Saturday in the Octave of Christmas we remember the Holy Innocents, Martyrs of the Church

 

Christmas: December 28th

Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs

Other Titles: Fourth Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

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MASS READINGS

December 28, 2024 (Readings on USCCB website)

PROPERS [Show]

COLLECT PRAYER

Feast of the Holy Innocents: O God, whom the Holy Innocents confessed and proclaimed on this day, not by speaking but by dying, grant, we pray, that the faith in your which we confess with our lips may also speak through our manner of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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Library (4)

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“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matt 2:18, from Jer 31:15)

Today is the Fourth Day in the Octave of Christmas. The Church celebrates the Feast of Holy Innocents, Martyrs. The Church celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighborhood of Bethlehem put to death by Herod. Sacrificed by a wicked monarch, these innocent lives bear witness to Christ who was persecuted from the time of His birth by a world which would not receive Him. It is Christ Himself who is at stake in this mass-murder of the children; already the choice, for or against Him, is put clearly before men. But the persecutors are powerless, for Christ came to perform a work of salvation that nothing can prevent; when He fell into the hands of His enemies at the time chosen by God it was to redeem the world by His own Blood.

Our Christmas joy is tempered today by a feeling of sadness. But the Church looks principally to the glory of the children, of these innocent victims, whom she shows us in heaven following the Lamb wherever He goes.

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Station Church Information >>>

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Feast of the Holy Innocents—Day Four
The Holy Innocents saved the Child Jesus from death by King Herod by the shedding of their own blood. The Holy Innocents are the special patrons of small children, who can please the Christ Child by being obedient and helpful to parents, and by sharing their toys and loving their siblings and playmates.

The feast of the Holy Innocents is an excellent time for parents to inaugurate the custom of blessing their children. From the Ritual comes the form which we use on solemn occasions, such as First Communion. But parents can simply sign a cross on the child's forehead with the right thumb dipped in holy water and say: May God bless you, and may He be the Guardian of your heart and mind—the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

• Day Four Activity (Holy Innocents)
• Day Four Recipe (Blanc Mange)

Christmas Reflection: Feast of the Holy Innocents: Out of the Mouth of Infants
1. With St. Stephen and St. John the Apostle, the Holy Innocents today bear witness to the newborn King. "Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings, O God, Thou hast perfected praise, because of Thy enemies" (Introit). Children and those with the simplicity of children are dear to the heart of Christ. "Suffer the little children and forbid them not to come to me" (Matt. 19:14).

2. Christ, indeed, has enemies. "He was in the world, ... and the world knew Him not" (John 1:10). "Behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel" (Luke 2:34). The enemy (Herod) already lurks in Jerusalem nearby. He is determined to destroy the child and orders the brutal murder of the children of Bethlehem and its environs. Wherever Christ is reproduced, in His Person, in His teaching, in His spirit and His commandments, in His Church, and especially in His holy members, He finds contradiction and hatred. "If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you" (John 15:20). Persecution is characteristic of true Christianity; it is the mark of the Church and of the true Christian: "If you had been of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19).

Christ has many witnesses: the prophets, the angels, John the Baptist, the shepherds, the star, the wise men of the East, the Holy Innocents. All of these are willing and joyful witnesses of the Savior. Through their untimely death and the ceaseless wail of their distracted mothers, the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem proclaim far and wide the birth of Him whom Herod sought to kill. Of them Christ has said: "You shall be witnesses unto Me" (Acts 1:8). One must be with Christ or against Him. One must be a witness to Him or an enemy to Him. There can be no neutrality in the service of Christ.

3. Happy were the children of Bethlehem who were privileged to offer their lives for the persecuted and despised Savior. They belong now to the multitude of the elect who have "His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.... And they sung, as it were, a new canticle before the throne and before the four living creatures....These were purchased from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth there was found no lie; for they are without spot before the throne of God" (Epistle).

The devil could have conferred upon the Holy Innocents no greater favor than that accomplished by his hatred of them. To live, to suffer, and to die for Christ and His cause, is not a loss, but a privilege. "He that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal. If any man minister to Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there also shall My minister be" (John 12:25 f.).

