The Most Holy Name of Jesus

The Most Holy Name of Jesus is the memorial that honors the sacred name given to the Son of God at his circumcision, the name revealed by the angel to Mary and Joseph before his birth — Jesus, which means "God saves" — for he would save his people from their sins. In this name, the Apostle Paul declares, every knee should bend in heaven and on earth, for God has bestowed on Jesus the name that is above every name.

Devotion to the Holy Name was fostered with special warmth by St. Bernardine of Siena and the Franciscans in the Middle Ages, who spread the emblem of the name of Jesus and preached its power to console, to sanctify, and to drive away evil, and the Church came to keep a proper feast in its honor, fixed on 3 January in the days after Christmas. It invites the faithful to invoke the name of the Savior with love and reverence, confident that there is salvation in no other name given among men.