The Catholic Creed: the Apostles’ Creed and the Creed of the Mass

On the cross of the Rosary, prayer begins with the Creed, and at Holy Mass the great Credo follows the Gospel. In a few sentences the Catholic Creed sums up what the Church believes about God, about Our Lord Jesus Christ and about the Holy Ghost. This guide gives you the Apostles’ Creed in English and Latin, explains its twelve articles according to the Roman Catechism and sets beside it the Creed of the Mass, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

What are the words of the Apostles’ Creed?

In its traditional Catholic wording the Apostles’ Creed begins with “I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth” and ends with “the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.” In Latin it is called Credo in Deum after its opening words.

Credo in Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae. Et in Jesum Christum, Filium ejus unicum, Dominum nostrum: qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine, passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus: descendit ad inferos; tertia die resurrexit a mortuis; ascendit ad caelos; sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis: inde venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, Sanctorum communionem, remissionem peccatorum, carnis resurrectionem, vitam aeternam. Amen.

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

Latin from the Breviarium Romanum. English in the traditional form.

The traditional English wording is also the one used for the Rosary in our guide to the Rosary with all the prayers. It preserves older words worth knowing: “from thence” means “from there”, and “Holy Ghost” is the older name for the Holy Spirit. In the Rituale Romanum, the Roman book for the administration of the sacraments and for blessings, the same Latin text appears in the rite of Baptism: when all have entered the church and are going to the font, the priest says it aloud together with the godparents.

Where does the Apostles’ Creed come from?

According to the tradition taken up by the Roman Catechism, the Apostles themselves composed this formula of faith before they went out into all the world, so that all Christians would believe and profess the same thing. An older Roman form of the Creed already existed before the middle of the second century.

The Roman Catechism, published by order of the holy Pope Pius V after the Council of Trent, also gives the reason for the name Symbolum, a sign or token of recognition: the Creed, it says, was made up of various statements contributed by the individual Apostles, and it served as a token by which false brethren who had crept in could be distinguished from the faithful soldiers of Christ.

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907 traces the evidence more closely. Around 390 a letter of the Council of Milan to the holy Pope Siricius contains the earliest known testimony to the name Symbolum Apostolorum, Creed of the Apostles: the Roman Church, it says, has always preserved it inviolate. Around 400 Rufinus describes how the Apostles composed the Creed together. The story that each of the twelve Apostles contributed one article is attested from the sixth century. According to the same article, the text probably received its present form in Rome before the year 700.

What do the twelve articles of the Creed say?

The twelve articles of the Creed profess God the Father as Creator; the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection and Second Coming of Our Lord; the Holy Ghost; the Church; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and life everlasting. They follow the three divine Persons.

Why we speak of “articles” is explained by the Catechism with an image already used by the Fathers. The Latin articulus means a joint:

“For as the members of the body are distinguished by joints, so in the Creed too we rightly and fittingly call articles whatever we must believe expressly and separately from anything else.”

Roman Catechism, Part I, Chapter I, On Faith and the Creed, no. IV. German edition, Passau 1853 (translated from the German)

What does “he descended into hell” mean?

“He descended into hell” does not mean that Christ was merely buried, nor that he suffered the torments of the damned. According to the Roman Catechism, after his death his soul went down to the souls of the just who were awaiting the Redeemer in Abraham’s bosom, and set them free.

According to the Catechism, the word “hell” here means the hidden places in which the souls were held that had not yet attained the bliss of heaven. It distinguishes three: the prison of the damned; purgatory, in which the souls of the devout are purified; and the place where the just before the coming of Christ rested without pain in the hope of redemption.

It was there that the soul of the Lord really descended, and not merely his power, while his body lay in the tomb. For this the Catechism appeals to the word of David that God would not leave his soul in hell (Ps 15:10 in the Vulgate numbering). His divinity, it stresses, remained united throughout with both soul and body.

Do we believe “in” the Church?

We believe the Church, but we do not believe in her as we believe in God. The Creed says “I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church”, in Latin Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam. The word “in”, in Latin in, applies only to the three divine Persons.

The Roman Catechism explains the difference expressly: in the three Persons of the Trinity we place our faith; the Church we believe. The change in the form of expression is meant to distinguish God, the author of all things, from created things.

The ninth article includes the “communion of saints”. The Catechism understands by this that everything given to the Church belongs in common to all her members: the fruit of the sacraments, above all of Baptism and of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and all the pious and holy works that anyone does, which through charity benefit all. Sinners remain in the Church, it is true, but as dead members they do not receive this spiritual fruit.

What are the words of the Creed at Holy Mass?

At Holy Mass, after the Gospel, the priest says the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. It begins with Credo in unum Deum, “I believe in one God”, and is fuller than the Apostles’ Creed, above all in the statements about the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorem coeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium. Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum. Et ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula. Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero. Genitum, non factum, consubstantialem Patri: per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de coelis. Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine: et homo factus est. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis: sub Pontio Pilato passus et sepultus est.

Et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas. Et ascendit in coelum: sedet ad dexteram Patris. Et iterum venturus est cum gloria, judicare vivos et mortuos: cujus regni non erit finis.

Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem: qui ex Patre Filioque procedit. Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur: qui locutus est per prophetas. Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. Et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God. Begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father: by whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And became incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary: and was made man. He was crucified also for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried.

And on the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead: of whose kingdom there shall be no end.

And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life: who proceedeth from the Father and the Son. Who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified: who spoke by the prophets. And one holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. And I look for the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the world to come. Amen.

Latin after Anselm Schott: Das Meßbuch der heiligen Kirche, 4th edition, Freiburg 1894, p. 20 f., in the spelling of the original; English in the traditional form of the hand missals

When the Creed is said at Mass is governed by the rules of the 1962 Missal, the rubrics (no. 475 f.). It is said on every Sunday, on feasts of the first class, that is, of the highest rank, and in votive Masses of that class, on feasts of the second class of Our Lord and of the Blessed Virgin, during the octaves, the eight-day festal celebrations, of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, and on the feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists, as well as on the Chair of St Peter and the feast of St Barnabas. Expressly excluded are, among others, Maundy Thursday, the Easter Vigil and Masses for the dead.

When saying the words Et incarnatus est the priest always genuflects (no. 518). When the Creed is sung, all kneel at these words in the three Masses of Christmas and in the Mass of the Annunciation.

What is the difference between the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed?

Both creeds teach the same faith. The Apostles’ Creed is shorter and belongs to Baptism, the Rosary and daily prayer. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is the Creed of Holy Mass and professes more fully that the Son is of one substance with the Father.

How important the Apostles’ Creed is to the Church is shown by the rite of Confirmation. After conferring the sacrament, the bishop charges the sponsors to teach those they have sponsored the Credo in Deum, the Pater noster and the Ave Maria, “quoniam ad hoc sunt obligati”, for they are bound to do so. So it stands in the rite of Confirmation, which the 1962 Missal reprints from the Pontificale Romanum, the book of episcopal rites.

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Frequently asked questions about the Creed