Antique retablo , Santo Niño de Atocha , Mexico Zacatecas end of 19th century.

Antique retablo , Santo Niño de Atocha , Mexico Zacatecas end of 19th century.

Size: 35.5 cm H x 25.5 cm W

Holy Infant of Atocha, Santo Niño de Atocha

The Holy Child of Atocha is a devotion to the childhood of Jesus of Spanish origin. His devotion extends throughout America, with a special presence in Mexico, particularly in Plateros, a community of Fresnillo, Zacatecas.

More than seventy years ago, the newspaper “El Peregrino de Atocha” published in Plateros by the Josefinos Fathers, then in charge of the Sanctuary, confessed that there was no information about who brought the image of Our Lady of Atocha.

“We also do not know since when the Mexican Catholics began to pay special worship to the small but charming image of the Holy Child of Our Lady of Atocha.”

Many times attempts have been made to investigate in depth the origin of this devotion to the Holy Child, and not the slightest trace of its history has been found in the archives.

Since the middle of the 19th century, countless editions of a “Novena and Triduum dedicated to the Miraculous Child of Atocha” have been made. No one numbers the editions, which come out of the presses in Fresnillo and Zacatecas, in Mexico and Guadalajara, in Leon, Gto. and even in cities in Central America.