The Holy Innocents

Saint Matthew tells us that this prince, having obtained the kingdom of Judea only through the favor of the Romans and always fearing that it might be taken from him, fell into extreme fear and anxiety when the Magi, having arrived in Jerusalem, asked where the King of the Jews was born, whose sign they had seen in the East. They meant the star that Balaam had predicted. He nevertheless concealed his fear, and, in order to know precisely the place where this child was to whom the heavens already promised the scepter and the empire, he told them to go and adore him in Be thlehem, Bethléem Place of the birth and anointing of David. and, when they had paid their respects, to take the trouble to pass through Jerusalem to bring him news, so that he too could go and present his homage with all his court.

His design was to have him slaughtered and, by this means, to render vain the hopes of the Patriarchs, the predictions of the Prophets, the prayers of the Jews, and all the expectation of the Old Testament. But the wisdom of God confounded his false prudence. The Magi went to the stable, adored the child, offered him their gifts, received his blessing, and, warned by an angel, did not pass through Jerusalem, but returned to their country by another way. Herod, not seeing them return, believed that they had found nothing of what they were looking for and that the shame they felt for having undertaken such a great journey under a false imagination had prevented them from appearing a second time in his royal city; so he troubled himself no more about it. But informed of what had happened at the temple, when the Blessed Virgin had brought her divine Son there, and having learned that the righteous Simeon had predicted wonderful things about this child; that Anna the prophetess had recognized him as the Redeemer of Israel, and that all those who were present had been in admiration of what these persons, inspired by God, were proclaiming about him, he began to recognize that he had been deceived by these princes. Thus this monster of cruelty, whom ambition and the passion to reign had already led to execrable murders, resolved to find this incomparable child at any cost, and to make him the victim of his fury and his pride.

He sent officers for this purpose in all directions, and had inquiries made everywhere to find out what had become of Him. But what can the malice of man do against the eternal counsels of divine wisdom? An angel was sent to Saint Joseph to reveal to him the execrable design of this cruel prince, and to order him to take the Child and the Mother, to lead them into Egypt, and to remain there with them until further notice. Saint Joseph obeyed this command punctually. He arose at that very hour, took the Child and the Mother, and fled into Egypt; and by such a humiliating means, which the Providence of God had chosen rather than an infinity of others that His omnipotence could have employed, the Child could not be found and was preserved from the cruelty of Herod.

This tyrant, to satisfy his passion and to rid himself of the mortal sorrow and anxiety that gnawed at him to the marrow, imagined that this child might well be hidden in some house in Bethlehem or its surroundings, and that the way to get rid of Him was to include Him in the general massacre of all the children of that region. Thus, he gave his orders to slaughter all the little children under two years of age and above the time he had been told by the Magi, both in the small town of Bethlehem and within its limits, that is to say, in the villages that were around it. Holy Scripture does not record the particulars of such a detestable execution; it has left it to the freedom of the readers to think of it what piety might inspire in them; but Saint Gregory of Nyssa and Saint Augustine have employed all saint Augustin Father of the Church and spiritual master of Possidius. their eloquence to express to us the cruelty of the soldiers who were its ministers, the cries of the mothers who saw those they had just brought into the world torn from their breasts, the wounds of these innocents who were massacred before they could have committed any crime worthy of punishment, and the glory of their death, since they died for Jesus Christ, they died in His place, and as if they had been Jesus Christ.

The number of these innocents massacred on this day is not certain. Some have raised it to one hundred and forty-four thousand, because Saint John, in his Apocalypse, speaking of the innocent souls who follow the Lamb in heaven, speaks of this number. But it is unlikely that a village as small as Bethlehem, and its surroundings, could have nurtured such a large number of small children in such a short time. Alphonse Salmeron, in his Commentaries on the Gospels, says that there were fourteen thousand and that the Christians of Ethiopia, whom we call Abyssinians, commemorate them in the Canon of the Mass. Genebrard also says that the Greeks mark this number in their calendar. But these calculations are obviously exaggerated. Moreover, it is not necessary to know the number, and it would have been very difficult to count them. What is certain is that God has kept an exact account of them and that there is not a single one to whom He has not given the precious crown of glorious martyrdom. Saint Augustine says on this subject: "He who does not believe that the Baptism of Jesus Christ is useful to children could also doubt that your death and your blood shed for Jesus Christ obtained for you the crown of immortality. You were not of an age to believe that He was to suffer; but you already had a body capable of enduring death for Him who was to die for us." And Saint Bernard adds: "If you seek for what meritorious actions these children were crowned by the hand of God, seek also for what crimes they were cruelly massacred by Herod. Would it be possible that the goodness of the Savior had yielded to the impiety of this tyrant, and that while Herod was able to deliver them to death, notwithstanding their innocence, Jesus Christ could not give them eternal life, even though they died on His account?"