In the Offertory of the Mass the Holy Innocents represent us. At Mass we bring forward all that we are and have—our life, our body and soul, and all our goods—and offer them freely in witness to the divinity of Christ. We are indeed privileged to thus offer ourselves for Christ; for through this offering and through the union of our life with His, we shall be freed from the slavery of sin and of the flesh. For this reason we rejoice with the Holy Innocents in the Offertory prayer: "Our soul hath been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken, and we are delivered."

"A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning: Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted because they are not" (Communion). These children, however, now live and have communion with the glorified Christ. We, too, shall share this divine life if we share in His passion.
—Excerpted from The Light of the World, Volume One by Benedict Baur, O.S.B.

The Holy Innocents
Today, dearest brethren, we celebrate the birthday of those children who were slaughtered, as the Gospel tells us, by that exceedingly cruel king, Herod. Let the earth, therefore, rejoice and the Church exult — she, the fruitful mother of so many heavenly champions and of such glorious virtues. Never, in fact, would that impious tyrant have been able to benefit these children by the sweetest kindness as much as he has done by his hatred. For as today's feast reveals, in the measure with which malice in all its fury was poured out upon the holy children, did heaven's blessing stream down upon them.

"Blessed are you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah! You suffered the inhumanity of King Herod in the murder of your babes and thereby have become worthy to offer to the Lord a pure host of infants. In full right do we celebrate the heavenly birthday of these children whom the world caused to be born unto an eternally blessed life rather than that from their mothers' womb, for they attained the grace of everlasting life before the enjoyment of the present. The precious death of any martyr deserves high praise because of his heroic confession; the death of these children is precious in the sight of God because of the beatitude they gained so quickly. For already at the beginning of their lives they pass on. The end of the present life is for them the beginning of glory. These then, whom Herod's cruelty tore as sucklings from their mothers' bosom, are justly hailed as "infant martyr flowers"; they were the Church's first blossoms, matured by the frost of persecution during the cold winter of unbelief.
—St. Augustine

Patronage: against ambition; against jealousy; altar servers; babies; children; children’s choir; choir boys; foundlings; students

In the Octave of Christmas December 28th is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs

 

Christmas: December 28th

Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs

COLLECT PRAYER

Feast of the Holy Innocents: O God, whom the Holy Innocents confessed and proclaimed on this day, not by speaking but by dying, grant, we pray, that the faith in your which we confess with our lips may also speak through our manner of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

Mass Propers for the Feast of the Holy Innocents
Entrance Antiphon:

The innocents were slaughtered as infants for Christ; spotless, they follow the Lamb and sing for ever: Glory to you, O Lord.

---

Alleluia Verse, Cf. Te Deum:

We praise you, O God, we acclaim you as Lord; the white-robed army of martyrs praise you.

Preface III of the Nativity of the Lord:

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.

For through him the holy exchange that restores our life
has shone forth today in splendor:
when our frailty is assumed by your Word
not only does human mortality receive unending honor
not by this wondrous union we, too, are made eternal.

And so, in company with the choirs of angels,
we praise you, and with joy we proclaim:

Communion Antiphon, Cf. Rev 14:4:

Behold those redeemed as the first fruits of the human race for God and the Lamb, and who follow the Lamb whereever he goes.

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matt 2:18, from Jer 31:15)

Today is the Fourth Day in the Octave of Christmas. The Church celebrates the Feast of Holy Innocents, Martyrs. The Church celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighborhood of Bethlehem put to death by Herod. Sacrificed by a wicked monarch, these innocent lives bear witness to Christ who was persecuted from the time of His birth by a world which would not receive Him. It is Christ Himself who is at stake in this mass-murder of the children; already the choice, for or against Him, is put clearly before men. But the persecutors are powerless, for Christ came to perform a work of salvation that nothing can prevent; when He fell into the hands of His enemies at the time chosen by God it was to redeem the world by His own Blood.

Our Christmas joy is tempered today by a feeling of sadness. But the Church looks principally to the glory of the children, of these innocent victims, whom she shows us in heaven following the Lamb wherever He goes.

