BAMBINO GESÙ, cULTO del. — The cult of the B. G., not entirely unknown in the early Middle Ages, originated in the 12th and 13th centuries, when, in Christian spirituality, a passionate study of the human life of Jesus began, especially as considered in its two extreme phases: infancy and the Passion. This was due to the influence of the liturgy, the Crusades, the numerous pilgrimages, the pious meditations and devout practices of great saints such as s. Bernardo and s. Francesco (the Christmas celebration at Greccio, 1225), the growing cult of the Eucharist (many cherished the B. G. hidden beneath the Eucharistic species), and that of the Madonna (almost always represented with the B. G. in her arms).
Many writers propagated devotion to the B. G., such as s. Aelredo di Rievaulx, in the Tractatus de Iesu duodenni: PL 195, 361-500; s. Bernardo, in the Omelie: PL 183, 360-536; and s. Bonaventura, in De 5 Festivitatibus pueri Iesu; Lignum Vitae (Opera omnia, VIII, Quarocchi 1882-1902, pp. 68-86). Devotional treatises taught pious souls to assist the Madonna in swaddling, rocking, and washing the B. G., and to play with the divine Child: thus, for example, Ubertino da Casale, in Arbor Vitae crucifixae D.N.I.X., Venice 1485, and G. Gerson. Visions in which the little Jesus appeared also became numerous: to s. Elisabetta di Schönau, to s. Chiara, to the blessed Angela da Foligno, and above all to the venerable Margherita Ebner, who enjoyed a particular friendship with the holy Child. Sculptural representations showed the devout how he lay in the Madonna’s bed after childbirth (from about the year 1300), or in the manger (from the 15th century), or in the cradle (which the devout slowly rocked), and also how an angel taught him to walk. Statues of the B. G. were also brought from Bethlehem, where they had been placed at the site of the Lord’s Nativity. It was customary, at least in some regions of Belgium and Germany, to place small terracotta or clay statues of the B. G. in the foundations of houses; the B. G. was also the most popular subject of the countless painted or woodcut images, and was often the theme of New Year’s greeting cards. Very ancient statues of the B. G. from this period are still venerated in the cathedral of Apt (Provence, 14th century), at Filzmoos (Austria, before 1500), and in that of Cebù, in the Philippine Islands (brought from Spain, first half of the 16th century).
In the 16th century that devotion to the B. G. began which continued more directly down to our own time. In Spain, s. Teresa taught her nuns to make statuettes of the B. G.; and in Italy the venerable Orsola Benincasa venerated several of them. At Lucca, an industry producing such statuettes arose during this period. The B. G. of the Aracoeli and that of Altenhohenau in Bavaria also seem to date from the same period. In the first half of the 17th century, the great flowering of the cult of the B. G. began, a cult promoted by the French school (under the influence of Cardinal de Bérulle, who particularly appreciated contemplation of the Divine Word humbled in the form of a child), and above all by Margherita del S.mo Sacramento (of Beaune), who founded the Family of the B. G. and introduced the Crown of Jesus (12 Ave Maria and 3 Pater Noster) and the feast on the 25th of each month. The B. G. of Prague came from Spain around 1628. S. Alfonso was an apostle of devotion to the B. G. BETLEMITI (v.). Numerous religious Congregations take their name from the B. G.
de Bruxelles, 14 (1900), pp. 191-98; G. Cantini, L'infanzia divina nella pietà francescana, in Studi francescani, 9 (1923), pp. 283-313; F. Vernet, La spiritualité médiévale (Bibliothèque Catholique des sciences religieuses, 21), Parigi 1929, pp. 77-82, 96-99; H. Bramond, La conquête mystique (Histoire littéraire, III), Parigi 1929, pp. 511-82; P. Dudon, La dévotion à l'Enfant-Jésus d'après le P. Parisot de l'Oratoire (1657), in Revue d'Ascétique et de Mystique, 11 (1930), pp. 135-55; M. Meertens, De godvrucht in de Nederlanden naar handschriften der XV eeuw, I, Bruxelles-Nimega 1930, pp. 96-102; A. Spamer, Das kleine Andelstilbeld vom XIV. bis zum XX. Jahrhundert, Monaco 1930; B. van den Eerenbeemt, Het Kind in onze Middeleeuwsche literatuur, Amsterdam 1935, pp. 301-42; C. van Hulst, La storia della devozione a G. B. nelle immagini plastiche isolate, in Antonianum, 19 (1944), pp. 35-54. Cesario van Hulst