My mother told me that these initials stood for "I Have Suffered." We were in church looking at a monogram. And I have been told a million times what it really means. Of this, I was reminded by Philip Kosloski, in his article in Aleteia, IHS - What does the Monogram Mean?
Mr. Kosloski explains that it isn't a monogram. It's a Christogram because it's not initials, but rather the name, Jesus.
Dating all the way back to the third century, Christians shortened the name of Jesus by only writing the first three letters of his name in Greek, ΙΗΣ (from his full name ΙΗΣΟΥΣ). The Greek letter Σ (sigma), is written in the Latin alphabet as an “S,” resulting in the monogram being commonly represented as ΙΗS.
Oh.
Mr. Kosloski explains that it isn't a monogram. It's a Christogram because it's not initials, but rather the name, Jesus.
Dating all the way back to the third century, Christians shortened the name of Jesus by only writing the first three letters of his name in Greek, ΙΗΣ (from his full name ΙΗΣΟΥΣ). The Greek letter Σ (sigma), is written in the Latin alphabet as an “S,” resulting in the monogram being commonly represented as ΙΗS.
Oh.
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