The Holy Innocents

28 December  ·  Feast  ·  Red

The soldiers have the children by the arm and the mothers have the soldiers by the hair. Herod, St Matthew says, when he saw that he had been deluded by the wise men, sent and killed all the boys in Bethlehem and its borders from two years old and under. The Greek liturgy counts fourteen thousand of them and the medieval writers a hundred and forty-four thousand; Bethlehem was a small town, and modern writers count a handful. Their feast is in the Leonine Sacramentary, about the year 485, and the Latin Church keeps it inside the octave of Christmas because they died for the newborn Saviour. The Roman Church for centuries wore purple for them rather than red and left out the Gloria and the Alleluia, out of compassion for the mothers of Bethlehem. Rachel weeping for her children: the painting is that verse.

Frederick Holweck, “Holy Innocents”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 7 (1910): newadvent.org

The Gospel of the feast

¹³And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him. ¹⁴Who arose, and took the child and his mother by night, and retired into Egypt: and he was there until the death of Herod: ¹⁵That it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I called my son. ¹⁶Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry: and sending killed all the menchildren that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: ¹⁸A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

Matthew 2:13–18, Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

In painting

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