Primary source · Koine Greek
The Catechetical Lectures
Cyril of Jerusalem · c. AD 350, in the Martyrium at Golgotha
What this text is
A Lent's worth of instruction delivered yards from the tomb of Christ — creed, sacraments, and the Mystagogic lectures on what the newly baptized had just undergone.
Profile of Cyril of Jerusalem →
Public-domain translations
E. H. Gifford (NPNF, 1894)
The dragon sits by the road, watching those who pass. Beware lest he devour thee. We go to the Father of souls, but it is necessary to pass by the dragon… Make thy fold with the sheep: flee from the wolves.
Manuscript witnesses
Munich gr. 394 & Ottoboni gr. 86
10th–11th c.The eighteen Catecheses with the Procatechesis; the five Mystagogic lectures travel with a disputed attribution to his successor John.
Patrologia Graeca, vol. 33 (Migne)
1857Standard pre-critical text of the corpus.
Provenance
The Martyrium and Anastasis, Jerusalem, c. AD 350 — catechesis at the holy places
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- The Works of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (FOC 61, 64)L. P. McCauley & A. A. Stephenson, 1969–1970The standard annotated translation.
- Cyril of Jerusalem, MystagogueAlexis James Doval, 2001The authorship question of the Mystagogic Catecheses.