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{{Short description|Depiction of Jesus up to the age of 12}}
]'s ''Madonna and Child Blessing'' depicts the infant Jesus in the act of blessing the viewer]]
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}{{About|the historical and religious figure|the Christmas gift-bringer he inspired|Christkind}}
⚫ {{Gospel Jesus}}
{{Redirect|Baby Jesus|the rapper formerly known as "Baby Jesus"|DaBaby}}
], given by Princess ] to the ] in 1628]]
The '''Christ Child'''—also known as '''Baby Jesus''', '''Infant Jesus''', '''Child Jesus''', '''Divine Child''', '''Divine Infant''' and the '''Holy Child'''—refers to ] during his early years. The term refers to a period of ], described in the ], encompassing his ] in ], the ], and his ]. It also includes his childhood, culminating in the event where his parents ] at age 12, after which the Gospels ] until the start of his ].


==Liturgical feasts==
The Christ Child is a religious symbol based on the activities of ] as an infant up to the age of twelve that recurs throughout history, starting from around the third or fourth century. It includes religious figurines and ]s of the infant Jesus, usually with his mother, ], and his legal father ].
], ], mosaic of the Mother of God enthroned with the Child, surrounded by four angels]]
]s relating to Christ's infancy and childhood include:
* ] (25 December)
* The ] (1 January – ], ] of the ], ] calendars)
* The ] (3 January – Roman Rite; others – various)
* The ] (6 January or 19 January in the Gregorian equivalent of the ])
* The ] (2 February)


==Holy Family== ==Depictions in art==
] adoring the Christ Child. Oil on canvas, 1622, ]]]
This "original ]" symbolized the ] to many early Christian believers. They solidified the family unit with such deep spiritual significance that the ] eventually became an integral part of ] religious ].
From about the third or fourth century onwards, the child Jesus is frequently shown in paintings, and sculpture. Commonly these are ] scenes showing the birth of Jesus, with his mother ], and her husband ].


Depictions as a baby with the Virgin Mary, known as '']'', are ] types in ] and ] traditions. Other scenes from his time as a baby, of his ], presentation at the temple, the ], and the ], are common.<ref>Ferguson, George. ''Signs & symbols in Christian art'', 1966, Oxford University Press US, p.76</ref> Scenes showing his developing years are more rare but not unknown.
The ] and many apocryphal works were passed down either by word of mouth or through song, and later in works of art. The symbolism of the Child Jesus in art reached its apex during the ]: the holy family was a central theme in the works of ] and many other masters.


Saint Joseph, ], and ] are often depicted holding the Christ Child. The ]s Ss. ], ], along with the devotees of the ] such as ] and Giovanni Rizzo claim to have had apparitions of the Infant Jesus.
The canonical gospels say nothing of Jesus' childhood between his infancy and the ] at the age of twelve. However, from the 4th century up to the Renaissance many stories were passed down concerning this "secret time" of Jesus' early childhood, where even as a baby Jesus possessed and used his messianic powers to protect his parents during their journey to and from Egypt. The majority of these stories were derived from ]l books, such as the ]. As the majority of Christians at the time were illiterate, the stories acquired a dark or morbid feel similar to the ] tales, as concern for approval from the ] began to wane in the later centuries.
]'', ] {{circa|1500}}]]
] and the Child Jesus]]
A common theme of the medieval stories depicts Jesus as a fearless and carefree child who innocently gets into mischief that inexorably led to his playmates' demise. The most common story is the cloud story. The child Jesus, wanting to play in the clouds, crawled into the sky on a sunbeam, but all of the playmates who followed him soon lost their faith and fell to their deaths. Another story reveals the tale of a child who dammed the channel that supplied water to pools which Jesus bathed in until a tidal wave swept the boy away and cleared the channel in one pass. This other child is sometimes known as the "Judas Child."


