Communio sanctorum
On holy ones and holy things
In the Apostle’s Creed, we confess that we believe in “the holy catholic Church” and “the communion of saints.”1 But what is this communion? If we take a look at the Latin original, we find sanctórum communiónem, combining the genetive masculine OR neuter plural of sānctus (‘sacred, holy’) and the accusative singular feminine of commūniō (‘communion, association, fellowship, community’).2
Now, one thing I find interesting is that sanctórum is both masculine and neuter, which denotes different aspects. If we read it as masculine, it denotes the communion of saints, i.e. the communion of those who are holy, those who God made holy through baptism. This is the standard translation into English and it is probably the main meaning behind the phrase. We are not just separated individuals, we are a communion of saints who believe, worship, and pray together.
But if we read it as neuter, it denotes the communion of those who gather around holy things, i.e. those who gather around the means of grace, the prayers, etc. The standard reading is the masculine one but these aspects do not contradict, and I think they should be read together.
The Church is the communion of holy ones who gather around that which is holy. And that is also reflected in the definition of the Church in the Lutheran Confessio Augustana.
In art. VII, we confess that the Church is “the assembly of saints (lat. congregatio sanctorum) in which the gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly.”3 What we see here is that the focus is on those who are gathered together, but even so, the focus is not on them as individual persons but on them as they are constituted as the church in the context of the liturgy – in the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments. And, as we can also see, Confessio Augustana puts the emphasis on the gathered local congregation, not just the communion of saints but the assembly of saints (congregatio sanctorum). This is not in contradiction to the Apostle’s Creed, which remains part of the Lutheran confessions, but it shows us that the Church cannot exist in the abstract. She is constituted in the real and tangible celebration of the liturgy, were “the gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly.”
And therefore it tells us that while “the communion of saints” is an accurate translation of sanctórum communiónem, and is probably the translation we should have in the creed, it must be understood as a communion of saints gathered around that which made and makes them holy. So remember that. Go to Church, get baptised if you have not, celebrate the feast, receive the holy word and the Holy Eucharist of God made flesh. Then, and only then, as you receive God in those things where He has promised to be for us, as saviour, can you be confident that you have been made holy and in Christ.
See The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, eds., Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert (Fortress Press, 2000), 22; The Roman Missal, third typical edition (Washington, D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011), 19, cf. Missale Romanum, Editio Typica Tertia (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2008), 19. References to Missale Romanum or Roman Missal use (identical) paragraph numbers, not page numbers.
See Die Bekenntnisschriften der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche, vollständige neuedition, ed., Irene Dingel (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014), 43; Missale Romanum, 19.
For the Latin and German (with introductions), see Die Bekenntnisschriften, ed., Dingel, 63-225. For the translation (with introductions), see The Book of Concord, eds., Kolb and Wengert, 27-107.