesh the Word of God who
has become flesh, let him be anathema.

2) If any one does not acknowledge that the Word which is from God the Father was personally
united with flesh, and with his own flesh is one Christ, that is, one and the same God and man
together, let him be anathema.

3) If any one in the one Christ divides the persons after their union, conjoining them with a mere
conjunction in accordance with worth, or a conjunction effected by authority or power, instead of a
combination according to a union of natures, let him be anathema.

4) If any one distributes between two characters or persons the expressions used about Christ in the
gospels, etc. ... applying some to the man, conceived of separately, apart from the Word, ... others
exclusively to the Word. ..., let him be anathema.

5) If any one presumes to call Christ a 'God-bearing man'..., let him be anathema.

6) If any one presumes to call the Word the God or Lord of Christ..., let him be anathema.

7) If any one says that Jesus as man was operated by God the Word, and that the 'glory of the only-
begotten' was attached to him, as something existing apart from himself..., let him be anathema.

8) If anyone presumes to say that 'the man who was assumed is to be worshipped together with the
Divine Word'..., let him be anathema.

9) If any one says that the one Lord Jesus Christ was glorified by the Spirit, as if he exercised a
power alien to himself which came to him through the Spirit..., let him be anathema.

12) If any one does not confess that the Word of God suffered in the flesh and was crucified in the
flesh..., let him be anathema.

(The foregoing Anathemas were approved at the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431. At the
same council, the term Christotokos (bearer or mother of Christ) was specifically rejected and
condemned in favor of the term Theotokos (Mother of God)).

http://www.stmichael.org/Cyril1.html 28.08.2002