The Sacred Heart window

The image on the right is of the bottom of the Sacred Heart window, taken through a gap in the pinnacle of the altar – it’s the only way to photograph it without a ladder! It bears a monogram comprising the intertwined letters I, H, and S. IHS is a type of Christogram – a combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ and traditionally used as a Christian symbol.

The first three letters of the name Jesus (in Greek) are iota, eta, and sigma These are the 9th, 7th, and 18th letters of the Greek alphabet, respectively. In Greek capital letters they are written as I, H, and Σ. The first two have been adopted as the I and H of the English alphabet. The Σ is equivalent to the English letter S and has the same sound.

In short, then, IHS represents the first three letters of the Greek version of the name Jesus. At least, that’s how it started out. Later, IHS was taken to mean Iesus Hominum Salvator (“Jesus, Saviour of men” in Latin) or “I Have Suffered”.