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 Christmas 1968: The Infant of Prague Scott 464-466 (1968) As we approach the end of the calendar year, we hope that you have enjoyed the topics presented in the Daily E-Mails, highlighting the many and diverse subjects presented on Vatican City stamps. The dates of liturgical feast days, the release of Vatican City issues and other events of importance are used to select the topics sent each day. The year 2025 has certainly been eventful, with the Holy Year of 2025, the Jubilee of Hope, the death of Pope Francis, the election of Pope Leo XIV, and many other current events tied to the Church and our topic of interest, Vatican philately. As we enter the Christmas season, the Daily Emails will begin to focus on Christmas and look at stamp issues, covers and other items related to this most wonderful time of the year. Yesterday's Daily Email introduced the first ten years of Christmas stamps issued by the Vatican, starting in 1959. Today we will look at the last of those stamp sets, the annual Christmas stamp set issued in 1968. The set featured three stamps picturing the statue known as the 'Infant of Prague'. The statue is a 16th-century wax-coated wooden statue of the Child Jesus holding the orb and cross (or 'globus cruciger') in His left hand while providing a sign of blessing with His right. It is of Spanish origin and is now located in the Discalced Carmelite Church of Our Lady Victorious in Malá Strana, Prague, Czech Republic. The statue is clothed in luxurious fabrics by the Carmelite Nuns, and is venerated on Christmas day and the first Sunday of May. Here is a photograph of the statue:  Statue of the Infant of Prague Photo from Fotobanka ČTK, René Fluger From Wikimedia Commons, used under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license Legend claims that the statue once belonged to Saint Teresa of Ávila and was subsequently donated to the Carmelite friars by Princess Polyxena of Lobkowicz in 1628. Pope Leo XII signed the first pontifical decree of canonical coronation for the statue in 1824. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI visited the Czech Republic and crowned the image for the second time.  Entrance, Church of Our Lady Victorious, Malá Strana, Prague, Czech Republic Photo by Ludek From Wikimedia Commons, used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license During the Pope's visit in 2009, one of his main goals was to help restore the faith in the Czech Republic. The ex-communist country is the most secular country in Eastern Europe, with less than one-third of its population being Catholic. During an open-air mass at the pilgrimage site to Saint Wenceslas at Stara Boleslav (just outside of Prague), the pontiff's message was that the fall of the communist regime, which had tried to erase religion, was proof that God could not be excluded from public life. REFERENCES: |