Feast of the Holy Innocents—Day Four
The Holy Innocents saved the Child Jesus from death by King Herod by the shedding of their own blood. The Holy Innocents are the special patrons of small children, who can please the Christ Child by being obedient and helpful to parents, and by sharing their toys and loving their siblings and playmates.

The feast of the Holy Innocents is an excellent time for parents to inaugurate the custom of blessing their children. From the Ritual comes the form which we use on solemn occasions, such as First Communion. But parents can simply sign a cross on the child's forehead with the right thumb dipped in holy water and say: May God bless you, and may He be the Guardian of your heart and mind—the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Holy Innocents
Today, dearest brethren, we celebrate the birthday of those children who were slaughtered, as the Gospel tells us, by that exceedingly cruel king, Herod. Let the earth, therefore, rejoice and the Church exult — she, the fruitful mother of so many heavenly champions and of such glorious virtues. Never, in fact, would that impious tyrant have been able to benefit these children by the sweetest kindness as much as he has done by his hatred. For as today's feast reveals, in the measure with which malice in all its fury was poured out upon the holy children, did heaven's blessing stream down upon them.

"Blessed are you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah! You suffered the inhumanity of King Herod in the murder of your babes and thereby have become worthy to offer to the Lord a pure host of infants. In full right do we celebrate the heavenly birthday of these children whom the world caused to be born unto an eternally blessed life rather than that from their mothers' womb, for they attained the grace of everlasting life before the enjoyment of the present. The precious death of any martyr deserves high praise because of his heroic confession; the death of these children is precious in the sight of God because of the beatitude they gained so quickly. For already at the beginning of their lives they pass on. The end of the present life is for them the beginning of glory. These then, whom Herod's cruelty tore as sucklings from their mothers' bosom, are justly hailed as "infant martyr flowers"; they were the Church's first blossoms, matured by the frost of persecution during the cold winter of unbelief.

—St. Augustine

Patronage: against ambition; against jealousy; altar servers; babies; children; children’s choir; choir boys; foundlings; students

Weeping Rachel and the Holy Innocents and Mary

 

What does Rachel “weeping for her children” have to do with the Innocents, or with Mary?

Kathleen N. Hattrup - published on 12/28/19 - updated on 12/26/21

This matriarch of the Old Testament is buried near Bethlehem, and for centuries has had the role of intercessor. Mary is the new Rachel.

We are familiar with the heartbreaking story of the first little ones who had to give their lives for Jesus: those known as the Holy Innocents, slaughtered because of Herod’s jealous rage.

One piece of the story that we might not pay much attention to is the prophecy that the Gospel of Matthew says is fulfilled. Matthew (chapter 2) quotes Jeremiah (chapter 31):

[Herod] sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.”

Rachel prefigures Mary

This Rachel is the mother of Joseph — the one with the coat of many colors. What’s fascinating about her is that she’s actually a prefigurement of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The striking parallels are spelled out by Brant Pitre in his book Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary: Unveiling the Mother of the Messiah.

Pitre first explains who Rachel is in the Old Testament. As the beloved wife of Jacob/Israel, she is the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She dies in giving birth to Benjamin, while the family is journeying, and when they happen to be near Bethlehem.

Rachel is not buried with the other mothers of Israel (Sarah, Rebekah) in the family tomb; instead, she is buried on the road near “Bethlehem”(Genesis 35:19).

Rachel as mother of Israel

This is important for Rachel’s role not only as mother of Joseph and Benjamin, but in fact, as “mother of all Israel, who somehow suffers with them and weeps for them, even after her death.”

The prophesy that Matthew quotes from Jeremiah is understood to point to Rachel’s link to her people during the time of the exile.

Pitre explains:

According to Old Testament scholars, the key to understanding this passage is to remember that Rachel’s tomb was located near the place where the exiles were taken captive by the Babylonians.

God hears Rachel’s lamentation as she “suffers” with her exiled people, and promises that her people will return to their land (Jeremiah 31:16).

Rachel, a Mother of Sorrows

So Rachel, in Jewish tradition, is a most powerful intercessor, who intercedes with the power of her motherly sorrow … just like Our Lady.

Now in the New Testament, we see that Rachel not only wept for her children who were in Babylonian exile near her tomb, but now weeps again, as more of her children are slain at the hands of Herod, again near her resting place.

