by Giuseppe Monno
Among the ancient Christological and Trinitarian heresies of the second century, one of the most insidious was Modalistic Monarchianism, also known as Patripassianism. Its principal exponent was Noetus of Smyrna, later followed by Sabellius, from whom this doctrine also takes the name Sabellianism.
According to this heresy, God is a single Person who manifests Himself in three different “modes” or “aspects”: as Father in creation and in the giving of the Law, as Son in redemption, and as the Holy Spirit in sanctification. From this it follows that the Father Himself would have become incarnate and suffered on the cross—hence the term Patripassianism (“the Father who suffers”).
Such a conception denies the real distinction of the divine Persons within the Trinity, confusing the Persons into a single Hypostasis and reducing Trinitarian revelation to a mere succession of divine masks or roles. This doctrine was solemnly condemned by the Church, which, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, recognized and defined the revealed truth that in God there is one divine nature in three really distinct Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE
The Gospels clearly manifest this personal distinction. At the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan (Matthew 3:16–17; Mark 1:10–11; Luke 3:21–22), the three divine Persons appear simultaneously: the incarnate Son who receives baptism and prays, the Holy Spirit who descends upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and the Father, as a voice from heaven, says: “This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him.”
This is not a single Person acting in three successive roles, but three distinct Persons acting simultaneously in perfect communion. The same is seen in the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor (Matthew 17:1–8; Mark 9:2–8; Luke 9:28–36): the Son appears transfigured in glory, the Holy Spirit is manifested in the luminous cloud that overshadows the disciples, and the Father again speaks from heaven, saying: “This is my Son, the Chosen One; listen to him.”
In both events, the Trinitarian mystery is revealed in its relational structure: the Father who speaks, the Son who receives the mission, and the Spirit who unites and sanctifies.
THE DISTINCTION OF PERSONS AND THE UNITY OF SUBSTANCE
Sacred Scripture and Tradition teach that the Son is begotten of the Father (John 1:14, 18; 3:16), and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7).
Now, what is begotten cannot be identical with the Person who begets it, and what proceeds cannot be the same Person from whom it proceeds. Therefore, the Son is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. Yet in each Person subsists the same divine substance, undivided and one.
The distinction, therefore, is not one of nature, but of relation of origin.
THE CONDEMNATION OF MODALISM AND THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH
From the time of the Apostolic Fathers and the Apologists, the Church vigorously defended this faith. Tertullian, writing against the Patripassians in his work Adversus Praxean, declared that Praxeas accomplished two evils: he drove out the Paraclete and crucified the Father.
With this paradoxical expression, he exposed the absurdity of Modalism: if the Father and the Son were the same Person, one would have to say that the Father Himself died on the cross.
Later, the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) formulated the Trinitarian doctrine with dogmatic clarity: the Son is consubstantial (“homoousios”) with the Father, and the Holy Spirit is Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father (to which the Latin tradition later added “and from the Son”).
THE REVELATION OF TRINITARIAN LOVE
Finally, the truth of the distinction of Persons is not merely a speculative matter, but concerns the very essence of divine love. God is Trinity precisely because God is love (1 John 4:8): the Father loves the Son and communicates His whole being to Him; the Son receives this love and returns it to the Father; and the Holy Spirit is the Love itself that proceeds from both, the perfect bond of their eternal communion.
If God were a single Person manifesting Himself in different modes, there would be no relation or communion within Him, and therefore no personal love. The Trinitarian mystery reveals that God is eternally relation, self-gift, and perfect communion of Persons.
Thus, in eternal glory and in the life of grace, believers are brought into Trinitarian communion: from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.