St. Cyril of Jerusalem: "The Bread and Wine of the Eucharist"

● For as the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist before the invocation of the Holy and Adorable Trinity were simple bread and wine, while after the invocation the Bread becomes the Body of Christ, and the Wine the blood of Christ, so in like manner such meats belonging to the pomp of Satan, though in their own nature simple, become profane by the invocation of the evil spirit.

● Even of itself the teaching of the blessed Paul (1 Cor 11:23) is sufficient to give you a full assurance concerning those Divine Mysteries, of which having been deemed worthy, you are become of the same body and blood with Christ. For you have just heard him say directly, “That Our Lord Jesus Christ in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks He broke it, and gave to His disciples, saying, ‘Take, eat, this is My Body’; and having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, ‘Take, drink, this is my Blood’” (Mt 26:26ff.). Since then He Himself declared and said of the Bread, ‘This is My Body,’ who shall dare to doubt any longer? And since He has affirmed and said, ‘This is My Blood,’ who shall ever hesitate, saying, that it is not His Blood?

~St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures, 19:7; 22:1.

Last Supper, Tree of Life and Four Miracle Scenes, by Taddeo Gaddi. 

Fresco, c. 1360; Refectory, Santa Croce, Florence.

Cyril: "The Holy Virgin is the Mother of God"

"IF anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Θεοτόκος), inasmuch as in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh [as it is written, “The Word was made flesh”] let him be anathema.

"Nestorius: If anyone says that the Emmanuel is true God, and not rather God with us, that is, that he has united himself to a like nature with ours, which he assumed from the Virgin Mary, and dwelt in it; and if anyone calls Mary the mother of God the Word, and not rather mother of him who is Emmanuel; and if he maintains that God the Word has changed himself into the flesh, which he only assumed in order to make his Godhead visible, and to be found in form as a man, let him be anathema."

~ First of "Twelve Anathemas by St. Cyril Against Nestorius," Council of Ephesus (431).

Artwork: Virgin salus populi romani, the oldest Marian icon in Rome, probably Early Christian (rather than Medieval); Borghese or Pauline Chapel of the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome.

See also,
• Salus Populi

• History and Virtual Tour of Santa Maria Maggiore (an outstanding visual presentation)

• Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, Wikipedia
• Basilica, Catholic Ency.

Cyril: "Faith has two distinct meanings"

"FOR the name of faith is one in speech, but has two distinct meanings. For there is one kind of faith, dogmatic, involving an assent of the soul to some particular point. But there is a second kind of faith, which is bestowed by Christ as a gift of grace."

~St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Discourses, 5, 10-11. (4th cent.)