MIRACULOUS MIRACLES™

Prayer — The Essential Prayers

Symbolum Nicaeno-Constantinopolitanum

The Nicene Creed

Council of Nicaea, 325 AD; expanded at Constantinople, 381 AD

The Creed of the Council of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381), professed at every Sunday Mass and on every solemnity.

The Prayer · Multiple Versions
Latin · Original
Credo in unum Deum,
Patrem omnipotentem,
factorem caeli et terrae,
visibilium omnium et invisibilium.
Et in unum Dominum Iesum 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 caelis.
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 caelum, sedet ad dexteram Patris.
Et iterum venturus est cum gloria,
iudicare vivos et mortuos,
cuius 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 expecto resurrectionem mortuorum,
et vitam venturi saeculi.
Amen.
English
I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
When the Prayer is Said

At every Sunday Mass and on solemnities; at the renewal of baptismal promises.

History & Background

In May 325 the Emperor Constantine convoked the bishops of the whole Christian world — some three hundred attended — at Nicaea in Bithynia to resolve the Arian crisis: the teaching that the Son was a creature, made in time. The bishops formulated a creed declaring the Son to be 'consubstantial' (homoousios) with the Father — true God of true God, begotten not made.

The First Council of Constantinople in 381 expanded the original creed with a much fuller section on the Holy Spirit (against the Pneumatomachi who denied the Spirit's divinity) and on the Church and the resurrection. This is the form used today, called the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

The Western addition 'and the Son' (Filioque) to the article on the procession of the Holy Spirit was introduced in Spain in the 6th century, taken up by Charlemagne, and inserted into the Roman Mass in 1014. It remains a point of disagreement with the Eastern Orthodox.

All Prayers