Veneration of the Child Jesus

Incarnation, birth and childhood of the Son of God

The childhood of Jesus has been an important theme for Christians from the very beginning. Christians have always longed to express their profound reverence for the incarnation of our God and Lord Jesus Christ. This pious desire was inspired not only by the Gospels but also by apocryphal texts such as the pseudo-gospels of James and Thomas. The Divine Child was already venerated by church fathers such as St. Athanasius or St. Jerome. Others who held the childhood of Jesus in great honour included St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Anthony of Padua. During the Baroque period there was St. Teresa of Avila, in particular, who took the Infant Jesus with her when she founded new monasteries. In Spain in her time this cult met with a great response.

Images of Christ as a child

The Child Jesus was first portrayed on his own in works of art in the early 14th century. The oldest statues come from Germany and are probably connected with the visionary milieu in female convents. Various attributes are to be found in the Child's hands: the right hand is usually raised in blessing, while the left hand holds a bird, an orb, a book, a cross, or a bunch of grapes, a reference to the Eucharist. In the Middle Ages statues of the Infant Jesus were made of wood, while in Baroque times various other materials, including wax, ivory, and bronze, were used as well. The Baroque statues are very often dressed in robes.

St. Teresa of the Child Jesus

A beautiful flower of this veneration is St. Teresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. This Discalced Carmelite, whose statues and pictures can be found in churches all over the world, remains one of the greatest witnesses to the love of God for people today. This girl from northern France, born in 1873, consecrated herself to God at the age of fifteen, and after nine years of living behind the walls of a convent surrendered her life to the Lord in 1897. She was a woman full of love and trust in God. Pope Pius X spoke of her as the greatest saint of all times, in 1927 she was proclaimed patron saint of missions, and in 1997 Pope John Paul II proclaimed her a Doctor of the Universal Church, only the third woman to be recognised in this way after Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Sienna.