The Catechism 253 is clear in saying: The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the “consubstantial Trinity”. The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire. In the words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), “Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature.

Symbolizing the fact that the three divine persons are of equal essence, we see: 

– All three angels are the same in form and size; – All three carry the same staves in their hands; – All three sit on the same type of throne; – Each figure is clothed in the same types of garments – chiton and himation – which are individually distinct; – The characteristic tone of the garments works with a limited palette of colors: purple, pale green, and the one color that is common to all three – an intense blue.