A new Rachel

Mary’s role is that of a new Rachel, mother of her people, and powerful intercessor.

As the suffering mother of the persecuted Child who is driven into exile, Mary in Matthew’s Gospel is truly a new Rachel.

Indeed, on a very human level, it is easy to imagine Mary weeping not only for the persecution and exile of her own Son but for the lives of all the boys who were massacred in the attempt to kill her child.

Pitre’s book goes on to discuss other ways in which Mary and Rachel are linked, calling on Revelation, and also on the figure of the “beloved son” and his parallel with the “beloved disciple.”

How many Holy Innocents killed? The key to this article rests in the last sentence: all life is precious, especially any innocent child killed at the beginning of life

 

How many Holy Innocents were killed by King Herod?

Philip Kosloski - published on 12/28/17 - updated on 12/21/22

The number may surprise you.

Ever since the 5th century the Church has commemorated a separate day in memory of the children killed by King Herod after Jesus’ birth. Matthew is the only one to record the event and the details surrounding it are slim.

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men.

Matthew 2:16

This type of senseless action was typical of Herod, a deranged ruler who also killed his wife and two sons during his lifetime. Herod’s immediate response to those who opposed him was to eliminate them.

Was it a Massacre of Biblical Proportions?

The biblical episode is usually labeled a “massacre,” to emphasize the ruthless spilling of innocent blood. It was a terrible act, though it pales in comparison to the modern day killing of innocent children throughout the world.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “The Greek Liturgy asserts that Herod killed 14,000 boys(ton hagion id chiliadon Nepion), the Syrians speak of 64,000, [and] many medieval authors of 144,000.” However, this number of children is greater than the entire population of Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth.

Professor William F. Albright “estimates that the population of Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth to be about 300 people. The number of male children, two years old or younger, would be about six or seven.” Other scholars claim the number was between 10 – 20 male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding area.

This low number of deaths is the likely explanation for why there exist no secular historical accounts of the massacre. Simply put, a handful of children killed by a local ruler was not “noteworthy” enough.

Regardless of how many children were killed, their deaths were a horrible atrocity, and Jesus could have been part of that number if Joseph had not been warned to flee beforehand.

The Church’s commemoration of the event reminds us of the sanctity of all human life. In the end it doesn’t matter how many children were killed. The Church honors their memory whether it was 100 children or a single child that was killed.

All life is precious, especially any innocent child killed at the beginning of life.

In the Octave of Christmas December 28th is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs

 

Christmas: December 28th

Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs

Other Titles: Fourth Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

COLLECT PRAYER

Feast of the Holy Innocents: O God, whom the Holy Innocents confessed and proclaimed on this day, not by speaking but by dying, grant, we pray, that the faith in your which we confess with our lips may also speak through our manner of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

Mass Propers for the Feast of the Holy Innocents
Entrance Antiphon:

The innocents were slaughtered as infants for Christ; spotless, they follow the Lamb and sing for ever: Glory to you, O Lord.

---

Alleluia Verse, Cf. Te Deum:

We praise you, O God, we acclaim you as Lord; the white-robed army of martyrs praise you.

Preface III of the Nativity of the Lord:

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.

For through him the holy exchange that restores our life
has shone forth today in splendor:
when our frailty is assumed by your Word
not only does human mortality receive unending honor
not by this wondrous union we, too, are made eternal.

And so, in company with the choirs of angels,
we praise you, and with joy we proclaim:

Communion Antiphon, Cf. Rev 14:4:

Behold those redeemed as the first fruits of the human race for God and the Lamb, and who follow the Lamb whereever he goes.

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matt 2:18, from Jer 31:15)

Today is the Fourth Day in the Octave of Christmas. The Church celebrates the Feast of Holy Innocents, Martyrs. The Church celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighborhood of Bethlehem put to death by Herod. Sacrificed by a wicked monarch, these innocent lives bear witness to Christ who was persecuted from the time of His birth by a world which would not receive Him. It is Christ Himself who is at stake in this mass-murder of the children; already the choice, for or against Him, is put clearly before men. But the persecutors are powerless, for Christ came to perform a work of salvation that nothing can prevent; when He fell into the hands of His enemies at the time chosen by God it was to redeem the world by His own Blood.