===During the Middle Ages===
These events naturally made other parents panic and forbid their children to play with him, so when the child Jesus arrived in the town plaza to play the parents quickly hid their children in a large kiln-oven for shelter. The child Jesus, naturally well aware of this, inquired about his playmates' whereabouts and was told all the children had left. When he asked what the noise coming from the large oven was he was told that pigs were being cooked. Jesus left and when the parents opened the oven doors, they found (according to which version of the story one heard) either uncooked squealing piglets or roasted chops.
The Christ Child was a popular subject in European wood sculpture beginning in the 1300s.<ref></ref>


The Christ Child was well known in Spain under the title ''montañesino'' after the '']'' sculptor ] began the trend. These icons of the Christ Child were often posed in the '']'' style in which the positioning of the knees reflected in the opposite direction,<ref>{{Cite web|url =http://media.ehs.uen.org/html/ArtHistoryQ1/Greek_Sculpture_01/CONTRAPPOSTO_1.htm|title =Contrapposto|url-status =dead|archive-url =https://archive.today/20150416150009/http://media.ehs.uen.org/html/ArtHistoryQ1/Greek_Sculpture_01/CONTRAPPOSTO_1.htm|archive-date =2015-04-16}}</ref> similar to ancient depictions of the ].
The stories created about the activities of the child Jesus were not all gruesome, and detail that even as a baby or child Jesus set out to do the Divine Will of ]. Other stories chronicle how even as an infant, Jesus' smile could make the rain or storms end and the sun shine, or could heal the sick. Another story tells of how a baby that was dying was placed in a tub of his bathwater and was brought back to life, and that any child in his presence would not cry or fret.


The images were quite popular among nobility of Spain and Portugal. Colonial images of the Christ child also began to wear ], a pious practice developed by the ''santero'' culture in later colonial years, carrying the depiction of holding the '']'', a bird symbolizing a soul or the ], or various paraphernalia related to its locality or region.
Although the importance of the Child Jesus symbol waned after the Middle Ages, it has survived to some degree in the ]. During the ] of the Philippines, when the Portuguese explorer ] landed in ] on ], ], the island's rulers King Humabon and Queen Juana were converted to Christianity along with four hundred of their subjects a few weeks after Magellan's arrival.
] carrying the Child Jesus]]
Magellan planted a large wooden cross and gave Queen Juana a wooden doll of the ] (the Holy Child) to commemorate the event. While the original doll and cross are still on public display in Cebu, the symbolism of the Child Jesus and reproductions of the original can be seen throughout the Philippine archipelago as the venerated ], in either the Child-King pose wearing a gold crown, holding a sceptre, and draped in a flowing gilded red cape, or as a representation of the common man wearing black pyjama pants and a straw hat, symbolizing that all men are children and that ] is obtainable if one approaches it like a child does.


The symbolism of the Christ Child in art reached its apex during the ]: the ] was a central theme in the works of ] and many other masters.<ref></ref>
The term "Child Jesus" also refers to the ].

==Apocrypha==
Some ] contain the ] provide accounts of the birth and early life of Jesus. These are sometimes depicted. These stories were intended to show Jesus as having extraordinary gifts of power and knowledge, even from a young age. A common tale has the young Jesus animating sparrows out of clay belonging to his playmates. When admonished for doing so on the ], as in later life, he makes the birds fly away.<ref name=roten>{{Cite web |url=http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/Jesus%20as%20a%20Child.pdf |title=Roten, J. and Janssen, T., "Jesus as a Child" |access-date=2013-10-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140513225634/http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/Jesus%20as%20a%20Child.pdf |archive-date=2014-05-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Devotional images==
{{further|Infant Jesus of Mechelen}}
Several historically significant images of the Christ Child have been ], namely the ] and the ] (both in ]), the ] (]), and the ] (]).

In the 17th century, French Carmelites promoted veneration of the "Little King of Beaune".<ref> {{ISBN|9780802838360}}</ref> In the late 19th century, a devotion to the "Holy Child of Remedy" developed in ].<ref></ref>

==Music ==
], 14th century]]
'']'' ("Christ Child Lullaby") is a Scottish carol from Moidart, Scotland. The ] Ranald Rankin, wrote the lyrics for Midnight Mass around the year 1855. He originally wrote 29 verses in ], but the popular English translation is limited to five. The melody, ''Cumha Mhic Arois'' ("Lament for Mac Àrois"), is from the ] and was sung as a protective charm for the fisherman away at sea. The rhythm mirrors the rhythm of the surf. It is sung in the Hebrides at Midnight Mass on ].

