Sacred mysteries

Wrisberg epitaph in Hildesheim Cathedral, showing distribution of the divine graces by means of the church and the sacraments, or mysteries. By Johannes Hopffe 1585.

In Christianity, sacred mysteries are the areas of supernatural phenomena associated with a divinity or a religious belief and praxis. Sacred mysteries may be either:

  1. Religious beliefs, rituals or practices which are kept secret from the uninitiated.
  2. Beliefs of the religion which are public knowledge but cannot be easily explained by normal rational or scientific means.

A mystagogue or hierophant is a holder and teacher of secret knowledge in the former sense above, while mysticism may be defined as an area of philosophical or religious thought focusing on mysteries in the latter sense.


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