Our Christmas joy is tempered today by a feeling of sadness. But the Church looks principally to the glory of the children, of these innocent victims, whom she shows us in heaven following the Lamb wherever He goes.

Feast of the Holy Innocents—Day Four
The Holy Innocents saved the Child Jesus from death by King Herod by the shedding of their own blood. The Holy Innocents are the special patrons of small children, who can please the Christ Child by being obedient and helpful to parents, and by sharing their toys and loving their siblings and playmates.

The feast of the Holy Innocents is an excellent time for parents to inaugurate the custom of blessing their children. From the Ritual comes the form which we use on solemn occasions, such as First Communion. But parents can simply sign a cross on the child's forehead with the right thumb dipped in holy water and say: May God bless you, and may He be the Guardian of your heart and mind—the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Holy Innocents
Today, dearest brethren, we celebrate the birthday of those children who were slaughtered, as the Gospel tells us, by that exceedingly cruel king, Herod. Let the earth, therefore, rejoice and the Church exult — she, the fruitful mother of so many heavenly champions and of such glorious virtues. Never, in fact, would that impious tyrant have been able to benefit these children by the sweetest kindness as much as he has done by his hatred. For as today's feast reveals, in the measure with which malice in all its fury was poured out upon the holy children, did heaven's blessing stream down upon them.

"Blessed are you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah! You suffered the inhumanity of King Herod in the murder of your babes and thereby have become worthy to offer to the Lord a pure host of infants. In full right do we celebrate the heavenly birthday of these children whom the world caused to be born unto an eternally blessed life rather than that from their mothers' womb, for they attained the grace of everlasting life before the enjoyment of the present. The precious death of any martyr deserves high praise because of his heroic confession; the death of these children is precious in the sight of God because of the beatitude they gained so quickly. For already at the beginning of their lives they pass on. The end of the present life is for them the beginning of glory. These then, whom Herod's cruelty tore as sucklings from their mothers' bosom, are justly hailed as "infant martyr flowers"; they were the Church's first blossoms, matured by the frost of persecution during the cold winter of unbelief.

—St. Augustine

Patronage: against ambition; against jealousy; altar servers; babies; children; children’s choir; choir boys; foundlings; students

• Read more about the Holy Innocents:
  • CNA
    
  • NCRegister
    
  • EWTN
• See the poem Holy Innocents by Christina Rossetti

December 28, Feast of the Holy Innocents
Station with San Paolo fuori le mura (St. Paul Outside the Walls):
It is natural that with the feast of Christmas there should be associated the anniversary of those Saints who hold a rank apart amongst martyrs, as they were martyred out of hatred for the Infant born at Bethlehem, and thus unconsciously bore witness to Him. The station is at St. Paul's-Outside-the-Walls, which is unusual, owing to the distant situation of this basilica, but it claims to possess several of the bodies of these little Holy Innocents, and thus is quite reasonable to be the stational church for their feast.
For more info, see:
Vatican on the Basilica
Roman Churches
PNAC

Feast of the Holy Innocents in the Octave of Christmas

 

Christmas: December 28th

Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

     

MASS READINGS

December 28, 2020 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

O God, whom the Holy Innocents confessed and proclaimed on this day, not by speaking but by dying, grant, we pray, that the faith in your which we confess with our lips may also speak through our manner of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

show

RECIPES (5)

show

ACTIVITIES (4)

show

PRAYERS (13)

show

LIBRARY (2)

BLOG (0)

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

During this octave of Christmas the Church celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighborhood of Bethlehem put to death by Herod. Sacrificed by a wicked monarch, these innocent lives bear witness to Christ who was persecuted from the time of His birth by a world which would not receive Him. It is Christ Himself who is at stake in this mass-murder of the children; already the choice, for or against Him, is put clearly before men. But the persecutors are powerless, for Christ came to perform a work of salvation that nothing can prevent; when He fell into the hands of His enemies at the time chosen by God it was to redeem the world by His own Blood.

Our Christmas joy is tempered today by a feeling of sadness. But the Church looks principally to the glory of the children, of these innocent victims, whom she shows us in heaven following the Lamb wherever He goes.