==Archconfraternity of the Holy Infancy==
On 1636, a ] nun, Venerable ], founded the Association of the Child Jesus in ], France, in honour of the divine infancy. Later, the ] canonically established the Confraternity of the Holy Infancy. On 1639 a chapel was built in the Carmel of Beaune, dedicated to the Infant Jesus.<ref></ref> ] donated a statue which came to be referred to the "Little King of Grace". He then introduced ], founder of the ], to Sister Margaret.<ref></ref> Olier then established the devotion to the Holy Infant at ]. ], who was then a priest at Saint-Sulpice, composed litanies of the Infant Jesus. ] approved the Confraternity in January 1661; ] made it an archconfraternity in 1855.<ref></ref>

==Christ Child Society==
The Christ Child Society was founded in 1885 in Washington, D.C., by ],<ref></ref> as a small relief organization to aid local underprivileged children. Additional chapters were started in other cities.<ref></ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="150px" heights="180px">
File:Jesulein mit dem Kreuz Siena 1820 MfK Wgt.jpg|Child Jesus representing the Passion of Jesus Christ, c. 1820, Weingarten
File:Mexico Holy Infant of Atocha.jpg|Holy Infant of Atocha, Mexico
File:Santa Maria in Aracoeli Rome Santo Bambino.jpg|], Rome
File:Santissimo Gesu de Malines.jpg|], ]
File:Nino2009.jpg|], Philippines
</gallery>


==See also== ==See also==
*] * ]
*] * ]
*] * ]
*] * ]
* ]
*]
*] * ]
* ] – similar devotion to Mary
*]
*] * ]
*]
*]


==References== ==References==
<references/>
]. ''Lost Scriptures : Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament.'' Oxford University Press USA, 2003. ISBN 0-19-514182-2 pgs. 58&ndash;62

==External links==
{{Commons category|Jesus Christ as a child}}

*

⚫ {{Nativity of Jesus}}
{{Christmas}}
{{Jesus footer|state=expanded}}


] ]
] ]
]] ]
]
]

Latest revision as of 05:12, 3 January 2025

Depiction of Jesus up to the age of 12 This article is about the historical and religious figure. For the Christmas gift-bringer he inspired, see Christkind. "Baby Jesus" redirects here. For the rapper formerly known as "Baby Jesus", see DaBaby.
Statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague, given by Princess Polyxena of Lobkowicz to the Discalced Carmelites in 1628

The Christ Child—also known as Baby Jesus, Infant Jesus, Child Jesus, Divine Child, Divine Infant and the Holy Child—refers to Jesus Christ during his early years. The term refers to a period of Jesus' life, described in the canonical Gospels, encompassing his nativity in Bethlehem, the visit of the Magi, and his presentation at the Temple in Jerusalem. It also includes his childhood, culminating in the event where his parents find him in the Temple at age 12, after which the Gospels remain silent about his life until the start of his ministry.

Liturgical feasts

Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, mosaic of the Mother of God enthroned with the Child, surrounded by four angels

Liturgical feasts relating to Christ's infancy and childhood include:

Depictions in art

Saint Anthony of Padua adoring the Christ Child. Oil on canvas, 1622, Antonio de Pereda

From about the third or fourth century onwards, the child Jesus is frequently shown in paintings, and sculpture. Commonly these are nativity scenes showing the birth of Jesus, with his mother Mary, and her husband Joseph.

Depictions as a baby with the Virgin Mary, known as Madonna and Child, are iconographical types in Eastern and Western traditions. Other scenes from his time as a baby, of his circumcision, presentation at the temple, the adoration of the Magi, and the flight into Egypt, are common. Scenes showing his developing years are more rare but not unknown.

Saint Joseph, Anthony of Padua, and Saint Christopher are often depicted holding the Christ Child. The Christian mystics Ss. Teresa of Ávila, Thérèse of Lisieux, along with the devotees of the Divino Niño such as Mother Angelica and Giovanni Rizzo claim to have had apparitions of the Infant Jesus.

Madonna with the Christ Child Writing, Pinturicchio c. 1500

During the Middle Ages

The Christ Child was a popular subject in European wood sculpture beginning in the 1300s.

