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Saint Cyril of Alexandria, right, in a white headdress beside Saint Athanasius, a Cretan icon of the sixteenth or seventeenth century

Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Defended Mary as Theotokos, Mother of God, and presided at the Council of Ephesus

Honoured as
Doctor of the Church
Western calendar
27 June
Orthodox calendar
9 June, and 18 January (22 June on the old calendar)

Cyril followed his uncle Theophilus as Patriarch of Alexandria in 412 and led that church for thirty-two years. When Nestorius of Constantinople would call the Virgin not Theotokos, the Mother of God, but only Christotokos, birth-giver of Christ, Cyril wrote to him again and again, warned Pope Celestine and the other churches, and in 431 presided at the Council of Ephesus, which condemned Nestorius. The Orthodox tell that in a dream the Mother of God reconciled him with John Chrysostom, whom he had long refused to honour, saying: “Forgive him for my sake, since he has labored much for my honor, and has glorified me among the people calling me Theotokos.”

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What is a saint’s feast day?

It is the day each year when the Church remembers a saint in its prayers, and for most saints it is the day they died and went home to God. Many saints here have two dates, because the Western and Orthodox Churches keep their own calendars, and some Orthodox churches still count by the old Julian calendar, which runs thirteen days behind ours.

What is a patron saint?

A patron saint is one we ask to pray for us in a particular place, work or need, as many ask Anthony of Padua for help when something is lost, and as Ireland looks to Patrick. A few patronages were declared by a pope, and most grew from long custom. A card says “Patron of” only where a source we checked names one.

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Why did you choose these saints and not others?

We began with the saints people search for most, by name, by need and by date, along with the apostles and the saints Orthodox Christians look for. Then we made sure every day of the year has at least one saint. That gives 378 so far, and we keep adding the saints readers ask for.

Every saint here, by feast day