In a world of fiercely guarded corporate names and logos, it should be easy to understand this feast. The letters IHS are an abbreviation of Jesous, the Greek name for Jesus. Although St. Paul might claim credit for promoting devotion to the Holy Name because Paul wrote in Philippians that God the Father gave Christ Jesus “that name that is above every name” (see 2:9), this devotion became popular because of 12th-century Cistercian monks and nuns but especially through the preaching of St. Bernardine of Siena, a 15th-century Franciscan.
Bernardine used devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus as a way of overcoming bitter and often bloody class struggles and family rivalries or vendettas in Italian city-states. The devotion grew, partly because of Franciscan and Dominican preachers. It spread even more widely after the Jesuits began promoting it in the 16th century. In 1530, Pope Clement V approved an Office of the Holy Name for the Franciscans. In 1721, Pope Innocent XIII extended this feast to the entire Church.
COMMENT: Jesus died and rose for the sake of all people. No one can trademark or copyright Jesus' name. Jesus is the Son of God and son of Mary. Everything that exists was created in and through the Son of God (see Colossians 1:15-20). The name of Jesus is debased if any Christian uses it as justification for berating non-Christians. Jesus reminds us that because we are all related to him we are, therefore, all related to one another.
QUOTE: “Glorious name, gracious name, name of love and of power! Through you sins are forgiven, through you enemies are vanquished, through you the sick are freed from their illness, through you those suffering in trials are made strong and cheerful. You bring honor to those who believe, you teach those who preach, you give strength to the toiler, you sustain the weary” (St. Bernardine of Siena).
IHESUS or IHESOUS According to Dr. Ralph Wilson of Jesus Walk, Catholic Saints, Fish Eaters and Jesus Family Tomb, IHS is an abbreviation of Jesus' name, which in Greek is IHESUS or IHESOUS. The first letters of the Greek spelling of Jesus' name are iota, eta and sigma, which translate to I, H and S, respectively, in Latin or English.
Peace and the Jesuits Wilson, Fish Eaters and Jesus Family Tomb all assert that IHS sometimes is translated as an acronym for Iesus Hominum Salvator, or Jesus Savior of Men. Catholic Saints explains that this ...
Really it should be written IHSOUS. The Greek letter 'eta' represents the English long 'a' as in gate. In Greek a capital eta is written as 'H'. Robert is correct.
Tuesday, January 15th 2013 at 3:47AM
Steve Williams
@ Steve,
I don't know much about it, it's all Greek to me! ((Lol))
Seriously though... Thank you for the clarification because Robert always cracks me up.
Jen, here's a picture of the earliest use of the abbreviation (on the lower left of the coin), in this case we have the lower-case eta, which looks like our lower-case 'h'.
