Prayers  ·  The Apostles' Creed

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The Apostles' Creed

A traditional Catholic prayer

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 Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He arose 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 Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

Where it comes from

Christ sits on a cloud with one arm raised and Our Lady beside Him, and beneath them the human race divides like a field under the plough: on one side the risen climb toward the light, pulling one another up, and on the other the damned fall away. The Creed says it in one line, He shall come to judge the living and the dead, and does not raise its voice. Through the Middle Ages it was believed that the Twelve composed it together at Pentecost, each giving one article; historians treat that story as a legend. The old creed of the Roman Church from which it grew probably existed before the middle of the second century, and the text prayed today probably took its final shape at Rome before AD 700. It begins with the Father who made heaven and earth and ends with the life everlasting, and between the first line and the last, as between the light and the fall, we stand.

Herbert Thurston, “Apostles' Creed”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 1 (1907): newadvent.org

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