The little-known story of a saint’s Christmas vision of the infant Jesus in Rome

Vatican City, Dec 24, 2024 / 06:00 am

On Christmas Eve in 1517, a saint experienced a mystical vision in which the Blessed Virgin Mary placed the Christ Child in his arms as he offered his first Mass in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major.

The little-known but profound experience of the newborn Jesus occurred within the storied walls of the Marian basilica’s Chapel of the Nativity, where St. Cajetan of Thiene prayed before the relics of Christ’s manger.

“In the hour of his most holy birth, I found myself in the true and material most holy Nativity,” St. Cajetan wrote to Sister Laura Mignani, an Augustinian nun and spiritual confidant. 

“From the hands of the timid Virgin, I took that tender child, the Eternal Word made flesh.”

St. Cajetan also recounted that St. Jerome, whose relics are said to rest in the basilica, appeared in the vision and encouraged him to embrace the child. 

“To encourage me was the most blessed Jerome, my father, a great lover of the Nativity, whose remains rest at the entrance of the same crib,” he wrote.

The vision, which St. Cajetan said occurred again on Jan. 1 and Jan. 6 during the feast days of the Circumcision and Epiphany, has remained a central spiritual moment for Congregation of Clerics Regular, or Theatines, the order of priests he co-founded.

In an interview with CNA in Rome, Father Juan Roberto Orqueida, the Theatine order’s chief archivist, revealed a copy of St. Cajetan’s letter, the original of which is housed in Naples.

Orqueida noted that St. Cajetan was ordained on Sept. 30, the feast of St. Jerome, and deliberately waited for three months in order to celebrate his first Mass on Christmas Eve in the Chapel of the Nativity.

The choice was deeply symbolic. The Basilica of St. Mary Major has long been a cornerstone of devotion to the Nativity of Christ. Known as “the Bethlehem of the West,” it houses a relic believed to be fragments of the manger in which Jesus was laid, which can now be venerated in the crypt beneath the basilica’s main altar.

Orqueida underlined that devotion to the Nativity of Christ remains a central part of the spirituality of the Theatine order today, “especially to see in the child Jesus, God who becomes part of our humanity, becomes man.”

St. Cajetan was one of the great reformers of the Church during the period of the Reformation. He is remembered as the “saint of divine providence,” a title reflecting his unwavering trust in God. He co-founded the Theatine order in 1524 to counter the corruption of his time, combining monastic poverty with active ministry caring for the poor and marginalized.

Father Enrico Danese described St. Cajetan’s humility and austerity: “He was blameless, chaste, meek, merciful, and full of all pity toward the sick. With his own hands he fed them and served them. As for his room, it was poor. There was a poor straw sack where he rested … His dress was of coarse cloth.”

St. Cajetan, canonized in 1671, is often depicted in art holding the infant Jesus, as is St. Anthony of Padua, who also had a mystical experience involving the Christ Child.

Near Rome’s Piazza Navona, the Basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle, the Theatine order’s basilica in the Eternal City, a grand altarpiece painting and a statue depict St. Cajetan holding the infant Jesus.

At Christmastime, the Sant’Andrea basilica hosts an elaborate display of dozens of Nativity scenes, a tradition that echoes St. Cajetan’s devotion to the Christ Child.

Hidden in the crypt of the Chapel of the Nativity, to the right of the main altar in St. Mary Major, a marble sculpture of St. Cajetan holding the infant Jesus identifies the sacred spot where the vision occurred. (St. Ignatius of Loyola also chose to offer his first Mass in the same chapel in 1538.)

As pilgrims gaze upon the marble statue of Cajetan holding the Christ Child, they are invited to enter the mystery of the Nativity and, like the saint himself, embrace the tender and eternal Word made flesh.

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The Theatine Order has offered this prayer to St. Cajetan to be prayed in front of any image of the baby Jesus during the Christmas season:

“Gentle baby Jesus, you, in an admirable vision, wanted to come from the embrace of your mother to those of your priest St. Cajetan, who was pleasing to you because of the holiness of his life and the great faith he always had in your providence. Through his intercession, turn to us your glance, which is part of the delight of the blessed in heaven, and listen to the prayer we send to you from the bottom of our hearts. We present to you the filial abandon which St. Cajetan had in you, confident that, through his intercession, everything we ask in front of your venerated image will be granted to us. Amen.”