Hello,
  Thank you very much for your help.

      Beth
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----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 11:43 PM
Subject: Re: IHS on tombstone.


> "In His Service" is a commonly understood meaning of the abbreviation.
> However, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia (the first major source on
> Google that appeared),  A monogram of the name of Jesus Christ. From the
> third century the names of our Saviour are sometimes shortened,
particularly
> in Christian inscriptions (IH  and XP, for Jesus and Christus). In the
next
> century the "sigla" (chi-rho) occurs  not only as an abbreviation but also
as
> a symbol. From the beginning, however, in Christian inscriptions the
nomina
> sacra, or names of Jesus Christ, were  shortened by contraction, thus IC
and
> XC or IHS and XPS for Iesous Christos.
>                           These Greek monograms continued to be used in
Latin
> during the Middle Ages.   Eventually the right meaning was lost, and
> erroneous interpretation of IHS led to   the faulty orthography "Jhesus".
In
> Latin the learned abbreviation IHC rarely occurs after the Carlovingian
era.
> The mongram became more popular after the twelfth century when St. Bernard
> insisted much on devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, and the fourteenth,
when
> the founder of the Jesuati, Blessed John Colombini (d. 1367), usually wore
it
> on his breast. Towards the close of the Middle Ages IHS became a symbol,
> quite like the chi-rho in the Constantinian period.
>
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