---
title: "What does 'one, holy, catholic, apostolic' mean?"
url: "https://seekabove.com/answers/what-do-the-four-marks-of-the-church-mean"
description: "Every Sunday Catholics profess belief in “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic” Church. These four words — the four marks — describe what the true Church is by God’s gift: undivided in faith, made holy…"
published: "2026-06-05"
updated: "2026-06-05"
category: "The Church"
scripture: ["John 17:21", "Ephesians 4:4-6", "Ephesians 5:25-27", "Matthew 28:19-20", "Ephesians 2:19-20"]
catechism: "CCC 811, 813, 823, 830–831, 857, 866–867, 869–870"
---

# What does 'one, holy, catholic, apostolic' mean?

## Short answer

Every Sunday Catholics profess belief in "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic"
Church. These four words — the four marks — describe what the true Church is by
God's gift: undivided in faith, made holy by Christ, sent to all peoples, and
rooted in the apostles. They are both qualities the Church already has and goals
it is always growing into.

## Full explanation

The four marks come straight from the Nicene Creed, recited at Mass for over
sixteen centuries. They are not a slogan the Church wrote about itself; they are a
confession of what God has made the Church to be. The key to reading them rightly
is to remember that each mark is first a *gift* from Christ and only then a *task*
for his people. The Church doesn't manufacture these qualities; it receives them —
and then must live up to them.

**One.** Christ founded a single Church, not a federation of rival groups. Its
unity isn't enforced uniformity — there are many languages, cultures, and
spiritual traditions inside it — but a shared faith, shared sacraments, and a
shared communion under the bishops with the Pope. Think of an orchestra: dozens of
different instruments, one score, one conductor, one piece of music. The variety
serves the unity rather than fracturing it. Where Christians are divided, the
Church grieves it as a wound and prays and works for the unity Jesus asked for.

**Holy.** This one surprises people, because the Church is full of sinners. But
"holy" doesn't mean its members are flawless; it means its source is holy. Christ
is holy, his teaching is holy, the sacraments truly give grace, and the Spirit is
genuinely at work — so the Church can make saints out of sinners. A hospital is
"healing" even though it's full of sick people, precisely because that is where
healing happens. The Church is holy in the same way: not a museum of the perfect,
but the place where the unholy are made new.

**Catholic.** The word means "universal" or "according to the whole." It points
in two directions. First, the Church holds the *whole* faith — the complete deposit
Christ gave, not a slimmed-down version. Second, it is *for everyone* — every
nation, class, and culture, with no group it was not meant to reach. From a small
band in Jerusalem, it was sent to fill the earth, the same faith taking root in
every language without ceasing to be the same faith.

**Apostolic.** The Church still stands on the foundation Jesus laid through the
apostles. This shows up three ways: it keeps teaching what the apostles handed on;
it guards that teaching faithfully across the centuries; and its bishops trace an
unbroken line of authority back to the Twelve through ordination. It's like a
family that can name every generation back to its founder, still telling the same
story and bearing the same name. The Church today is not a later invention but the
grown-up version of the community Jesus commissioned.

Taken together, the four marks let you recognise the Church Christ founded — and
they keep the Church honest, because each one is also a summons to become more
fully what it already is.

## Why this matters

The marks give you a way to test claims about "the real Church." They also set the
agenda for the Church's own life: to heal its divisions (one), to grow in genuine
holiness (holy), to reach everyone everywhere (catholic), and to stay faithful to
what was handed down rather than reinvent the faith for each age (apostolic). And
they reassure the ordinary believer: the faith you hold is the same one the
apostles preached, kept whole and offered to all.

## Common misunderstanding

People often hear "holy" and conclude the Church is claiming its members are
sinless — then point to scandals as proof it's a fraud. But the Church has never
claimed its members are without sin; it claims its *source*, Christ, is holy and
makes sinners holy. The failures of churchmen are a betrayal of the mark, not a
disproof of it. Holiness describes where the Church is heading and the grace that
gets it there, not a verdict that everyone inside has already arrived.

## Scripture connections

- **John 17:21** — Jesus prays that his followers "may all be one," grounding the
  mark of unity.
- **Ephesians 4:4-6** — "one body... one Lord, one faith, one baptism," the basis
  of the Church's oneness.
- **Ephesians 5:25-27** — Christ gives himself to make the Church holy, the source
  of its holiness.
- **Matthew 28:19-20** — the command to make disciples of *all* nations, the
  catholic (universal) mission.
- **Ephesians 2:19-20** — the Church built on the foundation of the apostles, the
  basis of apostolicity.

## Church teaching references

- CCC 811, 813, 823, 830, 831, 857, 866, 867, 869, 870
- The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381), professed at Mass, names the four
  marks.
- The Second Vatican Council's *Lumen Gentium* (1964) develops each mark.

## Reflection question

Of the four marks — one, holy, catholic, apostolic — which one do you find hardest
to believe about the Church right now, and what would it take for you to see it
more clearly?