Maria Bambina
At Farnborough Abbey there is a small waiting room for visitors which is mostly taken up with what seems to be a glass coffin containing a waxen baby corpse. This is in fact a model of the Virgin Mary… as a baby. This is quite a specialised niche devotion for those who are not satisfied with statues of the adult Mary. The Mother Lode (as it were) of this particular worship originated in Milan at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity, a Franciscan order. They were the first ones to have a lifesize wax baby of Mary and over the last 300 years their baby has been in turn hidden, venerated, neglected and worshipped.
Its great heyday was at the end of the 19th Century when the infant was given to sick nuns on an overnight basis. I wasn’t there, but I would imagine it was prayed to, cared for, cuddled even. Several nuns miraculously recovered from debilitating illnesses as a result of this regime and somewhat spookily the baby itself began to regenerate, transforming from a rather beat up discoloured object to the hale and hearty specimen which can be visited to this day.
September 8th, which is the Nativity of Mary, is obviously the best time to visit the convent. You may be able to obtain a small sacramental piece of cotton which has been touched to the baby by the nuns. Miniature Baby Mary’s are also considered an excellent gift for newly weds.
