Hypostasis (Person)

A Person: one of the three in the Trinity, or the one Person of the incarnate Son. Until the fourth century the word was nearly a synonym of ousia, essence, and the Nicene anathemas themselves use the two together, which is why the East suspected the West of making the three one person and the West suspected the East of making them three gods. The Cappadocian Fathers fixed the distinction the Church has kept: ousia is what is common, hypostasis what is particular, as humanity is common to Peter and Paul and each is someone. Father, Son and Spirit are one ousia and three hypostases, distinct only by origin. Chalcedon then applied the word to Christ: one hypostasis in two natures. Much modern Orthodox thought about what a person is starts here.