What Is the Communion of Saints?

To understand the phrase, we must restore it to its setting. In the Apostles’ Creed, it does not stand alone: it immediately follows the profession “I believe in the holy Catholic Church.” That proximity is no accident.

An article that explains the preceding one

The Catechism opens its treatment with a decisive observation: the communion of saints does not add a new truth after the Church—it explains what the Church is.

“After confessing ‘the holy catholic Church,’ the Apostles’ Creed adds ‘the communion of saints.’ In a certain sense this article is a further explanation of the preceding: ‘What is the Church if not the assembly of all the saints?’ The communion of saints is the Church.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 946^[5]

The question “What is the Church if not the assembly of all the saints?” did not originate with the Catechism: it quotes Saint Nicetas of Remesiana, a fourth-century bishop, in his commentary on the Creed^[6]. From the beginning, therefore, the communion of saints was understood as the living heart of the Church: not merely a juridical institution, but a community of persons united by grace.

Where did the phrase come from? A brief history

The phrase “communion of saints” (communio sanctorum) was not always present in the Creed. Its earliest forms, such as the Old Roman Creed, do not contain it. It appears in Latin sources around the turn of the fifth century, and Saint Nicetas of Remesiana gives its earliest known attestation, around AD 400^[7]. It then became established in the form of the Creed received in the West and recited today.

This history establishes an important point: the communion of saints is neither a medieval invention nor a late devotion. It is an apostolic reality, formulated in the early Church and eventually stated in explicit terms by the Creed.

This is the key to the whole article and the distinction placed first by the Catechism. In Latin, the phrase “communion of saints” has two closely linked meanings, because sanctorum may be understood as neuter (holy things) or masculine (holy persons).

“The term ‘communion of saints’ therefore has two closely linked meanings: ‘communion in holy things (sancta)’ and ‘among holy persons (sancti).’” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 948^[11]

The two meanings do not compete; each calls for the other. People become a community of holy persons (sancti) precisely by sharing in the same holy things (sancta). Sharing divine goods creates the unity of persons.

Communion “in holy things” (sancta)

The first meaning is objective: Christians hold in common the holy realities that come from God—the faith received from the Apostles, grace, the sacraments, and above all the Eucharist. The Catechism even says that this meaning comes first:

“The Church is a ‘communion of saints’: this expression refers first to the ‘holy things’ (sancta), above all the Eucharist, by which ‘the unity of believers, who form one body in Christ, is both represented and brought about.’” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 960^[12]

Communion “among holy persons” (sancti)

The second meaning is the one that first comes to mind: the communion of persons. All who are sanctified by Christ—on earth, in purgatory, and in Heaven—form one community.

“The term ‘communion of saints’ refers also to the communion of ‘holy persons’ (sancti) in Christ who ‘died for all,’ so that what each one does or suffers in and for Christ bears fruit for all.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 961^[13]

“Sancta sanctis”: the Eucharistic root

The link between both meanings has a very ancient liturgical expression. In most Eastern liturgies, as the holy Gifts are elevated before Communion, the celebrant proclaims: “Sancta sanctis!”—“God’s holy gifts for God’s holy people”^[14]. The faithful (sancti) are nourished with the Body and Blood of Christ (sancta) so that they may grow in the communion of the Holy Spirit and radiate it in the world. The Eucharist is therefore both the source and the summit of the communion of saints: by uniting each person to Christ, it unites all the members to one another.

After establishing the two meanings, the Catechism unfolds the concrete content of this communion: what do the members of the Church actually share? Its starting point is the image given by Saint Paul and then Saint Thomas Aquinas: the Church is one body whose members communicate their goods to one another.

“Since all the faithful form one body, the good of each is communicated to the others… We must therefore believe that there exists a communion of goods in the Church. But the most important member is Christ, since he is the head… Therefore, the riches of Christ are communicated to all the members, through the sacraments.” — Saint Thomas Aquinas, Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed, art. 10, quoted in § 947^[15]

The Catechism then lists five goods shared by Christians, following the portrait of the first Jerusalem community, whose disciples “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42)^[16].

Communion in the faith

The first shared good is faith itself. It is never a private opinion: “The faith of the faithful is the faith of the Church, received from the apostles, a treasure of life which is enriched by being shared”^[17]. No one believes alone; Christians believe with and within the Church, and faith unfolds as it is handed on.

