Holy Name of Jesus

For the feast day, see Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.
"Holy Name" redirects here. For other uses, see Holy Name (disambiguation).

IHS monogram, with kneeling angels, atop the main altar, Church of the Gesù, Rome

In Catholicism, the veneration of the Holy Name of Jesus (also Most Holy Name of Jesus, Italian: Santissimo Nome di Gesù) developed as a separate type of devotion in the early modern period, in parallel to that of the Sacred Heart. The Litany of the Holy Name is a Roman-rite Catholic prayer, probably of the 15th century (Bernardino of Siena and John of Capistrano).[1] The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus was introduced in 1530.

The veneration of Nomina sacra in the form of variants of the Christogram has a tradition going back to early Christianity.[2][3][4] Related practices of devotion exist in Eastern Christianity (cf. Jesus Prayer).[5] The feast day is celebrated either as the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus or as that of Circumcision of Jesus, in various Christian churches.

  1. ^ Mershman, F. (1910). Litany of the Holy Name. In The Catholic Encyclopedia New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 30 April 2017 from New Advent
  2. ^ Hunter, Sylvester. Outlines of dogmatic theology, Volume 2, 2010. ISBN 1-146-98633-5. p. 443.
  3. ^ Gieben, Servus. Christian sacrament and devotion. 1997. ISBN 90-04-06247-5. p. 18.
  4. ^ Becker, Udo. The Continuum encyclopedia of symbols. 2000. ISBN 0-8264-1221-1. p. 54.
  5. ^ Houlden, Leslie. Jesus: the complete guide. 2006. ISBN 0-8264-8011-X. p. 426.