Kostel Panny Marie Vítězné
Malá Strana, Prague


Church of Our Lady Victorious and The Infant Jesus of Prague

The Church of Our Lady of Victories, also referred as the Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague, in Malá Strana, the "Lesser Quarter" of Prague, is a church governed and administered by the Discalced Carmelites.

The shrine is home to the famed statue called the Infant Jesus of Prague. The statue, which originated in Spain, is a 16th-century representation of infant Child Jesus holding a globus cruciger. It was donated to the Carmelite friars in 1628 by Polyxena, First Princess of the House of Lobkowicz.

A chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity was built on this site in 1584. Following Rudolph II's Letter of Majesty a larger church in the style of a Roman basilica was built around 1611 for German Lutherans. With the Battle of White Mountain, 8 November 1620, the Counter-Reformation signaled the re-Catholicism of Prague.

Pope Leo XII granted its first pontifical decree of canonical coronation on 24 September 1824, signed and notarized by Cardinal Pietro Francesco Galleffi for the Patriarchal Council of the "Vatican Chapter", as the first Christological image granted this prestigious honor.