Communion of the sacraments

The second good is sacramental. The sacraments, beginning with Baptism, are “sacred links uniting them all and binding them to Jesus Christ”^[18]. The Roman Catechism, quoted by the CCC, even says that “the communion of saints is the communion of the sacraments,” and that this name is “better suited to the Eucharist than to any other”^[19].

Communion of charisms

The third good consists of charisms—particular graces distributed by the Spirit “among the faithful of every rank” for building up the Church^[20]. They are never given for private use: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor 12:7)^[21]. By its nature, one person’s gift is a gift for everyone.

Communion in material goods

The fourth good is very concrete. Following the first Christians, who “had everything in common” (Acts 4:32), the Roman Catechism teaches that “a Christian should be ready and eager to come to the help of the needy” and should regard possessions as goods shared with all^[22]. The communion of saints therefore has a charitable and social dimension: it commits Christians to sharing material as well as spiritual goods.

Communion in charity

The fifth good is the heart of all the others: charity. It makes every other good circulate because it never closes in upon itself.

“In this solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on the communion of saints, the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the profit of all. Every sin harms this communion. ‘None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself’ (Rom 14:7). ‘If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.’” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 953^[23]

That final sentence is decisive. It means that the communion of saints is not poetic comfort but an active reality: our acts of charity, even the most hidden, truly benefit the whole Body; conversely, our sins truly wound it. Nothing in Christian life is entirely private.

If spiritual goods circulate among the members, how far does that circulation extend? Beyond death itself. Here the communion of saints reaches its full scope. The Catechism distinguishes three “states” of the Church—not three Churches, but the one Church in three different conditions.

“Until the Lord shall come in his majesty… some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating ‘in full light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is.’” — Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 49, quoted in § 954^[24]

Tradition has given names to these three states. The Catechism does not employ all these traditional labels in this precise table, but they faithfully summarize its teaching.

The word “militant” is not warlike in the modern sense. It means the Church on “active service,” still journeying and fighting against sin. Let us briefly examine all three.

The pilgrim Church (militant)

This is us: the baptized still living, “pilgrims on earth.” Ours is the condition of journey and struggle, in which faith is not yet sight. It is also the state in which a person can still merit, pray, and be converted—something the dead can no longer do for themselves.

The Church being purified (suffering)

These are the souls in purgatory: saved and certain of Heaven, yet “still being purified” before entering it fully^[25]. Far from being cut off from us, they remain members of the same Body. This is precisely why the Church, “from the earliest days of the Christian religion,” has prayed for the dead:

“From the very earliest days of the Christian religion, the Church has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; and ‘because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins,’ she offers her suffrages for them.” — Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 50, quoted in § 958^[26]

For this question, see Why pray for the dead? and What does the Church teach about purgatory?.

The Church in glory (triumphant)

These are the blessed in Heaven—the Virgin Mary, the angels, and all the saints, known and unknown—who see God face to face. Their closer union with Christ makes them, not more distant from us, but nearer:

“Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness… They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us… So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped.” — Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 49, quoted in § 956^[27]

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux expressed this closeness on her deathbed, refusing to imagine Heaven as a departure far from earth:

“I want to spend my Heaven doing good on earth… until the end of the world.” — Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Last Conversations, 17 July 1897^[28]

What holds this communion together: the Mystical Body

What guarantees that these three states truly form one Church rather than three separate worlds? The answer is Christ the Head. All three are united because they are joined to the same Head and animated by the same Spirit:

“All of us… share in the same charity towards God and our neighbors… For all who are in Christ, having his Spirit, form one Church and cleave together in him.” — Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 49, quoted in § 954^[29]

The underlying image is Saint Paul’s Mystical Body of Christ (1 Cor 12): one body, many members, one head. The communion of saints is its supernatural expression. For this image, see What is the Mystical Body of Christ?.

The communion of saints is not passive. It is a real exchange of spiritual assistance among the three states. Speaking of the departed, the Catechism summarizes it in a remarkable sentence: “Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective”^[30]. The circulation therefore works in both directions.

