Saintly Encounters with the Christ Child

Merry, Blessed Christmas!

With today being the day that it is, I was particularly inspired to contemplate the Christ Child earlier this morning.  In fact, I have a beautiful, 10" Spanish-made image of the Holy Infant that I display every Advent and Christmas in front of my home-shrine, along with a relic of the Holy Manger (above photo)... and I was again charmed by its affable expression and its exquisite detail (it even has tiny white teeth in its small, open mouth!).  Gazing at the figure, I couldn't help but wonder what the actual Baby Jesus must have looked like.  My thoughts then strayed to the ever-popular St. Anthony of Padua (d. 1231), who was privileged to see and hold the real deal, which further prompted me to remember that he wasn't the only Saint I've read about who was granted this unique grace.  So off the top of my head I started mentally listing the other holy persons I could recall who also encountered the Divine Child in one way or another.  The result of all my musing is this special Christmas blog...

+ Mystic souls who saw and/or held the Christ Child

Many of us are familiar with the statues of St. Anthony carrying Baby Jesus (they're almost a standard in Catholic churches!)... and, although not widely circulated like St. Anthony's story, there were several other privileged souls who envisioned and even touched the Christ Child, too.  In this select group of mystics we can count Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich (d. 1824); St. Agnes of Montepulciano (d. 1317); St. Catherine of Bologna (d. 1463); St. Christopher Martyr (d. circa 251), the Patron Saint of Travelers who famously carried the apparitional boy Jesus across a river; St. Faustina Kowalska (d. 1938);  St. John of God (d. 1550);  St. Lydwina of Scheidam (d. 1433); Madre Marianna of Jesus Torres (d. 1635) of the Our Lady of Good Success apparitions; Mother Marie Adele Garnier (d. 1924); Melanie Calvat (d. 1904) of the Marian apparitions of La Salette; Bl. Miriam Thresia Chiramel (d. 1926), a stigmatized Indian founder of a congregation; St. Padre Pio (d. 1968); St. Rose of Lima (d. 1617); St. Teresa of Avila (d. 1582); and St. Veronica Giuliani (d. 1727).

St. Agnes of Montepulciano once received the

Holy Child from the hands of the Madonna.

What's more is in the lives of two stigmatics - the Florentine Ven. Domenica del Paradiso (d. 1553) and the French Canadian immigrant to the USA, Marie Rose Ferron (a.k.a. "Little Rose", d. 1936), their experiences with the Divine Infant stand out for me.  In Ven. Domenica's biography, there was an incident related in her childhood in which she welcomed a mysterious beggar woman and child to her family's home.  Domenica observed there were injuries to the toddler's hands and feet and, moved by compassion, she naively asked the woman, "Who has hurt your little boy?" to which the woman only replied, "It is because he loves very much."  The stranger then went on to inquire about a devotional statue of the Madonna and Child in the home, which was crowned with flowers.  When Domenica affirmed that it was she who had decorated the image, the lovely woman smiled and predicted, "Someday they will also crown you with a beautiful crown in Heaven."  Of course the visitors were none other than Jesus and the Blessed Mother, who had come to test the charity of their young protegee and prepare her for the abundant heavenly favors in store for her.

In the case of Little Rose, her first ever apparition involved a visit from Jesus when she was only about 6 or 7-years-old.  She saw the Lord as a boy about the same age as herself, carrying a cross that was tailored to his height. His expression was one of sadness that impressed the girl deeply, and it appears this apparition was a foreshadowing of Little Rose's future vocation as a victim-soul; later evidenced by the illnesses she suffered along with the manifestation of Stigmata.

Sr. Lucia of Fatima's encounter with
Our Lady and her Divine Son.

Next I relate the encounter reported in the life of St. Junipero Serra (d. 1784) of California.  While crossing the desert on one of his extensive missionary travels through Mexico, he and a companion came across a small hut near three large trees where they were warmly welcomed by a native couple and their child - a beautiful little boy.  The chance meeting was timely as the travelers were weary and hungry from their journey, and their hosts generously provided them with food and water, and a warm comfortable place to sleep for the evening.  The following morning the missionaries awoke to find the house empty so they continued onto their final destination where they relayed to the other friars the providential meeting with the friendly trio.  To the Saint's bewilderment, the other friars, who were familiar with the region, only confirmed the presence of the three trees but disagreed about the hut.  In a later trip past the same locale, St. Junipero saw for himself the truth of what was told him - the trees were there but there was no hut; no family - anywhere near!  He immediately gave thanks to God when it dawned on him that it was the Holy Family who hosted him and his companion during that one fateful evening.

