traditio
Sacred Tradition
The living transmission of the Gospel in the Church, from the apostles onward, through teaching, worship and life; with Scripture, one of the two ways the one Word of God reaches us.
a handing over, or handing on
Before a line of the New Testament was written, the apostles were handing on what they had received, by preaching, by example and by the way they celebrated the sacraments. That handing-on, continued in the Church under the Spirit, is Sacred Tradition with a capital T. The Catechism teaches that Scripture and Tradition flow from the same divine wellspring and together make up a single deposit of the Word of God, and that the Church draws certainty about revealed truth from both. It is distinct from the many local “traditions” — customs, devotions, disciplines — that can be adapted or dropped.
Councils
Where the Church settled or debated this. Follow a council to read our article on it, or the decrees themselves.
- 1545–1563Council of Trentthe decrees
- 1962–1965Second Vatican Councilthe decrees
Sources checked 29 September 2026