THE Holy Innocents represent a tragic and poignant event in Christian history.
According to the Gospel of St Matthew, King Herod, threatened by the news of a newborn King of the Jews, ordered the massacre of all male infants in Bethlehem and its vicinity, seeking to eliminate any potential threat to his reign.
This horrific act fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah, grieving mothers weeping for their children.
The Feast of the Holy Innocents, observed on December 28 in the liturgical calendar, honours these innocent victims.
Their martyrdom embodies the cruelty and darkness often faced by the innocent in a world riddled with power struggles and injustices.
Despite their deaths, the Holy Innocents hold a symbolic significance, representing the price of Christ’s birth and the conflict between the powers of this world and the message of hope and salvation brought by Jesus.
Their sacrifice emphasises the stark reality of human sinfulness and the depth of God’s empathy for the suffering of the innocent.
Their commemoration serves as a reminder of the suffering caused by oppression and violence, urging believers to seek justice and protection for the vulnerable.
In theology, their innocent deaths parallel Christ’s sacrifice and emphasize the profound nature of His mission to bring light, healing, and redemption to a broken world, offering hope even in the darkest of times.
The Holy Innocents continue to inspire a call for compassion, empathy, and the pursuit of peace in a world marred by injustice and suffering.
The Greek Liturgy asserts that Herod killed 14,000 boys, the Syrians speak of 64,000, and many medieval authors speak of 144,000, according to Rev. 14:3.
Modern writers reduce the number considerably, since Bethlehem was a small town.
This cruel deed of Herod is not mentioned by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, although he relates quite a number of atrocities committed by the king during the last years of his reign.
The number of these children was so small that this crime appeared insignificant amongst the other misdeeds of Herod.
Macrobius relates that when Augustus heard that amongst the boys of two years and under Herod’s own son also had been massacred, he said: “It is better to be Herod’s hog, than his son” alluding to the Jewish law of not eating, and consequently not killing, swine.
The Middle Ages gave faith to this story, and Abelard inserted it in his hymn for the feast of Holy Innocents.
It is impossible to determine the day or the year of the death of the Holy Innocents, since the chronology of the birth of Christ and the subsequent Biblical events is uncertain.
The Church venerates these children as martyrs (flores martyrum); they are the first buds of the Church killed by the frost of persecution; they died not only for Christ, but in his stead (St. Aug., “Sermo 10us de sanctis”).
