The devotion of Mother Angelica, founder of EWTN, for the Divine Child Jesus

A not-well-known fact in the life of Mother Angelica, founder of EWTN, the largest Catholic television network in the world, was her great devotion to the Divine Child Jesus.

Mother Angélica visited the church of the Divino Niño Jesús, in the 20 de Julio neighborhood of Bogotá (Colombia), during a trip to South America in June 1996. On that same trip she visited Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.

The devotion of the Divine Child began during the first half of the 20th century, promoted by the Italian Salesian priest Juan del Rizzo, in charge of the evangelization of the humble 20 de Julio neighborhood, in the Colombian capital.

The affection for the Divino Niño has surpassed Colombian borders and has reached various countries around the world.

A transformative event: Mother Angélica’s experience in Colombia

The American journalist Raymond Arroyo, in his biography of Mother Angelica Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles (Mother Angélica: the remarkable story of a nun, her courage and a network of miracles) notes that on her 1996 trip, the founder of EWTN was taken by her host in Colombia, Father Juan Pablo Rodríguez, to the church of Divine Child Jesus.

As she prayed at the foot of the image, in the midst of the crowd of faithful gathered in the small chapel of the Divino Niño, Arroyo writes, “tears suddenly wet her cheeks” and it seemed to Mother Angelica that the image was moving.

“’Suddenly, He turns to me,’ Angelica recalled, ‘and He says ‘Build me a temple and I will help those who help you,’” Arroyo writes.

Mother Angelica did not know exactly how to interpret that message, and she did not understand what type of “temple” she was referring to. “The whole message was questionable to me,” the EWTN founder told Arroyo, and she claimed that she did not mention “that part of the mandate to anyone for a couple of years.”

“Months later,” Mother Angelica’s biographer continues, “on leaving St. Peter’s in Rome, Angelica read an inscription in stone that began with the words: ‘This temple.’” Then everything became clear: “The Christ Child wanted an elaborate sanctuary, the Mother realized. There was such a thing as a Catholic temple, and the Lord of it desired a new one.”

A legacy of faith: The impact of Mother Angelica’s encounter with the Divine Child

Raymond Arroyo specifies in his book that the inspiration for what would later become the Monastery of Our Lady of the Angels, in Hanceville, in the state of Alabama (United States), did not arise directly from the Divine Child, since the excavations on the ground They had begun about six months before Mother Angelica’s visit to Colombia.

“What the encounter with the baby Jesus did was crystallize the Mother’s vision for the Hanceville monastery, radically altering the original plans. Given what she considered a divine commandment, the ‘simple farm chapel’ would not be such,” says Arroyo.

In addition to a reproduction of the image of the Divine Child inside the Sanctuary of the Blessed Sacrament of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Angels, a special version of the image designed by Mother Angelica is located in the center of the outside plaza.

Originally published July 20, 2017. It has been updated for republication.