There are twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit. The heavenly Jerusalem will be twelve thousand furlongs on all sides, having twelve jeweled foundations, with twelve gates of twelve pearls. there were Twelve Apostles, corresponding to the Twelve Tribes of Israel and the Book of Revelation is filled with imagery built around this number. Ten stands for the Ten Commandments that Christ confirmed for his followers it is the basic multiple for fullness, and any number multiplied by ten (or tens) is the highest possible.Įleven has come to mean incompleteness, as typified among the Apostles after the defection of Judas, who had to be replaced before the Day of Pentecost.
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It is also the typical number of prayer, because the first Christian novena was the nine full days that the Disciples stayed in the Upper Room and prayed after Christ's Ascension until Pentecost Sunday. Nine is the angelic number, since the Bible speaks of the nine choirs of angles. There are eight beatitudes, and Christ rose from the grave on the eighth day after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, symbolized in the octagonal shape of many baptismal fonts. There are seven sacraments, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, seven deadly sins, seven joys, and seven sorrows of Our Lady.Įight is associated with joy and the resurrection. It is the term that stands for perfection. Seven is the symbolic number of charity, grace, and the Holy Spirit. Six were the days of creation, signifying completion and symbolizing the principal attributes of God, namely his power, majesty, wisdom, love, mercy, and justice. Three is the number of persons in the Trinity Christ spent three in the tomb and rose from the dead on the third day.įour evangelists wrote the Gospels the heavenly City of God is perfectly square, with all its dimensions a multiple of four and there are four cardinal virtues, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude.įive wounds in Christ's two hands and feet and his side are still present in his glorified body. Two represents the two distinct natures in Christ, human and divine the two covenants of God with the human race, the Old and the New two ultimate kinds of reality, variously called heaven and earth, soul and body, spirit and matter there are two basic commandments, to love God and one's neighbor as oneself and the final separation on the Last Day into two groups, the saved and the lost. One stands for the oneness of nature in God also one divine person in Christ one true Church founded by Christ and there is one mortal life, one baptism, one death, and after death one judgment before eternity.
Among the more common religious numbers are the following: Drawn from Sacred Scripture, they have become part of the Church's tradition and, in varying degrees, are found everywhere in her liturgy, art, and literature. Numbers, either written or in symbolic form associated with mysteries of the Christian faith. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations).
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