The Boy Jesus of the Troubled

The Child Jesus of the Troubled: a feminine devotion in Lisbon during the reign of D. João VI (1816-1826)

In 1817, in a Lisbon still recovering from the French invasions, an orphan from the Recolhimento da Rua da Rosa was cured of her paralysis, attributing the fact to a painting in the convent of Trinas do Mocambo representing the Child Jesus known as “of the Troubled”.
The miracle was witnessed by several people, including the doctor who attended her, gaining great diffusion. The Trinas nuns acquired the privilege of exclusive production of the prayer cards, but there was a clandestine trade that included printing on fabrics for amulets intended for the abandoned children at the wheel of Mercy.
The devotion seems to have been feminine, popular, and confined to the first half of the 19th century, when the political and social times were, in fact, “troubled”.
In addition to the prayer cards and amulets, the original painting was also converted into large sculptures for use in private altars, similar to the example offered, in 2009, to the Museum of São Roque, which motivated the research that led to this book.

Author
João Miguel Simões

Edition
Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa
Culture Directorate | Editorial Center

General Coordination
Teresa Nicolau
Teresa Morna

Editorial Coordination
Samuel Esteves

Santa Casa da Misericórdia Lisboa | Communication Directorate
Design Unit | Hugo Andrade

Review
João Miguel Simões
Maria João Ferreira

ISBN
978-989-9151-95-6

Acknowledgments:
District Archive of Porto
Military Historical Archive
National Archive of Torre do Tombo
National Library of Portugal
National Library of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Carla Antas de Almeida
Italian Church of Our Lady of Loreto / Italian Community in Lisbon
Hydrographic Institute
João Carlos Oliveira
Joaquim Lopes
José Testas
Luís Milício
Maria do Carmo Lino
Maria João Ferreira
National Museum of Romanticism, Madrid, Spain
Museum of Aveiro
Museum of Lisbon
Money Museum
Museum Grão Vasco
Sintra Parks / Montes da Lua
Sílvia Salvado
Sílvia Pereira
Martins Sarmento Society

1st Edition
March 2026