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The Most Holy Name of Jesus

Optional Memorial

Feast Day
January 3

The Optional Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus on January 3 is a devotional feast centered on the name given by the angel Gabriel before the Lord's conception (Luke 1:31) and conferred at the circumcision (Luke 2:21). The hymn of Philippians 2:9-11 anchors it scripturally: "God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend."

Devotion to the Holy Name spread in the late medieval period, promoted especially by the Franciscan preacher Saint Bernardine of Siena (d. 1444) and his companion Saint John of Capistrano, who used the IHS monogram in their preaching. The Carmelite, Dominican, and Franciscan orders all received approval to celebrate a votive feast of the Holy Name in the sixteenth century.

Pope Innocent XIII extended the feast to the universal Church in 1721. It was removed from the General Roman Calendar in the 1969 reform but restored as an Optional Memorial on January 3 by Pope Saint John Paul II in the third typical edition of the Roman Missal published in 2002.

The memorial gives liturgical form to a private devotion long cultivated in Catholic life: the recurrence of the holy name in litanies, ejaculatory prayers, and the practice of bowing the head at its mention during Mass, observed by Latin-Rite custom.

The memorial draws together biblical revelation (the angel's command to name the child Jesus, "he will save his people from their sins," Matthew 1:21) and the Pauline confession that salvation comes through this name alone (Acts 4:12). Its reintroduction in 2002 reflected a desire to keep before the faithful the saving content of the name itself, and the duty to honor it in speech.

Catholic Churches Named After The Most Holy Name of Jesus

4 parishes on Catholic Church Times share The Most Holy Name of Jesus's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:

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