Feast of the Holy Innocents - Day Four
The Holy Innocents saved the Child Jesus from death by King Herod by the shedding of their own blood. The Holy Innocents are the special patrons of small children, who can please the Christ Child by being obedient and helpful to parents, and by sharing their toys and loving their siblings and playmates.

The feast of the Holy Innocents is an excellent time for parents to inaugurate the custom of blessing their children. From the Ritual comes the form which we use on solemn occasions, such as First Communion. But parents can simply sign a cross on the child's forehead with the right thumb dipped in holy water and say: May God bless you, and may He be the Guardian of your heart and mind—the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

• Day Four activity (Holy Innocents)
  
• Day Four recipe (Blanc Mange)
  

The Holy Innocents

Today, dearest brethren, we celebrate the birthday of those children who were slaughtered, as the Gospel tells us, by that exceedingly cruel king, Herod. Let the earth, therefore, rejoice and the Church exult — she, the fruitful mother of so many heavenly champions and of such glorious virtues. Never, in fact, would that impious tyrant have been able to benefit these children by the sweetest kindness as much as he has done by his hatred. For as today's feast reveals, in the measure with which malice in all its fury was poured out upon the holy children, did heaven's blessing stream down upon them.

"Blessed are you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah! You suffered the inhumanity of King Herod in the murder of your babes and thereby have become worthy to offer to the Lord a pure host of infants. In full right do we celebrate the heavenly birthday of these children whom the world caused to be born unto an eternally blessed life rather than that from their mothers' womb, for they attained the grace of everlasting life before the enjoyment of the present. The precious death of any martyr deserves high praise because of his heroic confession; the death of these children is precious in the sight of God because of the beatitude they gained so quickly. For already at the beginning of their lives they pass on. The end of the present life is for them the beginning of glory. These then, whom Herod's cruelty tore as sucklings from their mothers' bosom, are justly hailed as "infant martyr flowers"; they were the Church's first blossoms, matured by the frost of persecution during the cold winter of unbelief.

— St. Augustine

In the octave of Christmas we approach the Feast of the Holy Innocents

 

Christmas: December 28th

Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

     

MASS READINGS

December 28, 2020 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

O God, whom the Holy Innocents confessed and proclaimed on this day, not by speaking but by dying, grant, we pray, that the faith in your which we confess with our lips may also speak through our manner of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

show

RECIPES (5)

show

ACTIVITIES (4)

show

PRAYERS (13)

show

LIBRARY (2)

BLOG (0)

» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!

Old Calendar: The Holy Innocents

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

During this octave of Christmas the Church celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighborhood of Bethlehem put to death by Herod. Sacrificed by a wicked monarch, these innocent lives bear witness to Christ who was persecuted from the time of His birth by a world which would not receive Him. It is Christ Himself who is at stake in this mass-murder of the children; already the choice, for or against Him, is put clearly before men. But the persecutors are powerless, for Christ came to perform a work of salvation that nothing can prevent; when He fell into the hands of His enemies at the time chosen by God it was to redeem the world by His own Blood.

Our Christmas joy is tempered today by a feeling of sadness. But the Church looks principally to the glory of the children, of these innocent victims, whom she shows us in heaven following the Lamb wherever He goes.

Feast of the Holy Innocents - Day Four
The Holy Innocents saved the Child Jesus from death by King Herod by the shedding of their own blood. The Holy Innocents are the special patrons of small children, who can please the Christ Child by being obedient and helpful to parents, and by sharing their toys and loving their siblings and playmates.

The feast of the Holy Innocents is an excellent time for parents to inaugurate the custom of blessing their children. From the Ritual comes the form which we use on solemn occasions, such as First Communion. But parents can simply sign a cross on the child's forehead with the right thumb dipped in holy water and say: May God bless you, and may He be the Guardian of your heart and mind—the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

• Day Four activity (Holy Innocents)
  
• Day Four recipe (Blanc Mange)
  

The Holy Innocents

Today, dearest brethren, we celebrate the birthday of those children who were slaughtered, as the Gospel tells us, by that exceedingly cruel king, Herod. Let the earth, therefore, rejoice and the Church exult — she, the fruitful mother of so many heavenly champions and of such glorious virtues. Never, in fact, would that impious tyrant have been able to benefit these children by the sweetest kindness as much as he has done by his hatred. For as today's feast reveals, in the measure with which malice in all its fury was poured out upon the holy children, did heaven's blessing stream down upon them.