And lastly, in this segment, we can also add the Servant of God Teresa Palminota (d. 1934) to whom the Christ Child appeared, emerging from her parish church's tabernacle; Mother Angelica of EWTN fame (d. 2016 and who I presume will one day be considered for sainthood) was whispered by her close associates to have had several apparitions of the Holy Child in her Alabama convent; Sr. Lucia of Fatima (d. 2005) who saw the young Jesus on at least two occasions, one of which was when she received the revelation of the First Five Saturdays of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Indeed, there are probably many more such stories in the lives of our Church's mystic-souls, but for now these are all I am aware of or can remember.

+ Visions of the Birth of Jesus

Another type of encounter with the Baby Jesus involves witnessing his miraculous birth and hidden details of his infancy and childhood through sensory visions.  In this type of heavenly encounter, the mystic may not have had direct physical contact with the Christ Child, but rather, the visionary seems to have played the role of a spectator, watching the scene of Jesus's birth unfold while in a state of ecstasy.

Among those granted this experience, I list St. Elisabeth of Schonau (d. 1164), a German Benedictine nun; St. Bridget of Sweden (d. 1373) who experienced a vision of the Nativity while on pilgrimage in Bethlehem; Ven. Maria of Agreda (d. 1665); Maria Valtorta (d. 1961) of the "Poem of the Man God" fame; the Bavarian Servant of God, Therese Neumann (d. 1962); and there is again the Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich, who not only played with the boy Jesus as a youngster, but she also saw his entire life in a series of epic visions.

Therese Neumann, photographed while

experiencing one of her many visions.

Remarkably, these individual visionary experiences had many points in common when it came to interesting details about the very first Christmas:

**  The stable was actually a cave or grotto rather than a stand-alone structure, as commonly depicted in traditional Nativity Creches.

**  Mary was alone in a part of the stable/cave while in deep ecstasy - surrounded by heavenly light - during the birth of Jesus... and the Holy Babe's delivery was by no means normal - he passed effortlessly through the tissues of her womb and abdomen as a brilliant, luminous figure rather than being born in the natural manner.

**  Our Lady felt no discomfort or pain, whatsoever, while giving birth (because of her unique exemption from original sin)... and there was no issue of blood or other bodily fluids that would've necessitated cleansing of any type for both mother and child.  All was perfectly clean and dignified.

+ Miraculous Images of the Holy Infant

In this final segment, I narrate a few cases in which statues of the Divine Child closely connected to certain holy persons were seen to become animated or transfigured into the actual living Jesus... or weep.

A statue of the Holy Infant once came

to life in the arms of St. Francis of Assisi

during Christmas festivities in

Greccio, Italy.

What is probably the earliest example of this phenomena involves St. Francis of Assisi (d. 1226), who is credited with having created the very first Nativity Scene in the Italian town of Greccio during the Christmas of 1224.  According to written accounts, the statue of the Bambino laid in the manger was seen to come alive by many witnesses while St. Francis venerated the image in an enraptured state.

Still, other holy persons included in this group were Ven. Edvige Carboni (d. 1852), an Italian stigmatic who owned one such miraculous image.  In her specific case she once sewed a gown for her much-loved Gesu Bambino statue and, when she couldn't dress the statue due to the positioning of its arms, she asked Jesus to help her and the figure adjusted its arms so that Edvige could then easily slip the gown onto it.  A later mystic, Teresa Palminota (already mentioned above) had similar experiences with her own Baby Jesus statue that exhibited mysterious movements in her home.

Another Italian mystic-soul, Teresa Musco (d. 1976), owned several statues in her home that wept watery tears, as well as blood.  Among them was an Infant Jesus figure that often shed tears in apparent protest to abortion.  On more than one occasion the tears were blood, which speaks volumes to the pain felt by the Lord over the death of innocent babies.

   

The stigmatic, Teresa Musco, with her

weeping Bambino statue (left) and the miracle

image of the Infant Jesus of Prague (right).

Finally, this last segment wouldn't be complete without mention of the miraculous Holy Infant of Prague statue that was promoted by the holy Carmelite, Fr. Cyril of the Mother of God, and is today celebrated the world over.  In this case, Fr. Cyril did not see an apparition of Christ or miraculous movements in the statue, but what he did experience was hearing the voice of Jesus emanate from the image, asking for the replacement of its missing hands and for public veneration.  In return, benedictions were promised to devotees of the Divine Child; it's been a channel of healing ever since.

So with that last account of the wonder-working Prague statue, that's all, folks - I'm out of Baby Jesus encounter-stories.  I hope the various tales I posted above were enjoyed by the reader and, perhaps, contributed just a bit more wonder and awe to today's celebration of the awesome mystery of God becoming man.  Again, Merry Christmas to all!