It was also fitting that the Church should celebrate a feast every year to honor their martyrdom and to implore their protection. We will not say precisely when it was established, for we have no certain knowledge of it. There is a Homily de Diversis, attributed to Origen, which speaks of it quite clearly, but it is not certain that it is his. Some also doubt the sermons of Saint Augustine that we read on this feast and on the day of its octave, which are the first and third of the Innocents among the sermons of the Saints. The Church nevertheless proposes them as being from this holy doctor, and they are indeed in his style. Even if they were not, they would still be from a very ancient author and not far removed from his time, for it is certain that they speak distinctly and in evident terms of the feast of these blessed crowned ones. We have there a testimony that they were called "Flowers of the martyrs": qui jure dicuntur Flores Martyrum, because, having sprouted early among the frosts of infidelity, like the first buds of the nascent Church, they were immediately consumed by the frost of persecution.

If one asks why the Savior, in coming into the world, permitted the death of so great a number of innocents, we say firstly that He did it for His greater honor, for the exaltation of His name, so that news of His birth might be had everywhere, and that not only the Jews, but the Gentiles and even the Romans, however distant they might be, would not fail to be informed of it. Thus Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Augustine, and the other Fathers agree that Herod, by the massacre of these children, contributed more to the glory of Jesus Christ and to publishing His coming than if he had gone to adore Him with all his court; for, had he rendered Him this homage, it would have been spoken of almost nowhere outside of Judea and the rumor would not have reached Rome; whereas the cruelty he exercised toward the Innocents and the motive that led him to such a barbaric resolution flew immediately throughout the earth and, spreading thus on all sides, the most distant nations learned that there was newly born a child in Bethlehem, whose power Herod, King of the Jews, dreaded and who was said to be destined to be the master and sovereign of the whole world. Saint Augustine adds further that, God having willed to be born on earth, it was reasonable that victims should be offered to Him, and that these victims should be children without malice, because He had come to condemn and to destroy the iniquity of men. Deus est qui natus est, Innocentes ei debentur victima. Let us add that the child Jesus had to have His martyrs, just as well as Jesus crucified and dying on the cross. If, therefore, so many Saints have mounted scaffolds and endured martyrdom since Jesus was consumed by the rigors of His Passion, let us not be astonished that thousands of innocents were martyred to be the glorious witnesses of the adorable holiness of His divine childhood.

We say in the second place that the Savior permitted this massacre for the glory and the particular happiness of these children. Those who have only human and carnal views look upon their death as a great misfortune; they pity them because they were taken away almost from their birth; indeed, Scripture presents Rachel to us as a mother inconsolable for the death of her children: Rachel plorans filios suos et noluit consolari, quia non sunt. But Saint Augustine, who had a soul enlightened by the lights of eternity, makes no difficulty in saying: Nunquam profanus hostis beatis parvulis tantum prodesse potuisset obsequio, quantum profuit odio: "Never could this barbaric and inhuman enemy have procured so much advantage for these blessed children by his benevolence and his services, as he procured for them by his hatred and his fury." Indeed, he drew them from the miseries of this life, he delivered them from the danger of offending God and of being lost eternally by participating in the hardness of heart and the infidelity of their parents and of their whole nation; he was the cause that they triumphed without knowing it and that they were crowned without ever having thought of resisting sin; he rendered them illustrious in heaven and on earth, and, by making them the victims of his ambition and his rage, he made them at the same time very noble citizens of paradise and very glorious companions who followed the Lamb.

