Numbers, Sacred

Numbers, Sacred.

In a mystical sense, one is Unity; two, represents Unity repeated; three, the Creator, Trinity; four, the world, and by the Second Adam, paradise; five, the synagogue; six, perfection and creation, the hour when Jesus was crucified; seven, rest, as in the Sabbath, love- grace, pardon, composed of three and four; eight, beatitude and resurrection (eight persons were saved at the deluge); nine, angels; ten, the law of fear or salvation, in allusion to the denarius given, to the laborers in the vineyard; twelve, apostles; fourteen, perfection; three hundred, redemption; fifty, beatitude; one hundred, virgins; sixty, widows; and thirty, wives, according to St. Jerome on Matthew 13:8; 888, Jesus the Savior. The uneven number of the collects in Mass, three, five, or seven, was symbolical of the Church, desire of unity.