Figures

who it looks to — gods, spirits, ancestors; some rooms are empty on principle Part of Belief →

The ultimate — what this line takes as final

T The Holy Spirit — the person without a face. Fully God and structurally hard to picture, which is why the Spirit gets a bird. The creed of 381 had to add a clause insisting on the divinity, because the argument was still running. The last hundred years have belonged to the Spirit: Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity went from nothing to more than half a billion people. Domain Sanctification, gifts, and the church's continuing lifeStanding Worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son Meet them — context →

G God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God in three persons: the Father who creates, the Son who redeems, the Spirit who sustains — relationship inside the divine life itself. Domain Creation, redemption, sanctificationStanding Worshipped — the sole object of Christian prayer Meet them — context & 1 source →

J Jesus — the content of the faith. Teacher, healer, crucified and risen: Christianity does not merely follow his teaching — it claims him, personally, as God's self-disclosure. Domain The incarnate Son — teacher, healer, crucified and risen LordStanding Not the founder of the faith so much as its content Meet them — context & 2 sources →

Prophets & messengers — who carries the word between

J John the Forerunner. Ate locusts, wore hair, told a king what he thought of his marriage, and lost his head for it. The East gives him the honour it gives nobody else but Mary, and he stands to Christ's left on every iconostasis in the world. Domain Preparing the way; the last prophet of the old orderStanding In the East the greatest of the saints after Mary — his place on the iconostasis is fixed by rule Meet them — context →

T The angels. Messengers and ministers — Gabriel announces, Michael contends; created spirits in service, never to be worshipped. Domain Message, protection, praiseStanding Venerated, never worshipped Meet them — context →

Saints & exemplars — lives held up as the pattern

M Mary Magdalene — apostle to the apostles. She found the tomb, and the men did not believe her. Then a sixth-century pope merged her with an anonymous sinful woman and a Mary of Bethany, and fourteen centuries of art painted her as a penitent prostitute on the strength of it. Rome unpicked the conflation in 1969 and raised her feast to the apostles' rank in 2016. Domain First witness of the resurrection; the one sent to tell the menStanding Her feast was raised to the rank of the apostles' in 2016, with the old title apostle to the apostles restored Meet them — context & 1 source →

T The saints. The faithful dead, alive in God — venerated and asked for prayers in the Catholic and Orthodox streams; honored as examples in most Protestant ones. Domain Intercession and exampleStanding Asked for prayers in the Catholic and Orthodox streams; honored as examples in most others Meet them — context →

T The martyrs. Not a historical category. Twenty-one Coptic and Ghanaian labourers were beheaded on a Libyan beach in February 2015 and were in the Coptic calendar within the week. The altar in an ancient church is a tomb, and the relic underneath is the point. Domain Witness under execution — the Greek word martyr simply means witnessStanding The first Christians ever venerated; altars in the older churches are still built over relics Meet them — context →

A Antony of Egypt — the first one to leave. He heard one verse read in church, sold everything, and walked into the desert around the year 270. Others followed him out, which was not the plan, and monasticism — Coptic first, then Greek, then Latin, then everything — starts there. Domain The desert, and the pattern for every monk who came afterStanding Venerated in every ancient church; the Coptic monastery bearing his name has been continuously inhabited since the fourth century Meet them — context & 1 source →

A Augustine of Hippo — the North African who set the terms. A bishop in what is now Algeria whose arguments about grace, will and sin became the operating system of Western Christianity. The Reformation was largely Augustine against Augustine; Calvin quoted him constantly, and so did the Council of Trent. Domain Grace, sin, the will, memory, time, and the two citiesStanding A doctor of the Latin church and a saint in the Greek one; the Reformation and its opponents both fought using his sentences Meet them — context & 1 source →

M Mary — the yes. The incarnation turned on a consent: let it be done to me. The most depicted woman in history, because the doctrine needed a mother. Domain Mother of Jesus; the human yes on which the incarnation turnedStanding Venerated East and West; the Reformation's quietest dividing line Meet them — context & 2 sources →

O Our Lady of Guadalupe. A brown-skinned, pregnant Virgin who spoke Nahuatl to an indigenous man on a hill that had been a goddess's shrine. Twelve million people go to her basilica in the days around 12 December. Most of Latin American Catholicism runs through this figure rather than around her. Domain Mexico, the Americas, and everyone told they do not countStanding The most visited Marian shrine on earth — roughly twelve million people in the five days around 12 December Meet them — context & 1 source →

P Peter — the rock that cracked. Denied him three times, was asked three times do you love me, and was given the flock anyway: apostleship as restored failure. Domain First of the apostles; the denier restored to shepherdStanding The apostle chosen for his failures as much as his faith Meet them — context & 1 source →

T Thomas — and the church he left in India. He asked for evidence and got it, which earned him a nickname he never shook. The St Thomas Christians of Kerala hold that he landed at Kodungallur in 52 CE, and have been a distinct church, in Syriac, ever since — older than the Christianity of Britain, Germany or Russia. Domain The one who wanted to see the wounds; and, in Kerala, the apostle of IndiaStanding The St Thomas Christians of Kerala date their church to his arrival at Kodungallur in 52 CE — older than the Christianity of most of Europe Meet them — context →

P Paul — the turned persecutor. Knocked down on the Damascus road and got up someone else: his letters carried the faith across the empire and still set its arguments. Domain Apostle to the nations; the persecutor turned planterStanding The faith's first theologian; every Christian century argues with him Meet them — context & 1 source →

T Tekle Haymanot — the one who stood. Ethiopia's national saint, painted with six wings and one leg: the other, the tradition says, gave way after seven years of praying upright. He founded the monastery at Debre Libanos, and its abbot outranked everyone in the Ethiopian church except the Abuna. Domain Ethiopian monasticism; founder of the monastery that became Debre Libanos in 1284Standing Ethiopia's great national saint; churches named for him run from Addis Ababa to Michigan Meet them — context →

C Constantine and Helena. He stopped the persecutions, called the council at Nicaea, and made the executed man's sign into a military standard. The East canonised him as equal to the apostles. The West has spent a century and a half arguing about whether that year was the church's rescue or its capture. Domain The emperor who stopped the persecutions and convened the first councilStanding Saints in the East, titled equal to the apostles; in the West, the moment the church started being uneasy about itself Meet them — context →

Adversaries — named in order to be refused

S Satan — the adversary. A creature, not a rival god: the accuser whose defeat is already announced. Christianity keeps its dualism strictly temporary. Domain Temptation and accusationStanding Renounced — addressed only in the baptismal no Meet them — context →