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Holy Trinity Church
(Infant Jesus Shrine)
You are @ Infant Jesus Shrine > History
In the year 1620, November 8, Ferdinand II, Emperor of Austria, gained a signal victory over the united Protestant armies in a battle fought at White Mountain near the city of Prague. He ascribed the victory to the special intervention of the Infant Jesus, and that, with every justification. Before the signal to attack was given the Catholic leaders were in consultation. There was then in their midst Father Dominic Jesu-Maria, a learned and saintly Carmelite priest. Holding aloft a picture of our Lord's Nativity, the holy priest exhorted them to go forth to battle with unwavering confidence in the all-powerful help of Infant Jesus. They did so, Their trust in the Christ Child was richly rewarded. The enemy was defeated.
In gratitude for the favour and in recognition of the valuable services rendered by the Carmelite priest, the Emperor founded a Carmelite monastery at Prague, Bohemia, in 1624. Little did he or for that matter anyone, at that time realize that God had chosen this new foundation as a central point for the spread of devotion to the Infant Jesus !
Prague was, so to say, another Bethlehem, The cradle was ready. The Occupant was to arrive later! When the religious community of the Carmelite Fathers organised themselves, they had no particular attention directed to Child Jesus. Then from distant Spain, came a noble lady to Bohemia to visit her daughter, the princess Polyxena of Lobhowitz. To her she presented, as a wedding present, the gift of a highly treasured family heirloom-a wooden statue (covered with wax) of rare Spanish beauty, about 19 inches high, representing the Infant Jesus, clothed realistically in a little dress over which form the shoulders hung a royal mantle the right hand holding a globe, symbolic of the Divine Child as King of the whole world, and the countenance beaming with grace majesty and clemency. Thus arrived the Occupant of the cradle!
In the year 1623, prince Lobhowitz died. Then Polyxena, the pious princess, decided to dedicate the rest of her life in works of charity. On the occasion, when the monastery had been reduced to poverty, owing to the ravages of war, the princess felt inspired to entrust to them the care of her most cherished possession-the statue! She gave it to the monks and the monastery, in 1628 saying: "I give you what I prize most highly in the world :honor and respect the Child Jesus and you shall never be in want." Thus, so to say, the Occupant occupied the cradle!!!
The grateful monks placed the statue in the oratory of the novitiate and prayed before it twice daily. Devotion to the Infant Jesus suffered a set-back on account of the "Thirty Years' War", when the novitiate of the Carmelites was removed to Munich in 1630. Troops under the irreligious king Gustav Adolph of Sweden invaded and ravaged the country despoiled churches and monasteries. The Carmelites were forced to flee from the city and in the confusion of the war they were unable to take their miraculous statue of Infant Jesus with them. Their monastery was plundered and the statue was thrown over a heap of rubbish behind the high alter.
When in 1635, calm returned to Prague, Father Cyrillus, who had previously received great spiritual help through devotion to the Infant Jesus of Prague, was sent to reopen the monastery. His first thought was the statue, which he searched for and found under a pile of rubbish, and replaced it in the Oratory as before for veneration. Once again the devotion to the Infant Jesus was received. One day as Fr Cyrillus was devotedly praying before the statue, he heard a voice saying: "Have mercy on Me and I will have mercy on you. Return My hands to Me and I shall give you peace. The more you honor Me, the more I shall bless you." Startled by these words , Fr Cyrillus examined the statue and upon drawing aside the mantle covering it, he found that both hands of the statue were broken off. The hands were restored to the statue through the generosity of a client of the Divine Child. Once more peace and prosperity returned to the Carmelites.
Soon public devotion were held in honor of the Infant Jesus, and the fame of the miraculous statue spread throughout Europe, across the seas to America, Africa, India and China.
Thus for well over three hundred and fifty years, all those who honored the Infant Jesus and implored His aid have received manifold and varied blessings in answer to their prayers.
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Holy Trinity Church
(Infant Jesus Shrine)
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
India
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