The Mystagogic Lectures were delivered not in the
Church, but after the conclusion of the public Service “in the
Holy Place of the Resurrection itself Cat. xviii. §
33.,” that is,
in the small Chapel which contained the Holy Sepulchre, and to which
the name “Anastasis” more properly belonged. Happily
we are not required by the purpose of this work to enter into the
disputed questions concerning the Holy Places. Whether the cave
re-fashioned and adorned by Constantine was the actual sepulchre in
which our Lord’s body was laid, and whether the present Churches
occupy the same site as the Basilica and Anastasis of Constantine, are
matters still under discussion, and awaiting the result of further
researches. What more properly concerns us is to collect the
chief passages in which Cyril refers to these localities, and to try to
give a fair representation of his testimony, comparing it with that of
earlier or contemporary writers.