How happy, cries the same holy doctor again, is this age, which, not yet being able to pronounce the name of Jesus Christ, has nevertheless merited to be massacred for His honor; it could barely receive a wound and it found itself fit for martyrdom. How fortunate these children were to find eternal life from their first entry into the world and a moment after their birth! Thus, let Rachel be consoled, let her no longer say, to justify her sorrow, that her children are no more. They are much more truly than they were before. They were without speech and without reason, and now they are eloquent preachers who announce to us the greatness of the Savior of the world. They were fragile, infirm, and subject to sin, and now they enjoy an innocence and a holiness that will never be altered. They were exposed to an infinity of miseries and in danger of falling into the last of punishments, that is to say, eternal damnation, and now they are exempt from all these misfortunes and they possess a happiness that will never have an end. They are therefore truly, and they should be a subject of joy, of consolation, and of praise rather than of affliction and tears. This is what makes our holy doctor say, in his first sermon: Nascente Domino lucius expii non exlo, sed mundo: "At the birth of Our Lord one began to weep, not in heaven, but among the world."

In the third place, the Savior permitted this horrible execution of the innocents for the advantage of their own parents, for, besides that it was a great honor for them to be fathers and mothers of the first martyrs, it is certain that the sorrow they felt at their death served them before God as satisfaction for their sins, and one must not doubt that Jesus Christ, whose liberality and magnificence are infinite, gave them, in this consideration, particular graces to make them conceive sentiments of compunction and penance and to make them enter into the ways of justice and holiness. The sole knowledge they had thereby of the birth of the Messiah, whom heaven and earth had awaited for so many centuries with a holy impatience, was so great a treasure that one can say they lost nothing in acquiring it through the death of their children.

Finally, we can add that this massacre was permitted for the good of the whole Church; for is it not a great honor for her to have in the number of her children this glorious army of innocent victims, slaughtered and sacrificed for Jesus Christ, her divine Spouse? Does not their blood, more beautiful than vermilion, admirably enhance her beauty? And, as they mingle the milk of their innocence with the blood of their martyrdom, do they not make her similar to her Beloved, of whom she says: *Dilectus meus candidus et rubicundus*: "My Beloved is white and ruddy?" Moreover, they instructed the Church of the Limbo, and taught her the blessed birth of a redeemer; and now they powerfully assist the Church militant by their intercession before God. For one must not doubt, says Saint Augustine in sermon IV, that they obtain by their prayers more than the other martyrs, since they all preceded them by the shedding of their blood. Furthermore, we learn by their death that there is no age that is more fit for the service of God and that can more contribute to His glory; and fathers and mothers must likewise learn that it is their obligation to offer and to dedicate their children to Him as soon as they appear in the world, and that they must not despair nor let themselves go to mortal sorrows when divine Providence withdraws them from the earth to place them in heaven. We add that, by the glory of these Innocents, it appears that Baptism, which has the strength of martyrdom, as martyrdom has the strength of Baptism, does not serve only for adult persons, but also for little children, to whom it is conferred in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

It remains for us to note here that the cruel Herod was not, even in this life, without a just punishment for his impiety. He had feared without cause that the Savior of the world would take from him his scepter and his crown; for, as the Church says: *Non eripit mortalia, qui regna dat caelestia*: "He who comes to give the kingdom of heaven has no intention of taking from monarchs the kingdoms of the earth." Saint Augustine says to him in this regard: "Of what use was your cruelty to you, O impious and barbaric king? You were able to make martyrs, but you could not find Jesus Christ whom you wished to slaughter. You imagined that by coming into the world, He would drive you from your throne; but you were in error. He did not come to take the glory of another, but to give His own. He did not come to ravish the kingdoms of the earth, but to offer the kingdom of heaven. He did not come to seize the grandeurs and dignities of this world, but to suffer insults and reproaches. He did not come to have His head crowned with diadems, but to wear a crown of thorns there. Finally, He did not come to be raised above empires, but to be attached to a cross and to endure death there." Herod therefore was mistaken, and his error, animating his ambition, was the cause of the murder of the Innocents, but it was at the same time the cause of his ruin.

