Ihs meaning catholic

Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. A monogram of the name of Jesus Christ.

It is extremely common to walk into a Catholic church and see the letters IHS etched on a crucifix or prominently featured in a stained glass window. What do they mean? In the early centuries of the Church it was a secret symbol, often etched on tombs of Christians. Then in the 15th century, Saint Bernadine of Siena went on a preaching campaign to promote reverence to the Holy Name of Jesus and encouraged Christians to put IHS on the doorways of their homes. A century later in St. Ignatius adopted the monogram to represent his newly founded order, the Society of Jesus.

Ihs meaning catholic

What a strange set of letters. The study of writing graphology is an interesting science because written languages go back some five thousand years. It is believed that the earliest form of writing, not counting cave paintings, was Sumerian Cuneiform. Cuneiform writing dates back to earlier than BC. It is a kind of symbol-writing system rather than an alphabet. Letters that make up alphabets are also tiny symbols, of course, but alphabets came a little later in history. Symbol pictures of ancient systems eventually became too cumbersome for use with a growing literate class. So they were just shrunken down to smaller and starker graphic forms based on the pictures. The best illustration of this transformation from symbol pictures to letters is the Hebrew alphabet, which is quite interesting and expressive. Its ancient pictograph looked exactly like the head of an ox, horns and all. Aleph is the first letter of the Modern Hebrew alphabet. And it even sort of resembles the earlier symbol, if you use a little imagination. This is to say that languages and their graphics naturally go through transitions over time. This is especially true when one language takes much of its substance from another. Latin, for instance, took much of its substance from the Greek language.

In the early centuries of the Church it was a secret symbol, often etched on tombs of Christians. Learn how your comment data is processed. Like this: Like Loading

They are the first letters of one from two words in Greek language: Christ and Jesus Christ. The abbreviation in form " IHS " appeared in first time on the coins of Justinian II on the turn of the 7th and 8th centuries. There appeared also Latin interpretations of the abbreviation IHS , among others:. These developed inscriptions were most likely formed because in the Middle Ages people mistakenly read the letter E as H. According to a legend , this inscription with the cross was seen by emperor Constantine the Great in his sleep before the battle against Maxentius in on the Ponte Milvio. Commentators unfriendly to the Catholic Church sometimes interpret the abbreviation IHS as derived from the solar idols of the Egyptian mythology : Isis , Horus and Seth.

Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. A monogram of the name of Jesus Christ. In the next century the "sigla" chi-rho occurs not only as an abbreviation but also as a symbol. These Greek monograms continued to be used in Latin during the Middle Ages. Eventually the right meaning was lost, and erroneous interpretation of IHS led to the faulty orthography "Jhesus". The monogram became more popular after the twelfth century when St. Bernard insisted much on devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus , and the fourteenth, when the founder of the Jesuati, Blessed John Colombini d. Sometimes above the H appears a cross and underneath three nails, while the whole figure is surrounded by rays.

Ihs meaning catholic

It is extremely common to walk into a Catholic church and see the letters IHS etched on a crucifix or prominently featured in a stained glass window. What do they mean? In the early centuries of the Church it was a secret symbol, often etched on tombs of Christians. Then in the 15th century, Saint Bernadine of Siena went on a preaching campaign to promote reverence to the Holy Name of Jesus and encouraged Christians to put IHS on the doorways of their homes. A century later in St. Ignatius adopted the monogram to represent his newly founded order, the Society of Jesus. The symbol now permeates Christian art all over the world. Articles like these are sponsored free for every Catholic through the support of generous readers just like you. Thanks to their partnership in our mission, we reach more than 20 million unique users per month! Help us continue to bring the Gospel to people everywhere through uplifting and transformative Catholic news, stories, spirituality, and more.

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Notify me of follow-up comments by email. The latter holy missionary, at the end of his sermons , was wont to exhibit this monogram devoutly to his audience, for which some blamed him; he was even called before Martin V. Bernardine of Siena d. Letters that make up alphabets are also tiny symbols, of course, but alphabets came a little later in history. Page Talk. The dot is absent in the Greek, which is the only difference between the two written letters. The Church could easily have adopted such a misunderstanding. The son of one of those men was Constantine the Great. See what I mean? A century later in St.

They are the first letters of one from two words in Greek language: Christ and Jesus Christ.

Sometimes above the H appears a cross and underneath three nails, while the whole figure is surrounded by rays. See what I mean? IHS became the accepted iconographical characteristic of St. After Constantine was proclaimed Caesar, a power struggle ensued between him and his rival Maxentius. This is particularly true with matters of the ancient Church about which we have very unreliable information. Visit Sacred Windows at www. Support Aleteia with a gift today! Help us continue to bring the Gospel to people everywhere through uplifting and transformative Catholic news, stories, spirituality, and more. Perhaps you are now starting to see the problem. Tools Tools. What a strange set of letters. One obvious example is the ubiquitous St.