Devotion to the Holy Childhood of Jesus

Devotions

A contemplative tradition, rooted in seventeenth-century French spirituality, of meditating on and imitating the hidden interior life of Christ’s childhood.

Devotion to the Holy Childhood of Jesus is a contemplative Catholic tradition centered on meditating on and imitating the interior dispositions of Christ during his hidden years — his infancy through the finding in the Temple at age twelve. It developed especially within seventeenth-century French spirituality and later found concrete expression in the worldwide Association of the Holy Childhood, founded in 1843 to support children in mission lands.

Quick Facts

  • Category: Devotions to Jesus Christ — Holy Childhood
  • Key figures: St. John Eudes and Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle
  • Origin: Rooted in the French School of spirituality of the seventeenth century; given concrete missionary expression in 1843
  • Observance: No fixed date; closely tied to the Christmas season and the Gospel accounts of Christ’s hidden years
  • Church status: an established contemplative and charitable tradition within Catholic spirituality, still active today through the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood
  • Private revelation: not dependent on private revelation

What Is This Devotion?

Where devotion to the Infant Jesus generally centers on images and prayer directed to Christ as a child, devotion to the Holy Childhood of Jesus is more specifically a contemplative practice: meditating on the “hidden years” of Christ’s life — his infancy, the flight into Egypt, the years at Nazareth, and his being found in the Temple at age twelve (Luke 2:41–52) — and trying to imitate the interior dispositions Scripture and tradition associate with them: humility, hidden obedience, complete dependence on the Father, and quiet growth “in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). It asks what it might mean for an adult believer to take on a child’s trusting posture before God, not what it means to venerate a particular devotional image.

Origin and History

This form of meditation developed within the French School of spirituality, a movement of seventeenth-century French priests and spiritual writers — Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle, founder of the French Oratory in 1611; Fr. Charles de Condren; Jean-Jacques Olier, founder of the Sulpicians; and St. John Eudes — who taught that Christian holiness consists in entering interiorly into the “states” and mysteries of Christ’s life, allowing his dispositions in each to reshape one’s own. Christ’s infancy and childhood held a particular place in this teaching as states of complete self-emptying and dependence, worth deliberately contemplating and imitating rather than passing over on the way to his public ministry. St. John Eudes gave this teaching one of its fullest expressions in his 1637 treatise The Life and the Kingdom of Jesus in Christian Souls, which treats meditation on Christ’s various ages and mysteries, including his childhood, as a path toward Christian perfection.

In the nineteenth century, this contemplative tradition found a very concrete, charitable expression. In 1843, Charles de Forbin-Janson, Bishop of Nancy in France, founded the Association of the Holy Childhood after receiving urgent appeals from missionaries in China describing the desperate needs of abandoned children there. The association asked children in Catholic countries to pray and give small sums specifically to help children on the missions, joining contemplative devotion to Christ’s own childhood with concrete charity toward children in need. Pope Pius IX formally raised it to a canonical institution in 1856, and it continues today, reorganized as the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood (also called the Missionary Childhood Association), one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies recognized by the Holy See.

Catholic Theology

This devotion rests on the conviction that every stage of Christ’s human life, not only his Passion, carries saving and instructive meaning, since the whole of his life was lived in perfect union with the Father. Meditating on his childhood is meant to cultivate what the Gospel itself commends: “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). This theme echoes forward into later Catholic spirituality — most famously in St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s nineteenth-century “little way” of spiritual childhood, a related but historically distinct development within Carmelite spirituality rather than a direct continuation of the earlier French School tradition.

How to Practice It

  • Meditate regularly on the Gospel infancy narratives (Matthew 1–2, Luke 1–2) and on the finding in the Temple (Luke 2:41–52), asking what Christ’s dispositions in each scene might teach.
  • Cultivate deliberate trust and dependence on God in prayer, following the pattern this tradition draws from Christ’s own childhood.
  • Support the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood, which continues the tradition’s original charitable expression on behalf of children in mission territories.
  • Read a work from the French School of spirituality, such as St. John Eudes’s writings, for a fuller introduction to this way of prayer.

Associated Prayers

When It’s Observed

No specific feast is attached to this devotion as such. It is practiced especially during the Christmas season and whenever the Gospel’s infancy and childhood narratives are read at Mass, including the Feast of the Holy Family and the finding in the Temple.

Church Status

This is a well-established contemplative tradition within approved Catholic spirituality, associated with figures — Bérulle, Eudes, Forbin-Janson — whose broader work the Church has consistently recognized and, in Eudes’s case, formally canonized. Its charitable expression, the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood, holds a specific and current institutional status as one of the Holy See’s four Pontifical Mission Societies, distinguishing it clearly from a purely private devotional custom.

Common Misconceptions

“This is the same devotion as Devotion to the Infant Jesus.”

They are closely related but not identical. Devotion to the Infant Jesus, covered on our separate page, centers on venerating Christ as a child through images and direct prayer; devotion to the Holy Childhood is more specifically a contemplative tradition of meditating on and imitating Christ’s hidden interior dispositions as a child, historically rooted in seventeenth-century French spirituality.

“Spiritual childhood means avoiding adult responsibility or maturity.”

The opposite is intended. This tradition asks for a child’s trust and dependence on God specifically as the foundation for a mature, responsible Christian life, not as an excuse to avoid it — much as St. Thérèse of Lisieux, whose related “little way” is often confused with this older tradition, lived a life of real discipline and responsibility within her religious community.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the same as St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s “little way”?

They are related in theme but historically distinct. St. Thérèse’s spiritual childhood developed within nineteenth-century Carmelite spirituality; devotion to the Holy Childhood traces further back to the seventeenth-century French School. Many spiritual writers see a real resonance between them, but they are not simply the same devotion under two names.

What is the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood?

It is one of four Pontifical Mission Societies recognized by the Holy See, tracing back to the Association of the Holy Childhood founded by Bishop Charles de Forbin-Janson in 1843, which continues to involve children in praying and giving for the benefit of children in mission territories.

Do I need to belong to a specific group to practice this devotion?

No. Its contemplative core — meditating on and imitating Christ’s childhood dispositions — is open to any Catholic; its charitable expression through the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood is a specific, optional way of living it out further.

Sources

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