The Infant of Prague

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The Cathedral of Our Lady in the town of Chartres possesses a statue of the Virgin which is more than 500 years old and some believe it is a miraculous icon. In the course of Christianity, various icons, places, or particular natural resources (springs, wells, even certain rocks) have been deemed by some to have miraculous properties.

In 1987, a Greek Christian church in Chicago claimed to possess a wood painting of the Virgin which wept.

Czechoslovakia is considered among the most skilled weapons producers in the Eastern Bloc and has routinely supplied weapons to revolutionary groups in the West — notably, in the 1960s and 1970s, the Irish Republican Army.

Prague has gained favor in the West as a film production site because of the city’s beauty and the favorable exchange rate.

Everyone in Chartres knows the story of the eccentric Englishman.

Thirty years ago, he came to the village southwest of Paris to see the wonderful cathedral. All the tourists came in their season. The giant continental tour buses pulled through the narrow market streets and clogged the curbing near the cathedral, and all the tourists went to the great church with their cameras and green and red Guides Michelin. All summer, the tourists mingled with the students and the pilgrims and took photographs of the cathedral and dropped coins in the box for the restoration of the cathedral. They could buy postcards depicting the church and little stickers for their car windows that showed they had come to Chartres.

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