The Santo Bambino of Aracoeli sometimes known as Bambino Gesu di Aracoeli (Lit: Holy Jesus of Aracoeli) is a 15th-century Roman Catholic devotional wooden image enshrined in the titular Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, depicting the Child Jesus.[1]
The image depicts the Infant Jesus standing, wearing a crown, and adorned with various gemstones and jewels donated by devotees.
On 18 January 1894, Pope Leo XIII authorised its public devotion and granted a canonical coronation on 2 May 1897. It was again blessed by Pope Saint John Paul II on 8 January 1984. The image was stolen in February 1994, but was replaced with a copy.
History and devotion
The wooden image measures approximately 60 centimeters tall and depicts the Child Jesus as an infant. According to historical records preserved at the Basilica Santa Maria in Aracoeli, the image was carved from a single block of Olive wood from the Garden of Gethsemani by a Franciscan friar assigned to the Holy Land in the fifteenth century.
Pilgrimages to the images are recorded as early as 1794. In February 1798 the image was seized by the French troops but ransomed by Serafin Petraca, thus saving it from being burned.[2] It remained in a convent in Trasteverino for a little over a year while a new shrine was built.
Romans have long associated the image with healing.[3] In the 1800s, Prince Alessandro Torlonia used a carriage that belonged to Pope Leo XIII to spend his Thursdays bringing the image to the sick unable to get to the Basilica. During Anti-Catholic protests in 1848, triumvir Carlo Armellini saved Santo Bambino from an arson.[4]
On 18 January 1894, Pope Leo XIII authorised the devotion to the image, along with a rescript and prayer dedicated to the infancy of Jesus. The papal document was witnessed by Cardinal Ignatius Persico.[5]
On 2 May 1897, the Pontiff issued a canonical coronation towards the image through the Vatican Chapter.[2]
The image was also mentioned in a 1969 letter to the College of Cardinals given by Pope Paul VI for the 1969 World Day of Peace on New Year's Day.[6]
On 8 January 1984, Pope John Paul II issued a homily blessing the title and its image at the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall on the solemn occasion of Jubilee year for children.[7]
Theft of the image
The statue itself was of limited artistic value, but adorned with valuable ex-votos. Ordinarily it is stored at night in a secure cabinet, but in the late afternoon of February 1, 1994, two thieves masqueraded as workers on a scaffold erected in the monastery for renovations. By one account, the thieves ransacked the friars' rooms looking for something o steal, and coming to the room where the image was stored at night, found the armored cabinet open. Another version says the statue was still inside the church on display in the crèche, which was to be taken down the next day. While the police believed it would be difficult to recover and of the gold and valuables taken with the image, they considered Santo Bambino too well known to be easily marketed.[4] The theft of Santo Bambino caused considerable outrage in Rome, even in the prisons, where the prisoners donated money for a new copy.
According to historical data the real statue stands today in the church of San Giovanni in Giulianello in Cori, where it is still revered, and a copy was placed in Santa Maria in Araceoli, which stolen in February 1994. This was replaced with an exact copy which resides at the shrine today.[3]
A solar brooch depicting the allegorical image Sun of Justice was attached to the image, later stolen, and was associated with the Milanese jeweler Carlo Sartore. The Sun of Justice is still depicted in older 19th-century lithographs of the image.
Legends
Pious tradition holds that when the friar did not have the paints necessary to finish his work, it was completed by an angel. Upon his return to Italy, the ship was wrecked during a storm. The friar survived and later found the statue washed up on the shore at Livorno.[2] A seond tale relates that in 1797, a wealthy woman, wishing to have the statue for herself, replaced it with a copy. However, at midnight while the bells rang at Santa Maria in Araceoli, the statue was miraculaously found in its rightful place, and the copy found broken.[3]
According to tradition, the lips of the Holy Child turn red when a request is going to be granted, and white when the cause presented is hopeless.[3]