"Blessed are you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah! You suffered the inhumanity of King Herod in the murder of your babes and thereby have become worthy to offer to the Lord a pure host of infants. In full right do we celebrate the heavenly birthday of these children whom the world caused to be born unto an eternally blessed life rather than that from their mothers' womb, for they attained the grace of everlasting life before the enjoyment of the present. The precious death of any martyr deserves high praise because of his heroic confession; the death of these children is precious in the sight of God because of the beatitude they gained so quickly. For already at the beginning of their lives they pass on. The end of the present life is for them the beginning of glory. These then, whom Herod's cruelty tore as sucklings from their mothers' bosom, are justly hailed as "infant martyr flowers"; they were the Church's first blossoms, matured by the frost of persecution during the cold winter of unbelief.

— St. Augustine

The Feast Day of the Holy Innocents

Christmas: December 28th

Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

MASS READINGS

December 28, 2017 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

O God, whom the Holy Innocents confessed and proclaimed on this day, not by speaking but by dying, grant, we pray, that the faith in your which we confess with our lips may also speak through our manner of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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Old Calendar: The Holy Innocents

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

During this octave of Christmas the Church celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighborhood of Bethlehem put to death by Herod. Sacrificed by a wicked monarch, these innocent lives bear witness to Christ who was persecuted from the time of His birth by a world which would not receive Him. It is Christ Himself who is at stake in this mass-murder of the children; already the choice, for or against Him, is put clearly before men. But the persecutors are powerless, for Christ came to perform a work of salvation that nothing can prevent; when He fell into the hands of His enemies at the time chosen by God it was to redeem the world by His own Blood.

Our Christmas joy is tempered today by a feeling of sadness. But the Church looks principally to the glory of the children, of these innocent victims, whom she shows us in heaven following the Lamb wherever He goes.

Feast of the Holy Innocents - Day Four
The Holy Innocents saved the Child Jesus from death by King Herod by the shedding of their own blood. The Holy Innocents are the special patrons of small children, who can please the Christ Child by being obedient and helpful to parents, and by sharing their toys and loving their siblings and playmates.

The feast of the Holy Innocents is an excellent time for parents to inaugurate the custom of blessing their children. From the Ritual comes the form which we use on solemn occasions, such as First Communion. But parents can simply sign a cross on the child's forehead with the right thumb dipped in holy water and say: May God bless you, and may He be the Guardian of your heart and mind—the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

• Day Four activity (Holy Innocents)
  
• Day Four recipe (Blanc Mange)
  

The Holy Innocents

Today, dearest brethren, we celebrate the birthday of those children who were slaughtered, as the Gospel tells us, by that exceedingly cruel king, Herod. Let the earth, therefore, rejoice and the Church exult — she, the fruitful mother of so many heavenly champions and of such glorious virtues. Never, in fact, would that impious tyrant have been able to benefit these children by the sweetest kindness as much as he has done by his hatred. For as today's feast reveals, in the measure with which malice in all its fury was poured out upon the holy children, did heaven's blessing stream down upon them.

"Blessed are you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah! You suffered the inhumanity of King Herod in the murder of your babes and thereby have become worthy to offer to the Lord a pure host of infants. In full right do we celebrate the heavenly birthday of these children whom the world caused to be born unto an eternally blessed life rather than that from their mothers' womb, for they attained the grace of everlasting life before the enjoyment of the present. The precious death of any martyr deserves high praise because of his heroic confession; the death of these children is precious in the sight of God because of the beatitude they gained so quickly. For already at the beginning of their lives they pass on. The end of the present life is for them the beginning of glory. These then, whom Herod's cruelty tore as sucklings from their mothers' bosom, are justly hailed as "infant martyr flowers"; they were the Church's first blossoms, matured by the frost of persecution during the cold winter of unbelief.

— St. Augustine