The Apostles' Creed: The Full Text and Meaning of the Prayer That Summarizes Our Faith

The faith of the early Christians in a few lines

An ancient tradition tells that the twelve Apostles, before scattering to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth, composed this profession of faith together, each contributing an article. Historical-critical scholarship qualifies this beautiful legend: the Apostles' Creed, as we pray it, crystallized in the Church of Rome over the first centuries from even briefer baptismal formulas. It was not born at a desk, but by the baptismal font. It was the answer the catechumen gave on Easter night, immersed three times in the water, to the three great questions: Do you believe in God the Father? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?

This is why it retains its trinitarian structure and the flavor of a personal confession. It is not a treatise, but the "yes" of one who has just been reborn. The Church has guarded it as the faithful summary of what the apostles handed on, and prays it today at Baptism, in the renewal of baptismal promises, and in the daily devotion of the faithful people. Whoever recites it places themselves in the very long chain of witnesses who, from Rome to the farthest corner of the world, have confessed the same faith.

Full text of the Apostles' Creed

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;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will 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.

The Latin original

It is called the Symbolum Apostolorum: a symbol, in the sense of a password that identifies.

Credo in Deum Patrem omnipoténtem, Creatórem cæli et terræ.
Et in Iesum Christum, Fílium eius únicum, Dóminum nostrum,
qui concéptus est de Spíritu Sancto, natus ex María Vírgine,
passus sub Póntio Piláto, crucifíxus, mórtuus et sepúltus,
descéndit ad ínferos, tértia die resurréxit a mórtuis,
ascéndit ad cælos, sedet ad déxteram Dei Patris omnipoténtis,
inde ventúrus est iudicáre vivos et mórtuos.
Credo in Spíritum Sanctum, sanctam Ecclésiam cathólicam,
sanctórum communiónem, remissiónem peccatórum,
carnis resurrectiónem, vitam ætérnam. Amen.

Reflection and meaning

Whoever wishes to understand this Symbol must not first ask what it "says", but what it does and whence it springs. The Catechism expresses this with precision: "The Apostles' Creed is so called because it is rightly considered to be the faithful summary of the Apostles' faith. It is the ancient baptismal symbol of the Church of Rome" (CCC 194). There lies the key. We are not before a doctrine learned by rote, but before the echo of that "yes" which we pronounced — or which was pronounced for us — on the day of Baptism. Each time we pray it, we return to the baptismal font and renew the covenant. Therefore, the Catechism recalls that receiving the faith in Baptism is equivalent to receiving this Symbol, which is like "the first and fundamental synthesis of the faith of the Church" (cf. CCC 197).

The faith confessed here is not adherence to a system of ideas, but self-surrender to a God who has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The structure of the Creed is not accidental: it is trinitarian because the Christian God is communion. And it begins with a disconcerting word: "I believe". Saint Paul teaches us where salvation is born: "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). The Symbol is exactly that: confession of the mouth welling up from the faith of the heart. It is not enough to know it; it must be spoken, and in speaking it, one's life is committed.

There is an article we tend to pass over quickly and which encapsulates the heart of the kerygma: "he descended into hell". This is not a mythological embellishment. Christ went down to the abode of the dead to announce liberation to the righteous who had preceded him; he descended to the very last abyss of our condition, to death itself, so that there might be no place of darkness where his love does not reach (cf. CCC 631-635). This is the Good News: there is no hell of loneliness, sin, or anguish into which the Risen One has not already entered before us to draw us out of it. Whoever has tasted this in their own history understands why the Symbol is a declaration of hope and not a theology exam.

Saint Ambrose, in handing on the Creed to the catechumens of Milan, explained to them that the Symbol was like the seal with which they guarded their faith, a "password" of the heart learned so as never to forget it. And Saint Augustine preached to his catechumens that this Symbol is received first as a gift of the Church and then given back with one's own voice. That dynamic of receiving and giving back is the entire Christian life: faith is never a private invention, but a handed-on treasure. Therefore, confessing the Creed is a profoundly ecclesial act; by praying it we discover ourselves to be members of "the communion of saints", united to those who already enjoy God and those who are still journeying.

The fruits of this prayer are concrete. Whoever prays it with faith finds steadfastness in trial, because they anchor their existence in facts — the Incarnation, the Cross, the Resurrection — and not in changing feelings. They find unity, because they know that millions confess the same thing. And they find hope, because the Creed does not end at the tomb or at judgment, but in "the resurrection of the body and life everlasting". To confess that we await the resurrection of our own body is to affirm that God loves the whole person and that history has a destiny of glory. I invite you not to recite it by rote: pause at each article, let each truth reach you, and you will see how what seemed like a formula becomes living dialogue with the God who first believed in you.

Symbol does not mean metaphor

The Creed is technically called the symbol of the faith, and there is a frequent misunderstanding here: it does not mean it is symbolic. Sýmbolon in Greek was half of a broken object that two people kept in order to recognize each other when joined together. The Creed is just that: the password that identifies those who share the same faith.

Rom 10, 9

Its form comes from baptism. Before baptizing, they would ask "Do you believe in God the Father? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?", and from those three answers arises the three-part structure that the text retains.

When it is prayed

• At the beginning of the rosary, on the crucifix.
• At Mass on Sundays and solemnities, although the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, which is longer, is usually used there.
• In the renewal of baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil.

You may also be interested in how to pray the rosary, the Lord's Prayer.

In the shop: wood-engraved religious items.

Frequently asked questions

Did the twelve Apostles write it?

Medieval legend said that each apostle contributed a phrase. That is not historical: the text was formed from the questions of the baptismal rite in the early centuries. "Apostolic" means that it gathers the faith of the apostles, not that they drafted it.

What is the difference from the Creed at Mass?

The one at Mass is usually the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, which is longer and includes precise definitions about the divinity of the Son that came out of the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople. The Apostles' Creed is shorter and is the one prayed in the rosary.

What does "he descended into hell" mean?

It does not refer to the hell of the damned but to the abode of the dead: it affirms that Christ truly died and that his salvation reaches those who died before him.

Why is it prayed at the beginning of the rosary?

Because the rosary is a meditation on the mysteries of the faith, and the Creed states them all at once before going through them one by one.

Sources

• Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 185-197 (The Professions of Faith) and nos. 631-637 (Christ Descended to Hell).
• Sacred Scripture: Letter to the Romans 10:9-10; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (the handing on of the paschal faith).
• Saint Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on the Creed to Catechumens (Sermons 212-215).
• Saint Ambrose of Milan, Explanatio Symboli ad initiandos (Explanation of the Creed to Those Being Initiated).
• Rufinus of Aquileia, Commentarius in Symbolum Apostolorum (Commentary on the Apostles' Creed).

About the author

Rosa Fernández has spent over twenty years journeying through the Neocatechumenal Way in various communities in Spain and Italy. Formed in the catechetical itinerary of Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández, she writes from the experience of baptismal rediscovery and the centrality of the Word and the Eucharist.