Sunday, January 06, 2008

January 6th in Rome...



As the Franciscan cleric processed with the statue one could not help but notice the devotion of the many, many hundreds upon hundreds of Roman faithful.

Every day people from all over the world write the infant Jesus with petitions that are placed on the altar in front of this statue. You, too, can write. Simply mail the envelope to: Gesu Bambino Ara Coeli Roma.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I went to Rome I remember seeing the Gesu Bambino, could you maybe give some information on this statue of baby Jesus? By the way I also remember an Italian priest pointing to the footprint of the devil imbeded in the marble floor of this Church. He said that the Church used to be a Roman temple and that when it was consecrated as a Church, the devil stormed out of the Church and left a huge footprint in the marble.

John Paul Sonnen said...

Wow. Very interesting.

As to the stature, this one is new because the true one was stolen and never returned some recent years ago. It's made of olive wood from the holy land.

They say the first altar was built there in the time of pagan rome. augustus had a dream where he saw the virgin mary and baby jesus over the ara coeli (golden altar). so augustus knew "a" god was being born at that time and feared greatly. Loads of history there.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info JP Sonnen, I left a little more information about the devil and the huge footprint in the marble on a different post. God Bless.