The famous statue of Prague Infant Jesus (Bambino di Praga) is kept in the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Prague Lesser Town. It is believed that it has miraculous powers and that it will help to those, who will pray to it. It was made probably already in the 12 th century in Spain.
Origin of the Prague Infant Jesus
There is a legend, saying that a very religious monk in a desolated monastery somewhere between Cordoba and Sevilla had a vision of a little boy, telling him to pray. The monk had spent several hours praying and then he made a wax figure of the child. The statue became venerated by many religious people in Spain.
The Spanish princess Maria Maxmiliana Manriquez de Lara, the bride of Czech nobleman Vratislav of Pernstein, brought the statue to Bohemia in the middle of the 16 th century. Then she gave it to her daughter Polyxena, who gifted it to the White Friars monastery by the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Prague.
Legends about Prague Infant Jesus
There are many stories about believers, who came to the church to pray to Prague Infant Jesus and the statue helped them. People who were blind, could allegedly see again and disabled people could walk. Especially people from very religious countries, such as Italy, Spain, Poland or countries of the Latin America always held the statue in reverence.
Even Protestants respected the Prague Infant Jesus statue. The Swedish troops plundered many Prague monasteries in 1648, but the White Friars monastery with the statue was one of the few untouched. When Austria was in war with France in 1742, Prague Lesser Town was demolished by bombs and all the buildings around the Church of Our Lady of Victory were damaged. The church itself stayed intact and Prague citizens believed it was because of the statue of Infant Jesus.
Believers have brought many gifts to the statue, so it gained around 46 dresses, some of them very valuable, a golden crown, an altar and many other things. One of the dresses was stitched by Maria Theresa herself in the 18 th century.
