Every Jan. 3, the Catholic Church celebrates the Most Holy Name of Jesus and Pope John Paul II  reinstituted the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus to be celebrated on that date.

According to St. Bernardine of Sienna, “This is that Most Holy Name longed for by the patriarchs, anxiously awaited, called upon amid cries of suffering, invoked with sighs, implored with tears, given when the fullness of grace arrives.”

The beginnings of the veneration of the Most Holy Name of Jesus date back to the liturgical celebrations of the 14th century.

St. Bernardine of Siena in the 15th century, along with his disciples, spread the veneration of the Name of Jesus and a century later, around 1530, Pope Clement VII granted the Franciscan order authorization for the celebration of the Office of the Holy Name of Jesus.

St. Bernardine used to carry a wooden placard showing the Eucharist surrounded by rays with the monogram “IHS,” an abbreviation of the Name of Jesus in Greek (Ἰησοῦς).

Later, the devotional tradition added a new meaning to this monogram, turning it into a Latin “Christogram”: “I” for “Iesus” (Jesus); “H” for “Hominum” (of men); “S” for “Salvator” (Savior). That is, IHS means “Jesus, Savior of men.”

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, The name “Jesus” comes from the Latin form of the Greek “Iesous” (Ἰησοῦς), which in turn is the transliteration of the Hebrew “Yeshua” (Yehošuaʕ) or “Yehoshua” (Yehošuaʕ) or, in its contracted form, “Joshua,”  which means “Yahweh is salvation.”