Shrine of the Infant of Prague

The Infant of Prague

Prayer to the Infant of Prague

O Child Jesus,
I have recourse to you.
By your holy Mother
I implore you to assist me in this need
(here mention your request)

I firmly believe that your Divinity can assist me,
and I confidently hope to receive your holy grace.
I love you with all my heart and soul.
I am truly sorry for my sins,
and I beg of you, O good Jesus,
to give me strength to overcome them.
I resolve never again to offend you,
and to suffer everything
rather than displease you.
I wish to belong to you, and to serve your faithfully;
and for the love of you. O Divine Child,
I will love my neighbour as myself.
O Jesus, most powerful Child,
grant me the grace of knowing you eternally,
with Mary and Joseph,
and of adoring you with the Holy Angels and Saints.
Amen.

The Infant Jesus of Prague is a sixteenth century Roman Catholic wax-coated wooden statue of the Child Jesus holding a globus cruciger (an orb surmounted by a cross), located in the Carmelite Church of Our Lady Victorious in Malá Strana, Prague, in the Czech Republic.

Pious legends claim that the statue once belonged to Saint Teresa of Avila and allegedly holds miraculous powers, especially among expectant mothers. The statue is known worldwide in relation to earlier child-Jesus icons, most prominently the Santo Nino de Atocha in Spain and Latin America (thirteenth century), the Santo Nino de Cebu (1521) in the Philippines, and recent ones such as the Holy Infant of Good Health (from Mexico, 1939), and the Divino Niño (from Colombia, 1940’s).

In addition, the statue has also merited several Papal sanctions through Pope Leo XIII who instituted the Sodality to the Infant Jesus of Prague in 1896, followed by Pope Saint Pius X who organized the Confraternity of the Infant Jesus of Prague in 1913 and, most recently, Pope Benedict XVI, who granted a Canonical Coronation to the image during his Apostolic Visit to the Czech Republic in September 2009.