Ihs meaning catholic

It skye lynn extremely common to walk into a Catholic church and see the letters IHS etched on a crucifix or prominently featured in a stained ihs meaning catholic window. What do they mean? In the early centuries of the Church it was a secret symbol, often etched on tombs of Christians, ihs meaning catholic. 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.

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.

Ihs meaning catholic

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. Nevertheless, present scientific knowledge does not confirm such interpretations. Contents move to sidebar hide. Page Talk. Read Change Change source View history. Tools Tools. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons. Categories : Jesus Christian symbols.

Yet, the misunderstanding seemed to win out as the symbol became a commonplace way of writing the Name of Jesus in Western Latin Rite religious culture.

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.

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.

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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. Ignatius of Loyola adopted the monogram in his seal as general of the Society of Jesus , and thus it became the emblem of his institute. What little we know about him historically is that he was a Roman soldier who converted to Christianity. When the symbol was adopted by Christians of the Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire Greek and Latin were the two official languages of the Empire , it took on the Latin letters. MLA citation. 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. Enjoying your time on Aleteia? Tools Tools. A century later in St. Visit Sacred Windows at www. And maybe this difference is close enough to the Greek to cause the confusion. What do they mean?

A monogram of the name of Jesus Christ.

After Constantine was proclaimed Caesar, a power struggle ensued between him and his rival Maxentius. What little we know about him historically is that he was a Roman soldier who converted to Christianity. Daily meditation. Join our Lenten Campaign Contemporary sources reliably report the story of the battle and indicate that on the night before the battle, Constantine received a vision. And the rest is history. His great passion is educating others about the power of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness. A century later in St. See what I mean? Categories : Jesus Christian symbols.