Articles / Special

IHS monogram, with kneeling angels, atop the main altar, Church of the Gesù, Rome (Credit : Jastrow, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Roman Catholics observe the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus on January 3rd each year as a formal way and appointed time to give honor to the Name of Jesus.

Although Saint 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 Saint Bernardine of Siena, a 15th-century Franciscan.

Bernardine actively promoted the devotion to the Holy Name. At the end of his sermons he usually displayed the trigram IHS on a tablet in gold letters. Bernardine would then ask the audience to "adore the Redeemer of mankind". Given that this practice had an unorthodox air, he was brought before Pope Martin V, who instead of rebuking Bernardine, encouraged the practice and joined a procession for it in Rome. The devotion to the Holy Name became so popular in Italy that the IHS trigram was often inscribed over the doorways of houses. The tablet used by Bernardine is now venerated at the basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome.

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.

The Litany of the Holy Name is an old and popular form of prayer in honor of the Name of Jesus. The author is not known. While it probably dates back to the beginning of the 15th century as a private devotion, it was not formally approved for public recitation until 1862 when it was approved by Pope Pius IX. Also common is the Novena in Honor of the Name of Jesus and the chaplet of Our Lord which are part of the many devotions to the Holy Name of Jesus promulgated by the Society of the Holy Name.

- Article by Catholic Time Staff