Links for the Iconography of the Holy Trinity

Master of the Trinity, The Holy Trinity
From the Petites Heures of Jean de Berry
French (Bourges), c. 1385-1390
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 18014, fol. 137v

In this image the Trinity is shown as two identical figures representing the Father and 

the Son and a dove representing the Holy Spirit.  This is only one of many attempts 

by artists to give visual form to the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Every year the Sunday after Pentecost is devoted to the contemplation of the Holy Trinity, a distinctly Christian belief.  

Christians believe in and worship One God.  But they believe that this One God is composed of Three "Persons", called the Holy Trinity in human language.1  What Christians do NOT believe in is three gods.  Rather, in some way that we humans cannot understand, God is a community of love whose essence is being.  

Trinitarian belief is unique among the monotheistic religions, not appearing in either Judaism or Islam, although it is hinted at in the Old Testament.  There are God's words at the creation of humans (Genesis 1:26-27) and in the three visitors who come to Abraham's tent in Mamre, who are treated variously as three and as one and that one is "the Lord" (Genesis 18).  It is also part of Christianity from the very beginning.   

Within twenty to twenty-five years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Saint Paul wrote in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you." (2 Corinthians 13:13)  This letter is generally dated to the year 57.2  So, this is not a belief that appeared after a couple of hundred years, but one that was already there during the lifetime of the Apostles (remember that Peter is believed to have been executed in the year 64).  These people who knew Jesus of Nazareth, who had traveled with him, who had eaten with him, who had seen him put to death and had seen him rise again to walk and eat with them had come to the understanding that he was not only from God, but actually was a manifestation of God.  These men and women who had seen him ascend to heaven and had hidden away in prayer in the days after that event had experienced something on the tenth day that had caused them to cast caution aside and to boldly proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of God, was God and that they had received a divine spirit, a Holy Spirit, that sent them forth to preach this to everyone.  By 57 they had come to understand that all these experiences were experiences of the one God, but that these experiences were indicative of different tones within the harmony that was God. 

These Apostles and disciples, Jesus’ companions during His life, were Jewish, as was Paul, and, therefore, presumably strong believers in only one God.  This early appearance of belief in God as three tones, three "Persons", implies a very profound shift in their thinking. One can only presume that this shift came from the revelation they experienced from the Resurrection, the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit.  

Understanding this exceptional revelation of the nature of God is one that has taxed the minds of Christians, including great poets and great theologians, as well as ordinary believers, for the past 2,000 years.  It remains mysterious.  

It has also taxed those who work in the visual arts.  How can one depict a God who is one but also three?  How does one visualize something that seems impossible to express in language?  There have been various themes that artists have developed over the centuries and I have reviewed several of them in the past decade.  So, I offer these links to you as an exploration of the attempt by Christian artists to express this great mystery of the faith.

This essay is the most general of the group.

Iconography of the Holy Trinity – Imagining The Unimaginable   

The other essays look at specific forms which the artistic imagination has developed to present aspects of the life of the Holy Trinity.

Iconography of the Holy Trinity -- The Throne of Grace

Iconography of the Holy Trinity -- The Pietà of the Father, Divine Love Made Visible

This essay deals with the visual representation of the Holy Spirit as a dove.

A Dove Descending

If you wish to delve deeper into this fascinating subject you might want to check out the following You Tube segments:

A recent video on of theological reflections on the Trinity by Bishop Robert Barron

And a recording of the legendary preacher, the Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen.

1.  I have put the word Persons in quotes to signify that this is only a feeble description of the reality of God.  However, our human speech does not really have an appropriate word for this reality and the word "person" (in whatever language you speak) is the best we can do.

2. For the date see https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2corinthians/0

© M. Duffy, 2024