What are the essential characteristics shared by the Holy Trinity? And what are the specific characteristics of each Hypostasis?

The three Hypostases have some characteristics that they share in common, such as the characteristic of having no beginning or end. All three Hypostases are characterized by being loving, good, holy, creative, divinely caring, all-powerful, everywhere present, indescribable, all-knowing, etc.

Of the characteristics of each Hypostasis, St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “the specific distinctive feature observed in them is not confused in the case of each of the hypostases, nor are the identifying signs swapped among them, such that the mark of the paternal hypostasis is transferred to the Son or the Spirit … Proper to the Father is to exist from no cause; one cannot perceive the same in the case of the Son and the Spirit. For the Son ‘comes from the Father’ as the scripture says (John 16:28), and the Spirit is ‘from God’ (1 Cor. 2:12) and ‘proceeds from the Father’ (John 15:26).”³⁹⁰ There is no separation of one Hypostasis from the other two Hypostases, because the essence is one.

St. Epiphanius uses the phrase, “And the Spirit, is the one ‘proceeding from the Father’ (John 15:26) and ‘receiving from the Son’ (John 16:14) … the Holy Spirit from the same

390 Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on the Our Father, An English Translation with Commentary and Supporting Studies. Eds., Matthieu Cassin, Hélène Grelier-Deneux, Françoise Vinel. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, vol. 168. (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 2021) Homily 3: p. 135.

ousia of the Father and Son.”³⁹¹ St. Gregory of Nyssa also uses the same phrase: “‘proceeding from the Father,’ ‘receiving from the Son.’”³⁹²