Forerunners of the Jesuit Seal
VATICAN CITY, 1956, Scott 214-215The monogram used by the Jesuits is basically an abbreviation for the name of Jesus: IHS. These are the first two and the last letters of the name of Jesus in Greek. On the crest of Geneva below we see a capital sigma, but in Greek, as on many icons, it would have been written IHC. After a while the more familiar Roman S was used. Normally a line is drawn above the letters (as on the crest below) to indicate that it is an abbreviation. In northern France small Roman letters were used (ihs) and the line was drawn through the h to form a cross. Such an inscription was above the door of St. Barbe College in Paris where Ignatius would have seen it often. When the monogram went back to capital letters, people were unwilling to loose the cross and mounted a cross on the cross stroke of the H. The stamp above shows John Capistrano preaching devotion to the name of Jesus, as did his master St. Bernardino of Siena, with the IHS on a banner. More
The Geneva coat of arms, dating to the 15th century, has as its crest
a half-rising sun bearing IHS in Greek letters.
SWITZERLAND (GENEVA), 1843, Scott 2L1
SWITZERLAND (GENEVA), 1845-48, Scott 2L2-4
SWITZERLAND, 1943, centenary of postage stamps, B132The Double Geneva of Switzerland ranks as one of the world's rarest stamps. The stamp joins two 5 cent stamps and in a rectangle above the text 10. PORT CANTONAL. CENT. (see the Cameroon stamp below for full image). The stamps bear Geneva's Coat of Arms of which the crest is an IHS within a sunburst. The arms were repeated on the following and on commemorative issues. Switzerland's constitutional ban against Jesuits was repealed as recently as 1973 and that by a slim majority of voters.
SWITZERLAND, 1968, the 125th anniversary of Swiss postage stamps, Scott 492
CAMEROON, 1977, Scott C253The Seal of the Society of Jesus:
IHS, Cross and Nails
The Society of Jesus uses as its seal the IHS with the H surmounted by a cross, three nails below,
and the whole often surrounded by sunburst.
The seal appears beneath the vignette of Angela Merici and Ignatius Loyola of the Vatican's Trent issue.
VATICAN CITY, 1946, the 4th centenary of the Council of Trent, Scott 111 and 113
It appears beside the Old English Chapel at Chevremont, BELGIUM, 1948, Scott B453
at the top of the National University of Cordoba arms, ARGENTINA, 1964, Scott 764
on a Portuguese-Japanese commemorative stamp, PORTUGAL, 1970, Scott 1934
and on a tea caddy or host box from JAPAN, 1993, Scott 2212Portugal observed Expo 1970 with symbols of Portuguese-Japanese relationship. On the rear of one stamp (above) in English, French and Portuguese is written: Evoking the introduction of Christianity to Japan, by the Portuguese. The stamp mentions the date 1549 when Jesuits first went to Japan, and includes the seal of the Society of Jesus, the IHS monogram of Jesus between cross and nails surrounded by a sun burst — the same seal embossed on the background of this web site.
Japan later included in a set marking Portuguese-Japanese relations what seems to be a natsume, a tea caddy to hold the powered green tea used in the tea ceremony. Scott describes it as a Mother-of-pearl box to hold wafers used at the Eucharist, and the top of it is adorned with seal of the Society of Jesus.
It appears twice on this se-tenant pair honoring The Jesuit Block and the Estancias of Córdoba
ARGENTINA, 2001, Scott 2160
SPAIN, 2003, the Holy Year issue; beginning this year Caravaca celebrates a Permanent Jubilee Year every 7 years.
The stamp shows the reliquary containing the miraculous True Cross of Caravaca with the Society's emblem.
MACAO, 2006, the Society of Jesus series, Fr. Mateo Ricci holds an image of the seal;
Fr. Alessandro Valignano holds a book with the whole seal, while the IHS with cross is over his head.The IHS without reference to the Society
SLOVENIA, 1993, Slovenia - Europe in Miniature series, Scott 153
a traditional Slovenian honeycake. More
LIECHTENSTEIN, 1976 Christmas and 1980 a traditional cattle decoration, Scott 613, 688
The first two incorporate a heart beneath the nails, a reference to Mary's heart that suffers with Christ.
Jesuits used this form early on, but later dropped the heart and remained with the nails alone.
HUNGARY, 1938, 34th International Eucharistic Congress, stamp and S/S, Scott B93-94
ECUADOR, 1958, 3rd National Eucharistic Congress, Scott C330
ECUADOR, 1990, The Marianists' centenary, Scott 1239
VATICAN CITY, 1973, the millennium of the Diocese of Prague, Scott 542
GRENADINES, 1977, Easter issue, Scott 221-228, the last from a souvenir sheet
SAN MARINO, 2007, honoring the Saint Gabriel Philatelic Society
marble decoration from the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Palermo: cherubs bearing the IHS and cross
PERU, the 6th Eucharistic Congress, 1960, Scott 479-80, RA 37-38
AUSTRIA, 1949, a cattle decoration like the one from Liechtenstein?, Scott 531
AUSTRIA, 1996, Prangstangen (flower decorated poles) with IHS, Scott 1705
BOLIVIA, 1961, National Eucharistic Congress in Santa Cruz, Scott 453, C231
ITALY, 1994, National Eucharistic Congress in Siena, Scott 1987
VATICAN CITY, 1997, International Eucharistic Congress in Wroclaw, Scott 1047, 1049
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, International Year of the Eucharist, 2005, Scott 2973, 2976
