The Holy Innocents

Martyrs
(1st century)

The feast of the Holy Innocents, celebrated on December 28th, commemorates the infants of Bethlehem and its vicinity who were killed by order of King Herod the Great in his attempt to destroy the child Jesus whom the Magi had told him had been born as King of the Jews. The massacre is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, which sees in it the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jeremiah: A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.

Herod, when he saw that the Magi had not returned to inform him of the child's location, was furious. He calculated from their testimony about the star that the child could not be more than two years old, and he sent soldiers to kill all the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding region who were two years old or under. The Holy Family had already fled to Egypt by this time, warned by an angel in a dream, but the children of Bethlehem perished in their place.

The Church has always venerated these children as martyrs, though they did not know what they were dying for and could make no act of will in defence of the faith. They are called by theologians the first martyrs, martyrs of testimony, who shed their blood for Christ without conscious choice. Saint Augustine described their martyrdom as testimony not of word but of blood, and the Church has from the earliest centuries included them in the canon of saints.

The feast of the Holy Innocents was long associated with a custom of inverting hierarchies: in monasteries and cathedral churches the youngest members of the community would hold authority for the day, a tradition that reflects the theological paradox of the weakest and most helpless being the first to give their lives in testimony to the Lord. They are the patrons of children and of foundlings. Their feast is celebrated on December 28th.