The Infant of Prague Novena

The Infant of Prague Novena is a distinctive Catholic devotion of the modern era, addressed to the Lord Jesus in the form of the Infant Christ. The devotion is centered on a small wax-coated wooden statue of the Christ Child, about nineteen inches tall, dressed in royal robes with a crown on the head and a globe in the left hand, kept at the Carmelite Church of Our Lady Victorious in the Mala Strana district of Prague. The Catholic faithful around the world have venerated copies and replicas of this statue for nearly four centuries, and the testimonies of graces received through the Infant of Prague are among the most extensive of any modern Catholic devotion.

Origin and history

The wax-coated wooden statue of the Infant Jesus dates from the late sixteenth century. The first reliable records place it in Spain, in the family of the Spanish noblewoman Doña Isabella Manrique, who gave the statue to her daughter María Manrique de Lara as a wedding gift in 1556. María brought the statue with her on her marriage to Vratislav of Pernstein, a Czech nobleman, and the statue was preserved in the Pernstein family in Bohemia for the next seventy years.

In 1628, María Manrique's granddaughter Polyxena of Lobkowicz, then the widow of the Czech chancellor Zdenek Vojtech Popel of Lobkowicz, gave the statue to the Discalced Carmelite Friars of the recently-founded Carmel of Our Lady Victorious in Prague. The Carmelites had been struggling spiritually and financially. Polyxena gave them the statue with the words: "I give you the dearest possession I have. Reverence this little Image, and you will not lack anything."

The Catholic devotion to the statue developed rapidly. Within a few decades the statue had been credited with numerous miraculous healings, the relief of the Carmel during the Thirty Years' War, and the protection of Prague during outbreaks of plague. The statue was crowned by the bishop of Prague in 1655 (the formal Catholic recognition of the statue as a sacred image worthy of veneration). Replicas of the statue began to be produced, first by the Carmelite friars and later by Catholic devotional manufacturers, and within two centuries the Infant of Prague had become one of the most universally venerated devotional images of the Catholic world.¹

The crowning of the statue is itself part of the Catholic devotion: the small wax-coated Christ Child wears a real crown of precious metal and stones, often given as gifts by particular Catholic devotees over the centuries. The statue's wardrobe of small royal robes (also given as gifts) is changed by the Carmelite sacristan throughout the liturgical year, with red robes for Pentecost, white for Christmas and Easter, gold for major feasts, violet for Lent, green for ordinary time. The Catholic Carmelites at Prague have preserved this Catholic devotional practice for nearly four centuries.

The Express Novena

A particular Catholic adaptation of the Infant of Prague devotion is the Express Novena: the nine prayers of the novena prayed at consecutive hours rather than over consecutive days. The Catholic tradition has long observed that this brief form is particularly suited to urgent crises (a serious medical emergency, a family decision that must be made within the day, an unexpected and grave difficulty). The Express Novena begins at any hour and is prayed each subsequent hour through the same prayers, with the petition repeated at each hour. The Catholic faithful who have prayed the Express Novena testify to its frequent and dramatic effectiveness in moments of acute need.

The standard form, prayed over nine days rather than nine hours, follows the same structure but with one prayer day each day rather than nine prayer hours in a single day.

Structure of the novena

Each day (or hour, in the Express form) of the Infant of Prague Novena follows the same form:

1. Opening invocation: O Most gracious Infant Jesus...
2. A meditation on a theme proper to the day, drawn from the iconography of the statue and the Catholic theology of the Christ Child.
3. The petition: the specific intention for which the novena is being prayed.
4. The classical Infant of Prague novena prayer, preserved in the Carmelite tradition.
5. Closing prayers: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be, and the brief invocation Divine Infant Jesus, I trust in You.

When the novena is prayed

The Infant of Prague Novena is most commonly prayed:

• In moments of acute crisis, in the Express form (nine consecutive hours).
• In the nine days before Christmas, as a Catholic Advent preparation for the Lord's coming.
• At any time of family need, particularly for the protection of children, the success of a difficult marriage, or financial urgency.
• In the period of First Communion preparation for Catholic children, to whom the Infant Jesus is particularly the patron.

Pairing with other prayers

The Infant of Prague Novena is paired with:

• The Holy Rosary, particularly the Joyful Mysteries.
• The Saint Andrew Christmas Novena, with which it shares the central devotion to the Christ Child.
• The Litany of the Holy Infant of Prague, an indulgenced prayer in the Catholic devotional tradition.
• The Catholic family disciplines of the Christmas crèche, the home altar, and the visible image of the Infant Jesus in the Catholic home.

For broader theological context, see Mary, Mother of God, the Communion of Saints, and the related Catholic devotion to the Christ Child in Saint Anthony Novena Day 5.

Sources

Footnotes

1. The history of the Infant of Prague is documented in the official records of the Carmelite Church of Our Lady Victorious in Prague (the Pražské Jezulátko records). The principal modern devotional history is Cyril Papali, OCD, The Infant Jesus of Prague (1995). The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), entry on Prague, available at newadvent.org. The Carmelite Order's official website preserves the contemporary devotional documentation. ↩