A Copy of a Statue in Rome: The ‘Bambin ta’ Praga’ or ‘ta’ Aracoeli’ in the Oratory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta – Mark Agius

A COPY OF A STATUE IN ROME

The ‘Bambin ta’ Praga’ or ‘ta’Aracoeli’ in the Oratory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta

By Mark Agius

To celebrate the centenary of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the artefacts of its Oratory are being restored.

In all Carmelite churches, there is a devotion to the Child Jesus under the title of the ‘Bambin ta’ Praga’—the Holy Child of Prague. The Oratory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta is no exception. Since the present writer was a little boy, he would be taken by his mother to visit the Child Jesus in the Oratory, and he was taught the story of the Holy Child of Prague. All the local community knew this Baby Jesus as the Bambin ta’ Praga. Silver ex voto and war medals were offered to it, and were displayed in its niche. My mother, a Carmelite tertiary, wrote to Faversham in England, where a Child of Prague shrine exists, to get some literature about the story for me.

But in fact a careful iconographic examination of this Child Jesus in the Oratory shows that it is not in fact a Bambin ta’ Praga, but a copy of an equally famous child Jesus of Aracoeli in Rome, which is a Franciscan devotion.

It is worth recounting the story of the Holy Child of Prague, since there is an important connection with the Knights of Malta. The Holy Child of Prague is a sixteenth-century waxcoated wooden statue of the Child Jesus holding a globus cruciger of Spanish origin, surmounted by a Maltese Cross, which is in the Discalced Carmelites Church of Our Lady of Victory in Malá Strana, Prague. 1 It first appeared in 1556, and pious legends claim that the statue once belonged to Teresa of Ávila, who gave it as a wedding present to a Spanish noblewoman, Maria Maximiliana Manrique de Lara y Mendoza, who married the Imperial High Chancellor of Bohemia, Vratislav of Pernstein. She gave the statue to

her daughter, Princess Polyxena of Lobkowicz. 2 The princess later donated it to the Carmelite friars in 1628, after the Carmelites were given the church after the battle of White Mountain. By now, the statue had a reputation of having miraculous healing powers. The princess is famously said to the Carmelites: ‘Venerable Fathers, I bring you my dearest possession. Honour this image and you shall never be poor’.

On 15th November 1631 the army of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden took possession of Bohemia’s capital city. The Carmelite friary was plundered and the image of the Infant of Prague was thrown into a pile of rubbish behind the altar. There it lay forgotten for seven years, its hands broken off, until in 1637, after the Carmelites returned to Prague, it was found again by Father Cyrillus and placed in the church’s oratory. One day, while praying before the statue, Father Cyrillus claimed to have heard a voice say, ‘Have pity on me, and I will have pity on you. Give me my hands, and I will give you peace. The more you honour me, the more I will bless you’.

Since then, the statue has remained in Prague in the Church of Our Lady of Victory, and it has become a major site of pilgrimage by devotees to honour the Infant Child of Prague, with many claims of blessings, favours and miraculous healings.

The monastery was abolished on 3rd June 1784 by Emperor Joseph II, and as a consequence, administration of the church was assigned to the Knights of Malta, the Order of St John, who have a very important Commandery—the Grand Priory of Bohemia, almost next door to the church.3 The Knights of Malta continued to look after the church until the Discalced Carmelites returned to the church after two hundred years on 2nd July 1993. This is why every side altar is marked with a Maltese Cross, as is the globus cruciger which the Child holds.

The Grand Priory of Bohemia was part of the German langue, whose auberge was close to the Carmelite monastery in Valletta, where the Anglican cathedral now stands, so the German knights, who used the oratory of the Carmelite church as their private church (in the same way as the Church of Our Lady of Pilar was used by the knights of the Langue of Aragon) would have known about the Holy Child that they cared for in Prague during the eighteenth century.4 They used the Carmelite oratory rather than building their own, as the other langues did, because there were relatively few German knights in Malta at any one time. Thus they may have introduced devotion to the Child of Prague into Malta.

Traditionally the Baby Jesus of Prague is clothed in luxurious fabrics and imperial regalia, with a golden crown and portrayed with his left hand holding a globus cruciger and with his right hand raised in a benediction posture. However, when we examine the statue of the Child Jesus in the Oratory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, we see that this Child as depicted is younger in age, is not wearing the Royal Cloak which the Child of Prague wears, and instead wears garments similar to swaddling clothes. Its hands are held in the same position as the Bambino di Aracoeli in Rome. Indeed, the Child in the oratory in Valletta turned out to be iconographically very similar to the Bambino di Aracoeli.