The Christ Child was well known in Spain under the title montañesino after the santero sculptor Juan Martínez Montañés began the trend. These icons of the Christ Child were often posed in the contrapposto style in which the positioning of the knees reflected in the opposite direction, similar to ancient depictions of the Roman Emperor.

The images were quite popular among nobility of Spain and Portugal. Colonial images of the Christ child also began to wear vestments, a pious practice developed by the santero culture in later colonial years, carrying the depiction of holding the globus cruciger, a bird symbolizing a soul or the Holy Spirit, or various paraphernalia related to its locality or region.

The symbolism of the Christ Child in art reached its apex during the Renaissance: the Holy Family was a central theme in the works of Leonardo da Vinci and many other masters.

Apocrypha

Some Biblical apocrypha contain the Infancy Gospels provide accounts of the birth and early life of Jesus. These are sometimes depicted. These stories were intended to show Jesus as having extraordinary gifts of power and knowledge, even from a young age. A common tale has the young Jesus animating sparrows out of clay belonging to his playmates. When admonished for doing so on the Sabbath, as in later life, he makes the birds fly away.

Devotional images

Further information: Infant Jesus of Mechelen

Several historically significant images of the Christ Child have been canonically crowned, namely the Bambino Gesu of Arenzano and the Santo Bambino of Aracoeli (both in Italy), the Infant Jesus of Prague (Czech Republic), and the Santo Niño de Cebú (Philippines).

In the 17th century, French Carmelites promoted veneration of the "Little King of Beaune". In the late 19th century, a devotion to the "Holy Child of Remedy" developed in Madrid.

Music

Jesus animating the clay bird toys of his playmates, Germania, 14th century

Tàladh Chrìosda ("Christ Child Lullaby") is a Scottish carol from Moidart, Scotland. The Catholic priest Ranald Rankin, wrote the lyrics for Midnight Mass around the year 1855. He originally wrote 29 verses in Scottish Gaelic, but the popular English translation is limited to five. The melody, Cumha Mhic Arois ("Lament for Mac Àrois"), is from the Hebrides and was sung as a protective charm for the fisherman away at sea. The rhythm mirrors the rhythm of the surf. It is sung in the Hebrides at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

Archconfraternity of the Holy Infancy

On 1636, a Discalced Carmelite nun, Venerable Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament, founded the Association of the Child Jesus in Beaune, France, in honour of the divine infancy. Later, the Bishop of Autun canonically established the Confraternity of the Holy Infancy. On 1639 a chapel was built in the Carmel of Beaune, dedicated to the Infant Jesus. Gaston Jean Baptiste de Renty donated a statue which came to be referred to the "Little King of Grace". He then introduced Jean-Jacques Olier, founder of the Sulpicians, to Sister Margaret. Olier then established the devotion to the Holy Infant at Saint-Sulpice, Paris. François Fénelon, who was then a priest at Saint-Sulpice, composed litanies of the Infant Jesus. Pope Alexander VII approved the Confraternity in January 1661; Pius IX made it an archconfraternity in 1855.

Christ Child Society

The Christ Child Society was founded in 1885 in Washington, D.C., by Mary Virginia Merrick, as a small relief organization to aid local underprivileged children. Additional chapters were started in other cities.

Gallery

See also

References

  1. Ferguson, George. Signs & symbols in Christian art, 1966, Oxford University Press US, p.76
  2. "Christ Child", The J.Paul Getty Museum
  3. "Contrapposto". Archived from the original on 16 April 2015.
  4. "Holy Family", Encyclopædia Britannica Online
  5. "Roten, J. and Janssen, T., "Jesus as a Child"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 May 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  6. Descouvemont, Pierre., Therese and Lisieux, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1996 ISBN 9780802838360
  7. "Brief History of the Holy Child of Remedy", Friends of Anne of St. Bartolomew
  8. Barthold Mulleady, OCD, Devotion to the Infant Jesus in American Ecclesiastical Review, Volume 57, 1917, p. 600 et seq.
  9. The life of the baron de Renty, (Edward Healy Thompson, ed.), Burns & Oates, 1873, p. 8
  10. Thompson, Edward Healy. The Life of Jean-Jacques Olier, Burns & Oates, p. 391
  11. Christ Child Society
  12. Barga, Michael. "Christ Child Society", Social Welfare History Project, Virginia Commonwealth University

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