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INFANT JESUS OF PRAGUE

a famous statue of the Infant Jesus located in the Church of Our Lady Victorious in Mala Strana, Prague.

HISTORY
Its earliest history can be traced back to the year 1628 when a small, 48
centimetres in height, exquisite statue of wax Infant Jesus was brought
into Bohemia by Princess Poloyxena von Lobkowicz, who became
greatly attached to the Discalced Carmelites. The princess had been
given the statue as a wedding gift by her mother, Maria Manriquez de
Lara of Spain, and the statue was given to the Carmelites in Prague.
Upon presenting it, the pious princess is said to have uttered a
prophetic statement to the religious: Venerable Fathers, I bring you
my dearest possession. Honour this image and you shall never want.
The statue was placed in the oratory of the monastery of Our Lady of
Victory, Prague, where special devotions to Jesus were offered before it
twice a day. The Carmelite novices voluntarily became poor and
professed their poverty fervently during devotions in the presence of
the Divine Infant.
Upon hearing the Carmelites devotions and needs, the Emperor
Ferdinand II of the House of Habsburg sent along 2,000 Florins and a
monthly stipend for their support.
In 1630, the Carmelite novitiate was transferred to Munich. With the
transfer of novices, Prague lost its most ardent devotees of the Infant.
Disturbances in Bohemia due to the Thirty Years War brought an end to
the special devotions, and on November 15, 1631, the army of King
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden took possession of the churches of
Bohemias capital city. The Carmelite friary was plundered by the
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Lutheran Swedes, and the image of the Infant of Prague was thrown
into a pile of rubbish behind the altar. Here it lay forgotten, its hands
broken off, for seven years, until it was found again in 1637 by Father
Cyrillus and placed in the churchs oratory. One day, whilst praying
before the statue, Father Cyrillus claimed to have heard a voice say,
Have pity on me, I shall have pity on you. Give me my hands, and I
shall give you peace. The more you honour me, the more I shall bless
you. Since then, the statue has remained in Prague and has drawn
many devotees worldwide to go and honour the Holy Child. Claims of
blessings, favours and miraculous healings have been made by many
who petitioned before the Infant Jesus. Statuettes of the Infant Jesus
are placed inside many Catholic churches, sometimes with the
quotation The more you honour Me, the more I shall bless you.
A copy of this statuette is placed in the University Chapel in Naples,
Italy with the information on the original Pragues statuette, the Infant
Jesus of Prague as it appears during the Lenten season in Our Lady
Victory Church.
The exact origin of the Infant Jesus statue is not known, but historical
sources point to a 48 centimetres high sculpture of the Holy Child with
a bird in His right hand carved in around the year 1340. Many other
Infant Jesus sculptures were also carved by famous masters
throughout Europe in the Middle Ages.





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SANTO NINO DE CEBU
PIT SENOR

The Sto. Nino of Cebu (Holy Child of Cebu) is a Roman Catholic figure of
the Child Jesus highly similar to the Infant Jesus of Prague. Like the
images counterpart in Prague, the figure is clothed in expensive textile
robes mostly donations from fervent devotees in the Philippines and
abroad. The statue is the oldest Catholic relic in the Philippines and
permanently housed since 1565 at the Basilica Minore del Sto. Nino in
Cebu City.

HISTORY
In April 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, in the service of
Charles I of Spain, arrived in Cebu during his voyage to find a westward
route to the Indies. He persuaded Rajah Humabon and his wife Hara
Amihan, to pledge their allegiance with Spain. They were later baptised
into the Catholic faith, taking the Christian names Carlos and Juana.
Magellan presented the Sto. Nino to the newly-baptised Queen Juana
as a symbol of the alliance. To her husband Carlos, Magellan presented
the bust of the Ecce Homo, or the depiction of Christ before Pontius
Pilate. He gave an image of Our Lady to the natives who were later
baptised with their rulers. However, Magellan died later on April 27,
1521 in the battle that took place in Mactan, leaving the images behind.
In its new environment, amongst sun-loving people, the image of Sto.
Nino stopped to be a Christian symbol. After some vain efforts on the
part of the natives to destroy it, as legends says, it endured its new
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settings and prevailed to become a pagan idol. The Cebuano natives
revered the image of Sto. Nino as Bathala. They most probably
blessed the image with oil or offered sacrifices to the Sto. Nino whilst
invoking for His assistance in times of difficulties, reliefs in their
necessities or consolations in their adversities.