The blessed intercede for us

The saints in Heaven are not spectators. They “do not cease to intercede with the Father for us”^[31]. To venerate them is not to give them worship owed to God alone; it is to “strengthen the union of the whole Church in the Spirit”^[32]. Saint Polycarp’s community made the distinction in the second century:

“We worship Christ as the Son of God; we love the martyrs as the Lord’s disciples and imitators… May we also become their companions and fellow disciples.” — Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp, 17, quoted in § 957^[33]

The decisive distinction—adoring God alone (latria) while venerating the saints (dulia)—and the answer to the objection that “there is one mediator” (1 Tim 2:5) are treated fully in The Communion of Saints and Intercession, Should Catholics pray to the saints?, and Why ask for the saints’ intercession?.

We pray for the departed

Conversely, the Church on earth helps the suffering Church through prayer, almsgiving, and indulgences (CCC § 958; § 1471). This is the other side of the same solidarity: what the departed can no longer merit for themselves, we can obtain for them. Can the saints in Heaven truly hear us? That question is treated in Can the saints hear us?.

Three misunderstandings frequently recur. Setting them aside clarifies, by contrast, what the communion of saints truly is.

It is not spiritualism

Praying for the dead or asking a saint’s intercession has nothing to do with spiritualism or conjuring the dead. The Catechism firmly condemns “conjuring up the dead” and every divinatory practice seeking to “unveil” the future or harness hidden powers^[34]. It also explicitly warns the faithful against spiritualism, which “often implies divination or magical practices”^[35].

The difference is one of kind, not degree. Spiritualism claims to summon the dead and control the invisible in order to gain knowledge or power. The communion of saints summons no one: it asks—as one asks a brother or sister to pray—and everything passes through Christ, the one Mediator, in prayer and surrender, never manipulation. One seeks to seize; the other is received.

It is not idolatry

Honoring the saints, asking them to pray for us, and venerating their images do not redirect toward a creature the worship owed to God alone. The Church rigorously distinguishes adoration (latria), reserved for God, from the veneration (dulia) given to the saints. The objection of idolatry—often based on 1 Timothy 2:5 or the prohibition of images—is examined and answered in The Communion of Saints and Intercession, Are statues idolatry?, and Do Catholics worship Mary?.

It is not a fusion that dissolves persons

Finally, the communion of saints is not a mystical fusion in which persons dissolve into an impersonal Whole, as in some Eastern spiritualities. It is the opposite. The deeper the union, the more fully persons are themselves: Mary remains Mary; every saint keeps a distinct face and history. The image is not a drop disappearing into the ocean, but a family, where unity grows together with the distinction of its members:

“When mutual charity and the unanimous praise of the Most Holy Trinity make us share fellowship with one another, all of us who are sons of God and form one family in Christ respond to the intimate vocation of the Church.” — Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 51, quoted in § 959^[36]

The communion of saints is not an optional devotion. It is one of the Creed’s most consoling truths. It affirms that death does not break the Church, that charity is stronger than separation, and that no act of faith, love, or suffering offered in Christ is ever lost to others. Pope Paul VI summarized it in the Credo of the People of God:

“We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are attaining their purification, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion the merciful love of God and his saints is always attentive to our prayers.” — Paul VI, Credo of the People of God, 30 June 1968^[37]

Related Ignispedia articles:

• The Communion of Saints and Intercession — the complete study: may Christians pray to saints, the distinction between latria and dulia, Protestant objections based on 1 Timothy 2:5, biblical foundations, and the practice of the early Church.
• What is the Mystical Body of Christ? — the Pauline image underlying the communion of saints.
• Should Catholics pray to the saints? and Why ask for the saints’ intercession? — intercession in practice.
• Why pray for the dead? and What does the Church teach about purgatory? — solidarity with the suffering Church.
• What is an indulgence? — applying the goods of the “treasury of the Church” to the living and the dead.

Principal sources

• Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§ 946–962 (official text on vatican.va) and §§ 2116–2117 (spiritualism and divination).
• Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium (1964), chapter VII, nos. 49–51.
• Roman Catechism (Catechism of the Council of Trent, 1566), Part I, chapter 10, The Communion of Saints.
• Saint Thomas Aquinas, In Symbolum Apostolorum expositio, art. 10.
• Paul VI, Solemn Profession of Faith (Credo of the People of God), 30 June 1968, no. 30.
• Infobox image: Fra Angelico, The Last Judgment, detail of the elect and the saints, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.