I think the problem is as follows: With lazy loading, objects are not loaded until referenced. Until then, references are to proxy objects. So, since all loads need to be done in the context of a session, if you load a parent object and never reference the child object until after the session has been closed, you will get a lazy initialization exception View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3989107#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...