Infant of Prague, Église Saint-Martin de Limoux

The original Infant of Prague is a 16th-century Roman Catholic wooden statue of child Jesus holding a globe. Pious legends claim that the statue once belonged to Saint Teresa of Avila.

St. Teresa gave the statue, originally from Prague, as a wedding gift to a Spanish noblewoman. This woman gave it to her daughter at her wedding. The daughter then gave the statue to an order of nuns upon her death.

The devotion to the child Jesus was especially popular in 16th century Spain, and the Spanish explorers brought the devotion to the New World, and thus in most village churches in Mexico and across Central America you will find a little ‘Infant of Prague’.

This devotion reminds us that ‘unless we become like a little child we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.’

The statue’s raised two fingers are a blessing gesture symbolising the two natures of Jesus and the three folded fingers represent the Holy Trinity.