The Mystery of the Bambinello
The true symbol of a traditional Roman Christmas is the well-loved Bambinello, an ancient wooden sculpture of the Christ Child in the church of S. Maria in Aracoeli. which vanished without trace in 1994. It does, however, have a venerated twin. Could this, in fact, be the true original? Giulianello, a charming mediaeval walled hamlet near Velletri, doesn’t feature on every map. In fact, it is not considered a village in its own right, but a “frazione” (a kind of satellite settlement) of the ancient town of Cori some 35Kms south-east of Rome. At Christmas and Epiphany, however, it comes into its own, when hundreds of people from all over flock there to pay homage to the legendary Bambinello. For most of the year, the carved wooden image of the Christ Child, is kept under lock and key in a chapel in the right-hand nave of the church of S. Giovanni Battista, at the far end of Giulianello’s main street. A smiling, chubby little figurine with shiny cheeks, it is perched on an altar draped with coils of ex-voto coral necklaces donated by grateful recipients of its benevolent intercession.
The Bambinello is credited with miraculous powers of healing and is held in great veneration. During the festive season it is brought out of its recess and, adorned with priceless gold and bejewelled swaddling clothes, appears before the faithful in all its glory. The Giulianello Baby Jesus is the twin of the more famous Bambinello that belonged to the church of S. Maria in Aracoeli on Rome’s Campidoglio, beside the Victor Emmanuel memorial. It was stolen 20 years ago and has never been recovered, despite worldwide investigations by carabinieri of the nucleo per la tutela del Patrimonio Artistico, a police corps dedicated to the protection of Italy’s artistic and cultural heritage, based in nearby Piazza S. Ignazio.
But which is the true Bambinello and which is the copy? The people of Giulianello are convinced that their Holy infant is the original sacred image carved out of olive wood from the Garden of Gethsemane and dipped in the river Jordan by a devout Franciscan lay brother. No one knows how old the original statuette is. Itsarrival at the Aracoeli is Shrouded in mystery. According to legend, the ship that was bringing it to Rome from the Holy Land ran into a bad storm and the crate containing the carving was washed overboard. However, it was miraculously found on the beach at Livorno, where it was recovered and conveyed to Rome amid great rejoicing.
Its fame as a miracle cure worker soos spread. one story tells of a 17th-century Roman noblewoman requesting the loan of the image to take to her seriously ill cousin, Cardinal Scipione Borghese. And this is where the mystery begins.
The princess wanterd to keep the precious Bambinello for herself, so she crafily commissioned an artist to make an identical copy, with she sent back to the Aracoeli church. She might have got away with it, but for the fact that the Bambinello objected to the ruse and miraculously made its own back to take its place bedise its twin. The two Bambinelli were sent away for the safety during the Napoleonic invasion of Rome in 1798. One was entrusted to the nuns of the convent od St. Cosimato in Rome and the other was taken to the religious house of the Santissima Genetrice in the castle of Giulianello, where it was eventually transferred to the parish church of S. Giovanni Battista around 1860. But wiìhich one was the original and which one the copy? It’s still open to debate. Eventually, the S. Cosimato carving was returned to S. Maria in Aracoeli and for almost 200 years was the fulcrum of the traditional Roman Christmas and Epiphany celebrations. But unfortunately Er Pupo, as the Romans affectionately called it, is no longer there.
The rich cache of gold and gemstones heaped on it by grateful donors made it a choose target for thieves. In 1994 the church was broken into and it was stolen, along with its valuable vestments and ornaments. The theft of the beloved statuette shocked Rome. Newspaper reports of the time say even the inmates of Rome’s Regina Coeli and Rebibbia prisons were filled with indignation. Italian police have been hunting for it ever since.
Shortly before their statuette was stolen, the Franciscan brothers of S. Maria di Aracoeli had commissioned a copy from italian sculptur Maurizio Orsini, identical in every detail and complete with an exact replica of the gold embroidered swaddling clothes as they were depicted in an 18th century print. In 2003 police investigators were given a tip-off that led them to believe that the Bambinello was in a remote sanctuary in northern Argentina. The sculptor was asked to identify whether it was his work by some secret marks he had made on the inside of the carving. Disappointingly, he was able to verify that the Argentine version was in fact the duplicate he had created.
When the Franciscan brothers became resigned to the fact that their statuette was not going to turn up, they decided to fill the empty niche near the altar and yet another copy was made. This is the Bambinello that appears in the manger of the church’s nativity scene at Christmas and blesses the city at Epiphany. So far, it doesn’t appear to have wrought any miracles. Maybe the Giulianello bambino is a surer bet.
Margaret Stehouse
