Image 1 of 1: Triumph of the Name of Jesus, Giovanni Battista Gaulli
Saints and feasts
The Holy Name of Jesus
The Holy Name of Jesus points to Christ and His saving work, and to the Church's long practice of praying with His holy name.
The reading
ⓘ Butler source
Butler's Lives of the Saints, Volume I (January-February-March), January 2, The Holy Name of Jesus, Christian Classics 1990, pp. 18-19.
This feast begins with the Gospel itself. The child is called Jesus because He will save His people from their sins, so the name is never just a sound or title but a revelation of who Christ is and why He came into the world. From that meaning the feast turns naturally to the Church's devotion: Christians learned to invoke the Holy Name in prayer, preaching, repentance, and consolation, until reverence for it grew into a distinct liturgical observance. Western devotion especially loved the name of Jesus as both sweetness for the heart and strength against sin, while the liturgy placed the feast near the close of the Christmas cycle.
East and West did not always emphasize the same mysteries in the same way, but both kept the central truth. This is not a biography at all. It is a meditation on the Savior made present even in the very name by which His people call upon Him.
Historical note
January 2 is presented here as a feast, not as an ordinary saint's biography.
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Nearby saint lives
Move through the calendar without leaving the saint library. These nearby feast-day lives help keep the reading trail connected.
More prayers, novenas and litanies
More devotions
Continue in prayer
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Connected novena
Novena to the Holy Name
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Connected novena
Novena for the New Year
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Connected novena
Holy Name of Jesus Novena (Complete 1925 Edition)
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Connected litany
Litany of the Most Holy Name of Jesus
A traditional litany connected with this saint or feast.
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Keep learning
What is prayer?
Read question 1099 and its complete answer in the Baltimore Catechism.
Read the Beatitudes in Matthew 5