MIRACULOUS MIRACLES™

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La petite couronne de l'Enfant Jésus

Chaplet of the Infant Jesus

by Venerable Marguerite of the Blessed Sacrament (Marguerite Parigot, 1619–1648), Discalced Carmelite of Beaune

Three Our Fathers for the Holy Family and twelve Hail Marys for the twelve years of the Child's hidden life, the chaplet given at the Carmel of Beaune in 1636 to Marguerite of the Blessed Sacrament — with the twelve mysteries of the Holy Childhood as the Raccolta indulgenced them in 1819.

The Prayer
English · Original
THE SHORT FORM (Beaune, 1636)
On the medal: Divine Infant Jesus, I adore Thy Cross, and I accept all the crosses Thou wilt be pleased to send me.
On the three large beads, in honour of the Holy Family: And the Word was made flesh. Our Father.
On the twelve small beads, in honour of the twelve years of the Holy Childhood: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Hail Mary.
Glory be to the Father.

THE TWELVE MYSTERIES OF THE HOLY CHILDHOOD (the Raccolta, Pius VII, 23 November 1819)
V. Incline unto my aid, O God.
R. O Lord, make haste to help me.
V. Glory be to the Father, etc.

Our Father.

I. Jesu, sweetest Child, who didst come down from the bosom of the Father for our salvation, who wast conceived by the Holy Ghost, who didst not abhor the Virgin's womb, and, the Word made flesh, didst take upon Thee the form of a servant; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

II. Jesu, sweetest Child, who, through thy Virgin Mother, didst visit Saint Elisabeth, and fill thy forerunner the holy Baptist with the Holy Ghost, sanctifying him whilst yet in his mother's womb; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

III. Jesu, sweetest Child, who, shut up for nine months in thy Mother's womb, wast looked for with eager expectation by Mary and by Joseph, and wast offered to God the Father for the salvation of the world; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

IV. Jesu, sweetest Child, born in Bethlehem of Mary ever Virgin, swathed in rags, laid in the manger, announced by angels, visited by shepherds; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

O Jesu, born of Virgin bright,
Immortal glory be to Thee;
Praise to the Father Infinite,
And Holy Ghost eternally.

V. Christ is at hand.
R. Come, let us worship.

Our Father.

V. Jesu, sweetest Child, wounded in thy circumcision the eighth day, called by the glorious Name of Jesus, and at once by thy Name and thy Blood foreshown as the Saviour of the world; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

VI. Jesu, sweetest Child, made known to the three Magi by a star, adored in the arms of thy Mother, presented with the mystic gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

VII. Jesu, sweetest Child, who wast presented in the Temple by thy Virgin Mother, who wast embraced by Simeon, and revealed to Israel by Anna the prophetess; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

VIII. Jesu, sweetest Child, whom wicked Herod sought to slay, whom Joseph carried with Mary into Egypt, who wast taken from a cruel death and wast glorified by the blood of innocents; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

O Jesu, born of Virgin bright,
Immortal glory be to Thee;
Praise to the Father Infinite,
And Holy Ghost eternally.

V. Christ is at hand.
R. Come, let us worship.

Our Father.

IX. Jesu, sweetest Child, who didst dwell in Egypt with most holy Mary and the Patriarch holy Joseph until the death of Herod; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

X. Jesu, sweetest Child, who didst return with Mary and Joseph out of Egypt into the land of Israel, who didst suffer many toils by the way, and didst enter into the city of Nazareth; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

XI. Jesu, sweetest Child, who in the holy house at Nazareth didst remain subject to Mary and Joseph, didst dwell there most holily, wast wearied by poverty and labours, and didst advance in wisdom, age, and grace; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

XII. Jesu, sweetest Child, at twelve years old brought to Jerusalem, sought for by Mary and Joseph with sorrow, and found with joy after three days amongst the doctors; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, Infant Jesus, have mercy on us. Hail Mary.

O Jesu, born of Virgin bright,
Immortal glory be to Thee;
Praise to the Father Infinite,
And Holy Ghost eternally.

V. The Word was made flesh. (Alleluia.)
R. And dwelt among us. (Alleluia.)
(From Christmas to the octave; at the Epiphany and its octave instead: V. Christ hath manifested Himself to us. Alleluia. R. Come, let us adore. Alleluia. The Alleluia is omitted during the rest of the year.)

Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, Lord of heaven and earth, who dost reveal thyself to little ones; grant, we beseech Thee, that we, duly honouring the holy mysteries of thy Son, the Infant Jesus, and daily imitating Him in our lives, may come to the kingdom of Heaven promised by Thee to little children. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.
When the Prayer is Said

Daily; in public on the twenty-fifth of any month; through the Christmas season; before any statue of the Child.

History & Background

Marguerite Parigot entered the Carmel of Beaune on 25 September 1630, aged eleven, and died there on 26 May 1648, aged twenty-nine. Her whole interior life was given to the Child Jesus, and in 1636, in a France of war and famine, she began to pray and to teach a short chaplet in honour of his childhood: three Our Fathers for Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and twelve Hail Marys for the twelve years before the finding in the Temple, on a string of fifteen beads with a medal of the Child. The Carmel of Beaune recited it from 24 March of that year, the eve of the Annunciation, and the Carmelite Order carried it everywhere it went — including to Prague, where it is prayed before the statue to this day. Her cause was introduced in 1873 and the decree on her heroic virtues was signed on 10 December 1905, under Pius X; she is Venerable.

The chaplet grew a text. By the early nineteenth century the Carmelites were praying the three Our Fathers and twelve Hail Marys with a short meditation on each of twelve mysteries of the Holy Childhood, from the Incarnation to the finding among the doctors, and on 23 November 1819 Pius VII indulgenced that form — 300 days once a day, and a plenary indulgence for assisting at it in public on the twenty-fifth of any month, which is why the twenty-fifth is the Child's day. The Raccolta printed it under the heading 'Mysteries of the Holy Childhood' without naming Beaune; the French Carmelite and oratory tradition names the same twelve mysteries and the same indulgence as hers. The text below is the Raccolta's English of 1910.

The sentence on the medal is Beaune's own: Divin Enfant Jésus, j'adore votre croix et j'accepte toutes celles qu'il vous plaira de m'envoyer — 'Divine Infant Jesus, I adore Thy Cross, and I accept all the crosses Thou wilt be pleased to send me.' The promise handed down with the chaplet, that the Child would give 'purity of heart and innocence' to those who carried and prayed it, is a tradition of the Beaune Carmel; the Church indulgenced the prayer, not the promise.

Indulgences Attached

Pius VII, 23 November 1819 (Raccolta no. 75): a plenary indulgence on the twenty-fifth of every month for assisting at these devotions in public, and 300 days once a day on any other day — the grants as the 1910 Raccolta records them, not the present Enchiridion.

Related Miracles
The Infant Jesus of Prague
1628 (given to the Carmelites); 1637 (found and restored)
Further Reading
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