On examination, the sculpture in the Carmelite oratory in Valletta is composed of a papier-mâché head, hands and feet, and a cloth bodice which is filled with wool/cotton.5

Our research into our ‘Bambin ta’ Praga’, as we all knew it, has shown that it is actually a nineteenth-century commercial copy of the Bambino di Aracoeli in Rome.

It is dressed in silk garments with metal thread embroidery and lace trimmings. The garments include a tunic and sandals. The statue is also embellished with jewellery, including two pearl bracelets and a necklace, as well as a bejewelled accessory held in its right hand. The garments probably date to the eighteenth century, while the sculpture seems to date to a later period possibly the nineteenth century because of the ‘commercially’ made glass eyes.

It is of interest that the garments are eighteenth-century,8 while the sculpture is probably nineteenth-century. This might suggest that the garments might have come from a previous eighteenth-century statue, although naturally other explanations, such as the reuse of old vestments or other fabrics to make the garments of the statue might explain the findings.

On searching the archives, the Bambin is not mentioned in inventories prior to the 1890s. There is mention of the statue of the Bambin in a note of 10th December 1899, when it had to be put in a girandola facing the niche of the Duluri. It is possible, since no previous mention was made of it, that this was the occasion that this Bambin arrived in the Oratory. Here the statuette is called ‘Gesù Bambino d’Araceni’ (a distortion of Aracoeli).6 Thus the findings from the archives support the iconographic evidence that this is in fact a Bambino di Aracoeli which was perhaps bought commercially in Rome from near the shrine, and produced as a commercial copy of the original. Given the previous presence of the German Knights of Malta during the eighteenth century in this Oratory, and the eighteenth-century garments, it still remains possible that this statue replaced a previous statue and devotion.

It is worth describing the history of the Bambino di Aracoeli. The Santo Bambino of Aracoeli, sometimes known as the Bambino Gesù di Aracoeli (Child Jesus of Aracoeli) is a fifteenth-century Roman Catholic wooden image enshrined in the titular Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, depicting the Child Jesus swaddled in clothes of golden fabric, wearing a crown, and adorned with various gemstones and jewels donated by devotees.7

The original was stolen on 1st February 1994, and is now replaced by a modern copy. Pilgrimages to the images are recorded as early as 1794. In February 1798, the image was saved from being burned by French troops.7 During anti-Catholicprotests in 1848, the Santo Bambino was saved from arson. The Santo Bambino of Aracoeli is strongly associated with the healing of illness. It has been often taken to the houses of sick persons. The Santo Bambino of Aracoeli receives letters from all over the world. At Christmas, the Bambino is usually placed in the crèche at the Basilica. The Bambino is cared for by Franciscan friars.

Hence, our research into our ‘Bambin ta’ Praga’, as we all knew it, has shown that it is actually a nineteenth-century commercial copy of the Bambino di Aracoeli in Rome. It continues to receive much devotion in our Oratory. n

Acknowledgements: Valentina Lupo, Maria Grazia Zenzani and Valentina Lombardo all from the firm Atelier del Restauro, and Rev. Dr Jonathan Farrugia. Art expert Dr Sandro Debono contributed to the dating of the statue of the Bambin ta’ Praga/ Aracoeli.

NOTES: 1. Infant Jesus of Prague https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_Jesus_of_Prague; 2. Princess Polyxena of Lobkowicz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyxena_of_Lobkowicz; 3. Church of Our Lady of Victories, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lady_of_Victories; 4. Michael Galea, German Knights of Malta (Malta: Bugelli Publications, 1986); 5. Maria Grazia Zenzani and Valentina Lupo, ‘Final report for the Conservation and Restoration of the Polychrome Statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague at the Oratory of the Fraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Valletta’. (Atelier del Restauro, 2022); 6. Archives of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Valletta, 1899; 7. Santo Bambino di Aracoeli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Bambino_of_Aracoeli; 8. Valentina Lombardo, ‘Final Report for the Conservation and Restoration of the Vestments Pertaining to the Polychrome Statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague at the Oratory of the Fraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Valletta’ (Atelier del Restauro, 2022)