Santo Bambino of Aracoeli
The Santo Bambino of Aracœli ("Holy Child of Aracœli"), sometimes known as the Bambino Gesù di Aracœli ("Child Jesus of Aracœli") is a 15th-century Roman Catholic devotional replicated wooden image enshrined in the titular Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, depicting the Child Jesus[1] swaddled in golden fabric, wearing a crown, and adorned with various gemstones and jewels donated by devotees.
Santo Bambino di Aracœli
Holy Child of Aracœli
On 18 January 1894, Pope Leo XIII authorised its public devotion and granted a canonical coronation on 2 May 1897.[2] It was again blessed by Pope John Paul II on 8 January 1984. The image was purportedly stolen on 1 February 1994, then now replaced with a modern copy.
Theft of the image[edit]
The statue itself was adorned with valuable ex-votos. It was customarily stored at night in a secured cabinet, but on 1 February 1994 at approximately 4:00 PM, 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 valuables, and coming to the room where the image was stored at night, found the armored cabinet open. Another version says the statue was still on display in the Basilica's crèche, which was to be removed the next day.
While the police believed it would be difficult to recover any of the gold and valuables taken with the image, they considered the Santo Bambino too well known to be easily marketed.[4] The theft of the Santo Bambino caused considerable outrage in Rome. A number of rich individuals offered to underwrite a ransom, but the Franciscans discouraged that approach and proceeded to have a copy made. The inmates at the Regina Coeli prison even wrote a petition to their anonymous "colleagues", asking for its return.[6] That having failed, they donated money for the new copy.
Legends[edit]
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.[3]
A second tale recounts that in 1797, the Princess Paolina Borghese wishing to have the statue for herself, had a copy made. When her cousin became gravely ill, the family requested that the Bambino be brought, but returned the copy. However, at midnight while the bells rang at Santa Maria in Araceoli, the statue miraculously returned to its rightful place, thus inspiring the famous urban legend tale of a Roman noblewoman pretending to be sick with the ulterior motive to take the image to her home.[5]
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.[5]