Writer Nick Joaquin in his 1980 paper delivered before the Cebuanos,
talked about these years after the Magellans men left and before the
next Spanish expedition that came under Miguel Lopez de Legazpi all
44 unaccounted years. Joaquin said that ... during that strange
interlude ... the wondrous miracle happened: we accepted the Sto.
Nino as part of our land, part of our culture, part of our history. During
those 44 years when the Cross had vanished from our land, the Sto.
Nino kept us faithful to Him. It is such a symbol of Philippine history
because it came with Magellan, became a native pagan idol, was re-
established as a Christian icon by Legazpi, and has become so Filipino
that native legends annul its European origin by declaring it to have
arisen in this land and to have been of this land since time immemorial.

In those unaccounted years, the Image became part of the Cebuano
life. And this is probably why when asked about the Image, as it was
found in 1565 by the Legazpi expedition in one of the village houses,
the natives refused to relate it to the gift of Magellan. They said it was
there at the beginning since ancient times.

Writer Dr. Resil Mojares, also in a 1980 paper, said that the claim of the
1565 Cebuanos that the Image was native and ancient in the land was
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probably because they were afraid to admit that it was a Spanish
property or else it would be taken away from them.

The natives version of the origin of the Sto. Nino is in the agipo
(stump or driftwood) legend about magical driftwood caught in the
fishhook of an ancient fisherman. Every time he throws it away, it re-
appeared until he decided to keep it. Then, lo! The fish catch became
so plentiful for the fisherman that day. The agipo, brought to the
settlement, would later manifest its powers to the people guard the
peoples harvest, protect them from pestilence.

Writer Mojares says this legend of the magical driftwood would only be
natural to the folk mind. The folk mind cannot completely conceive of
a God that is manufactured in a workshop somewhere in a country
called Belgium but it can believe that a God arises out of the sea and
bring on the rains by being submerged again in it.

Thus, the unaccounted 44 years of the stay of the Image in the hands of
the natives is part of Philippine history. The Sto. Nino, as writer Joaquin
put it, He connected, He linked, He joined together our pagan and our
Christian culture; He belonging to both.

Many years later in 1565, Juan de Camus, a mariner of the second
generation of the Spanish Colonial campaign under Don Miguel Lopez
de Legazpi found inside a pine box an unscathed image of the Sto. Nino.
The adorable Image believed to be of Belgian origin stands roughly at
30.48cm tall, wearing a loose velvet vestment, a gilded neck chain and a
woollen red hood. It is carved from wood and coated with paint. The
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image holds a golden ball, a replica of the world in the left hand, and
the right hand is slightly raised as a gesture of blessing.

Deeply impressed by this discovery, Camus presented the Image to
Legazpi and the Augustinian priests. They were so humbled by the
significance of the finding of the image that in solemnity, the image was
carried in a procession to a provisional chapel. Legazpi then ordered
the creation of the Confraternity of the Sto. Nino de Cebu with Fr.
Andres de Urdaneta as its head. A devotee of the Child Jesus himself,
Legazpi installed a festivity in commemoration of the finding of the Holy
Image. Albeit the celebration still survives until today, Pope Innocent
XIII moved the celebration to the third Sunday of January so as not to
conflict with the 40-day celebration of Easter.

Presently, the Image is dressed like a royalty with its ornate
decorations, including a sash adorned with old Castilian coins and a
Toison de Oro (Golden Fleece) with a ram pendant reputedly given by
King Charles XIII in the 17
th
century; the image now stands in grandeur
to captivate the hearts and souls of his fervent devotees.

Stories of the miracles of the Senor Sto. Nino spread like wildfire in the
seas, placing Cebu as the cradle of the Sto. Nino devotion in the
Philippines. Devotion to Him spanned to nearby island-provinces of the
Visayas, then advanced to the north to as far as the Ilocandia and
reached down south in Mindanao.

The Basilica Minore del Sto. Nino built on the very same spot where the
image was found on April 28, 1565, housed the statuette of the Sto.
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Nino. Originally made out of bamboo and mangrove palm, the Sto.
Nino Church developed into a fortress where ardent devotees from all
walks of life converge for thanksgivings or supplications to the Child
Jesus, whom they have venerated through the centuries. With the
increasing number of devotees flocking the Church of Sto. Nino, Pope
Paul VI elevated its rank as minor basilica with all rights and privileges
accruing to such conferment for the Quadricentennial celebration of
Christianity in the Philippines.

Numerous miracles have been wrought by the power of the Sto. Nino.
It is said that a voluminous book is needed to contain all the
attestations and testimonials of the goodness and mercy of the Infant
Jesus of Cebu. Considered as the prime of all Christian relics in the
Philippines, the image of the Infant Jesus continues to shine as the
lodestar that attracts the hearts of the Filipino people.

Meanwhile, the Visayans continues to manifest affections with the Sto.
Nino, not only during His feast day, but all-year round, to pay homage
to a Gift, so simple and yet profound.