Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

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Gospel according to Luke, 2:21
And after eight days were accomplished, that the Child should be circumcised, His name was called Jesus, which was called by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.

The feast of the Holy Name of Jesus is celebrated in the traditional Roman liturgy on the Sunday between 1 and 6 January, or—when no Sunday occurs—on 2 January. It is closely connected with the Circumcision of the Lord, at which Christ, on the eighth day after His birth, officially received the Name Jesus (Luke 2:21).

Devotion to the Holy Name developed already in the Middle Ages; the feast was established for the whole Church in 1721 by Pope Innocent XIII. On this day the Church does not honor a separate event, but the holy Name itself, in which the mystery of the Incarnation and the Redemption is summed up.

The Christogram IHS

Whoever raises his eyes in our church toward the apse will see, at the center, an IHS monogram, surrounded by rays. It is the ancient Christogram: the first letters of the Name ἸΗΣΟΥΣ (Iēsous). It represents the Holy Name, without depicting Christ as a person.

Saint Bernardine of Siena with the IHS monogram
Saint Bernardine of Siena († 1444, feast day 20 May) traveled preaching through the towns and villages of Italy in the fifteenth century. In his preaching he consistently emphasized the Holy Name of Jesus as the center of Christian life. He promoted devotion to this Name by displaying the IHS monogram—as shown here on the tablet— and urged the people to place this sign visibly on churches, houses, and public places, as a lasting remembrance of Christ. Thus he powerfully contributed to the spread of devotion to the Holy Name.

So great is the reverence and love which we have for the Name of Jesus, that the commemoration of the giving of the Name has been separated from that of the Circumcision, and the Church has instituted a distinct feast for this Sweet Name. Although this feast is of recent date, the devotion from which it arose is as old as the Church itself. Already the Apostle Peter commanded the lame man at the Beautiful Gate to rise in the Name of Jesus. By the invocation of this Name the Fathers in the desert drove out demons. The ancient masters of the spiritual life in the hermitages of Sinai and Syria regarded the invocation of the Name of Jesus as one of the most powerful means to perfection. The same was taught by Saint Bernard, Saint Bernardine of Siena, and so many other saints of the West. The last word which the Christian seeks to stammer on his deathbed is this holy Name, for there is no other name by which we may be saved.

It is customary on this day to pray the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus .