The Carmelite tradition in our country has been linked to a special form of veneration of Christ for several centuries: with veneration of Jesus – God and the Child, as represented by the statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague. To understand this traditional form of devotion better and to “find ourselves in it,” I turned to the current rector of the Church of the Infant Jesus of Prague, the prior of the local community of Discalced Carmelites, Fr. Marco Chiolerio OCD, with a few questions.
The devotion to the Infant Jesus of Prague has its roots in 16th century Spain and newly emphasized the mystery of Jesus’ humanity. Whenever our founder St. Teresa of Avila established a new monastery, she wished for a statue of the Infant Jesus to be present in it. In the second half of the 16th century, a wax statue of the Infant Jesus was also made, which Marie Manriques de Lara brought from Spain to Prague.
This was actually the second wave of devotion to the Savior, who became a child. The first wave is represented by St. Bernard, St. Francis of Assisi (the Nativity and Christmas), and St. Anthony of Padua, depicted always with the Infant Jesus in his arms. Thus, the second wave reached baroque Prague and took the form of devotion to the Infant Jesus of Prague.
As a biblical scholar, what biblical background of veneration towards the Infant Jesus can you point out?
The devotion to Jesus as a Child is already founded in Scripture. In the Old Testament (in a context where children had little value), we often find the promise of a new child as a sign of hope: God promises that the barren woman will give birth. During the reign of King Ahaz, the birth of Emmanuel is promised, but let us remember similar situations earlier in the stories of the patriarchs’ wives. It is always about hope associated with the expectation of a child. The birth of a child is not only a naturally joyful event but also signifies that the promises of salvation can continue. This carries over into the New Testament.
There we find the last of these barren women – Elizabeth, whom Mary meets, who, by her virginity, demonstrated the same inability to bear a child. However, she culminates the divine promise of the Old Testament, and her new child will not only be a sign of God’s faithfulness but also of God’s presence on earth.
In the Gospels, Jesus’ childhood is also mentioned. Mark's Gospel is the oldest – hence we do not find such reports in it – understandably, since the core of the gospel message was Jesus’ death and resurrection. Only later were testimonies about Jesus’ miracles, deeds, and words recorded. Other evangelists finally added accounts of Jesus’ childhood, as the earliest Christians were interested in these too.
The devotion to Jesus' childhood is closely connected with Christ’s words: “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3).
However, no specific devotion encompasses everything; it always concerns only a part of the treasure of the faith and devotion of the Church.
Does the title of St. Therese of Lisieux: “of the Child Jesus” have anything in common with the veneration of the Infant Jesus of Prague?
As the daughter of St. Teresa of Avila, the founder of the Discalced Carmel, St. Therese lived in an environment of veneration of the Infant Jesus. This was already relevant to the Carmel not only in Spain but also in other countries. Recently, experts (our Fr. Conrad de Meester OCD and others) have discovered that the sisters in Lisieux had a copy of the statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague in their novitiate. And likely – we do not know for sure as we lack written records – Therese received her title due to this statue they had in the novitiate.1 Of course, what she experienced, her spiritual experience, in which she felt and referred to herself as a little child of God, was also significant for her, in the spirit of the aforementioned words of Jesus: “Without becoming like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven…” These words led her to feel a connection with Jesus – the Child.
Can today's Christian be addressed by the veneration of Jesus depicted as “the Infant Jesus of Prague”? Do we not wait more for a savior than for a child with whom we should have compassion? Do today’s imperial crown on his head and the royal scepter in his hand not deter us?
To see in the historical Jesus the Son of God, we really need the influence of the Holy Spirit. To see in the Infant Jesus the Son of God, we need a strong faith. And faith is not a feeling, so it is not a matter of taste… Personally, for example, I am not very fond of the baroque style. Here in the Czech Republic, there are many baroque churches, people enter them and I could also (similarly to the question of how we can pray before the statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague) say: How can you pray in such a church, where there is so much glitter, ornamentation, so many distracting stimuli?…
The question is whether our faith – a deep faith, as it should be – should be limited by such things. True deep faith transcends visible things and – even if there are difficulties on the outside – knows how to see beyond what is visible. And thus, I can calmly pray in a baroque church and we can pray even when external things around us remind us of something disturbing from the past.
However, the statue of the Infant Jesus can appeal to us not in spite of how it represents Jesus, but rather just because it shows him this way. The depiction of Jesus as a child contains a unique spiritual statement and powerfulness.
And we modern people, I think, need to purify the traditional view of the Infant Jesus: as we learned during this year’s jubilee of St. Therese of Lisieux that Therese was not the sweet little Therese she is generally considered to be, we could also discover this year that the veneration of the Infant Jesus of Prague does not need to be something merely emotional and superficial, but can be a manifestation of deep reverence for Jesus in his humanity and in his power. He humbled himself, and yet reigns: Jesus is a child and at the same time, a crown rests on his head. Even though he becomes a human child, Jesus does not lose his dignity as the Son of God.
Exactly. I fully agree with you. This is precisely what I always try to remind people of.
To see Jesus, the value of encountering Jesus – this is always something internal. External things can be distracting… I personally prefer when I could be in the desert in Israel or in a church made of simple stones, there I feel as if I prayed “better.” But faith is not a feeling, that is it. We have to learn that faith goes beyond these things. If we create romance around prayer: a candle, an icon… – fine. All this helps, but at the beginning. Then, when a person knows how to pray, these things are clearly perceived only as tools.
The Infant Jesus was once so beloved, venerated, and directly referred to as the “miraculous” Infant Jesus of Prague. Do you not think that one of the reasons for the weakening of devotion to the Infant Jesus of Prague is also the disbelief of modern people (including believers) in miracles?
If by the word “miracles” we mean something extraordinary, then I see that in today’s world, faith in such “miracles” and especially interest in them is not lacking; on the contrary, there is perhaps too much of that. People often wait for and seek only this: what is extraordinary, “miraculous.” The evidence of this is the many Americans who travel from America to see various temples and various places, not only the well-known ones – like Medjugorje – but also to visit various “seers” in Italy, Germany… And so entire buses of people arrive who want to hear the words of some grandmother who says she saw the Virgin Mary. So I rather think that this is not lacking. But if “miracle” – and we mean it correctly, more biblically – means discovering God’s presence: in everyday things, even in the birth of a child, then this indeed is largely missing in today’s world. Such an ability to wonder, to connect everything with Jesus and with God, to perceive it in relation to him. And this we need to rediscover.
Is it true that the Infant Jesus of Prague is today more known and venerated in the world (even in very distant countries) than in our country?
In any case, I would not say that there is little devotion to the Infant Jesus of Prague in the Czech Republic. Our experience over the last two years shows this. For instance, people from Kostelec came to Prague to obtain a large statue of the Infant Jesus to be placed in their church; one priest from Znojmo brought all of his altar servers and came with them to the Infant Jesus of Prague – both as an excursion and a pilgrimage, and also as a reward for their year-long service. Believers from the vicinity of Příbram and Maková Hora come more frequently or even regularly for a pilgrimage to the Infant Jesus. All this is not very conspicuous.
Thus, devotion to the Infant Jesus of Prague is not solely a matter of foreigners; Czech believers also engage in this form of veneration of Jesus that has risen from Czech soil. Even though the statue was brought from abroad, that does not matter. We know that from the beginning, the first people who prayed before it in Prague were Czechs.
But there are indeed remarkable testimonies of devotion to the Infant Jesus of Prague in the world. I have personally met people who purposely flew to Prague from Australia to thank the Infant Jesus of Prague because they experienced some change. Not always is it about some miracle or something extraordinary (as we have discussed, thanks be to God). They were people who perhaps returned to faith. They experienced a conversion and felt that the main influence was the Child Jesus, represented by the statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague. And almost every day, one or two groups of pilgrims from Manila, Philippines, where there is great devotion to the Child Jesus, referred to as “Santo Niño,” come here. The first year they arrived in Prague, they even walked in a procession through the city and were surprised that local people reacted strangely. They could not explain it when “here is the seat of the Infant Jesus of Prague.” Or people from Brazil who travel to Prague: the first thing they look for is the church of the Infant Jesus of Prague, and they are already asking the guards at the protection of the airport, who can of course be puzzled…
It is often said that the Infant Jesus is mainly venerated in Latin America. That is true, because the Spanish brought the devotion there. But today we find it also in other countries. In the United States, in Oklahoma, a city named Prague was founded by Czech emigrants, and there a national shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague was built. Another one stands in a different state in the USA, in Belgium, and two in Italy…
Many foreigners then look for the Church of the Infant Jesus in Prague. Most of course, tourists enter our church – we are close to the center. But also pilgrims who come from afar. For example, a woman from California came with her sick father, who could not walk well: they traveled to pray at the Infant Jesus of Prague.
These are testimonies of faith that may be folk, different from what we would do, but still, I think God’s kingdom indeed belongs to the simple people. I see in our church people who spontaneously, from the heart, perform something without thinking whether it is suitable for adults, etc.; it is really rather about the relationship of love they have with Jesus, and everything else follows from that.
Previously, the Infant Jesus was especially honored on the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, which we no longer find in today's church calendar. When during the year and in what way do you celebrate in your church the mystery of Jesus' childhood, expressed by the statue of the Infant Jesus?
Originally, the feast of the Infant Jesus of Prague was associated with the anniversary of the statue's coronation – and that was two days after Easter, which is a completely unsuitable date for any pilgrimage because it overlaps with the Easter octave. When we had to look for a new date, particularly since the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus is no longer in the calendar, I was thinking rather of the Feast of the Epiphany – as is the case in various shrines of the Infant Jesus of Prague worldwide.
But then I was inspired by the altar on which the Infant Jesus is placed in our church, which is very beautiful. Those who built it set two directions: vertical and horizontal. In the vertical line, we see represented (in descending order): the Holy Spirit, God the Father (depicted as an elder), and the Infant Jesus. In the horizontal line: on one side of the Infant Jesus, there is the Virgin Mary, and on the other side, St. Joseph. In my opinion, this expresses a lot: the mystery of the Holy Trinity (that was the original title of the church); the unity between the divine “family” and the human family; the relationships: the love communicated in the Trinity and the human family, the human family, and the mystery of the Incarnation.
We thus now celebrate the main pilgrimage feast in honor of the Infant Jesus of Prague on the last or the penultimate Sunday in May (depending on when Pentecost is). Often this happens precisely on the feast of the Holy Trinity or on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, which also fits the pilgrimage, because the crown indicates: Jesus is King. And thus we recall the work of redemption as a whole: from the beginning, which is Jesus’ incarnation, to his glorification and exaltation.
But we do not want to limit ourselves only to liturgies.
This May, for the first time, in preparation for the jubilee of the Incarnation (according to Tertio millenio adveniente, as the Pope called for it), we organized a symposium in Prague’s Pastoral Center – on Christology. The main aim was precisely to give the veneration of the Infant Jesus of Prague deeper biblical and theological foundations. Dr. Petr Pokorný from the evangelical faculty, Fr. Tomáš Halík, and our Discalced Carmelite fathers Vojtěch Kohut and Philippe Huguelé partook in it. (I hope that we will manage to process and publish the texts of the symposium.) To make the symposium accessible to the widest possible audience, we try to condense the program into one day. This year, the program ended with a concert: our brother Pierre Eliaue Giacomini sang his songs to St. Therese of Lisieux. We would like to continue this next May and prepare a symposium on the Holy Spirit. It could deal with the connection between the Spirit and Jesus (connecting pneumatology with Christology), particularly according to the Gospel of John. Personally, I would like to prepare some biblical themes about the Holy Spirit – from the Old and New Testaments.
Your Prague church is officially dedicated to Our Lady Victorious. When, under what circumstances did Mary receive this title and when do you celebrate the feast of Our Lady Victorious?
This title was meant to express that Mary helped the Catholic side to victory in the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. The Discalced Carmelite Fr. Dominik and Jesu Maria encouraged the Catholic army before the decisive battle with an image of the Virgin Mary that was desecrated by non-Catholic soldiers.2 When the emperor later donated the Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity on the Lesser Town out of gratitude to the Discalced Carmelites, he stipulated that it should be newly dedicated to Our Lady Victorious and St. Anthony of Padua. The celebration of the memorial of Our Lady Victorious was established by Pope Pius V after the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571, in which Europe defended itself against the Turkish danger. As emphasized by John Paul II, such historical wounds – such as the religious wars among Christians – we must forgive. I think that today – thank God – we are not bound to perceive Mary’s title in its original historical context. Today we see in Mary the one who helps us win against sin. For us Discalced Carmelites, who returned to Prague, the Virgin Mary is of course the patron of Carmel, and our main Marian feast is therefore the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on July 16. I believe that it cannot be otherwise. There is no point in returning today to the battles at Lepanto, etc.; it is necessary to seek the meaning of the title Our Lady Victorious that is valid for all Christians. And so we are also trying to do something small for ecumenism (given the history of our church), to be open to all.
And finally, a question: upon closer examination, we observe that Jesus, depicted as the Infant Jesus of Prague, is a Child – Ruler, but in his hand, he does not hold a scepter but blesses with his right hand. What do you think this symbolizes?
Our Carmelite sister Benedikta of the Cross (Edith Stein), who will soon be canonized, mentioned about the Infant Jesus of Prague that “there the emperor is again on his throne and from there reigns the world” (I quote loosely). Yes, (as you already said) we see: even though Jesus is a child, he remains God. He is close to us, we can approach him with confidence with requests and – at the same time, we see – he can help us because he is the Ruler.
He remains a king – not in the sense of earthly kings, but in the sense we find in the Bible. Let’s recall the second Psalm, there God, He who sits in the heavens, laughs (at the pride and anger of earthly kings)… The Infant Jesus holds the whole world in his hand, blesses it, because he created it, loves it, and saved it. But on the other hand, he also shows us who we are (not just who he is): we think we are powerful, that we hold the world in our hands, but that is not true.
Thus, he continues in the mission of the “Son of Man” (as he speaks about him in Dan 7:13): he judges (but not in a negative sense, that we must be afraid of him), separates good and evil, holds the whole world in his hand. Precisely because he is a child, because he allowed himself to be humbled, because he was not afraid of losing himself and giving himself completely. That is our hope because if we do the same, if as Christians we have the courage to follow Jesus on the way of the cross, to lose everything, to become powerless like a child, then we also share in ruling the world. Then we do not need to be afraid of everything around us, but as Christians, we know that nothing and no one can separate us from God’s love, and we rest in peace, like a child in his mother’s lap (cf. Ps 131), because we know that with Jesus, we too are kings – thanks to baptism: whoever is baptized has received a share in the kingdom, and we therefore reign over the world, as it was our original task according to the first chapters of the book of Genesis: Adam was to cultivate and keep the garden and name things. We have this power over the world. But every time we want to be lords of the world without God, to be independent of God, we lose it.
Compiled by Fr. Gorazd O.Carm.