Here is ho w the historian J historien Josèphe Jewish historian who described the death of Herod. osephus describes the evils with which divine justice afflicted him: "A slow heat, which did not appear on the outside, burned and devoured him within. He had a hunger so ardent that nothing could satisfy it. His intestines were full of ulcers. Violent colics made him suffer horrible pains. His feet were swollen and livid, his groins were no less so; several parts of his body were so corrupted that one could see worms coming out of them. His nerves were all drawn, his breath was so foul that it was almost impossible to approach him." Such a miserable state led him to despair and made him ask for a knife to kill himself; he would have effectively done so, had they not stopped the rage that possessed him. Finally, instead of repairing so many crimes of which he was guilty by some act of clemency, as he knew that the Jews would rejoice at his death, he gave orders to slaughter, at the hour he would give up his soul, all the persons of quality he held in prison, so that every considerable family of his kingdom would have reason to shed tears when he departed from the world. This order, nevertheless, was not executed; he died alone, detested by everyone, with the reputation of a monster of nature and the wickedest man who had ever been on earth. Saint Augustine adds that he will have at the judgment of God the whole army of the holy Innocents against him, no longer children and mute, but in the age of the fullness of Jesus Christ, and who will have a strong and eloquent tongue to demand justice for his cruelty; and how will he be able to resist an army so numerous and so powerful, especially having as judge that adorable Child whom he wished to stifle in the cradle?

We leave it to the reader to compare the happiness of the Holy Innocents with the misfortune of this perfidious king. The former reign with God, and the latter is reprobated with the demons. The former rejoice and will rejoice forever in heaven, and he is condemned to eternal pains. The memory of the former is a blessing in the world, and his is and will always be in execration and curse. Finally, his body was put into the earth like corrupt flesh reserved for the flames of hell, and the bodies of our Innocents will one day be glorious in paradise; some have long been in veneration in the Church. Before the Revolution, one could see one in its entirety at Saint-Denis, in its cradle made of palm branches and encased in a gilded silver box, which was given to this abbey by the Emperor Charlemagne, and another at t he Church of the Innoc l'empereur Charlemagne Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. ents in Paris, still in flesh and bone, enclosed in a crystal adorned with silver and enriched by the magnificence of King Louis XI.

In Bethlehem, not far from roi Louis XI King of France who enriched the reliquary of the Innocents in Paris. the grotto of the Nativity, is a chapel that bears the name of the Holy Innocents; it was dedicated to these innocent victims, either because it was fitting that they should be honored near the cradle for which they shed their blood, or because their bodies, as traditions say, were thrown into the cavern that is found in the same place.

Popular art has treated the subject of the massacre of the Holy Innocents, witness the frieze of a sarcophagus, probably dating from before the 5th century, which is found in the crypt of Sainte-Madeleine in Saint-Maximin, Rome. One sees Herod seated on a folding chair of ancient form, making an imperative gesture with his hand, and before him two soldiers who, executing his orders, each take away a child. One of the two, who is armed with a sword, holds his victim raised above his head, and seems to be preparing to throw him to the ground with violence. Further on appears a woman with disheveled hair, who is undoubtedly the mother claiming her child. This scene fills one of the sides of the lid, divided in two by the tablet intended to receive the titulus of the deceased; and it is worthy of note that the other part is occupied by the adoration of the Magi, a subject offering with the first a contrast that escapes no one, and which must have, in the intention of the artist, encouraged persecuted Christians by showing them that God knows how to thwart the plans of the wicked and remove whom He wills from their fury. — An ivory diptych from the Cathedral of Milan, from about the same period as the tomb, offers the same subject represented in almost exactly the same way. — It is also found in the mosaic of the triumphal arch of Santa Maria Maggiore, a work also dating from the 5th century. But here it is only the first scene of this bloody tragedy. The soldiers sent by Herod seem to notify the orders they have received to a large number of women who hold their children in their arms. The first of these soldiers, who is undoubtedly the leader, turns toward his companions and points out their victims with his hand.

The Holy Innocents are the patrons of altar boys and foundlings.

Father Giry revised and completed with the Holy Places, by Mgr Mislin; the Characteristics of the Saints, by Father Cahier; and the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, by Abbé Martigny.