The Trinity (Triangle)
An equilateral triangle stands for one God in three equal Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
What the Trinity (Triangle) means
Christians have long used an equilateral triangle for the Holy Trinity: three equal sides joined in one figure, for one God in three Persons. The Catechism teaches that "we do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons," each of them God whole and entire (CCC 253), and calls the Trinity the central mystery of Christian faith and life (CCC 234).
The triangle is often surrounded by rays of light, and an eye is frequently painted inside it as the Eye of God looking down on the people. You find it on altars, church ceilings, above church entrances and on tombstones.
HistoryArtists used several forms for the Trinity, including three foils, three figures, or a hand for the Father, a cross for the Son and a dove for the Holy Spirit arranged in a triangle. In the Middle Ages the triangle also appeared alone, labeled with the names of the three Persons and Deus est ("is God") at the center. Pope John XXII, in the fourteenth century, extended the feast of the Holy Trinity, kept on the first Sunday after Pentecost, to the whole Church.
