THE FEAST OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS (December 28) 

(Taken from True Christmas Spirit, by Fr. Edward J. Sutfin)

After the feast of the martyr and the virgin apostle we celebrate the feast of the infant martyrs. In this respect, today's feast represents a high point in our reception of the suite of the King-Redeemer. The Church is very dynamic in her consideration of the Holy Innocents and does not stop at a mere meditation upon these historical figures. The infant saints completely realize the ideal of the early Church based upon the Apocalypse of St. John as found in the lesson for the Mass of the feast. Adorned with the purple of martyrdom and the white lily of virginity, they form the escort of honor of the Lamb. Modern piety expresses a tendency to center attention about the crib and all of the heartwarming aspects of childhood. We tend to forget that the Incarnation is the beginning of the redemptive act of the Word of God. It would be wise indeed to teach the children by means of word, song and example that the crib and the cross go together. In ancient times this fourth day in the octave of the Nativity was not consecrated to the Holy Innocents, but rather to the exile of Christ, the flight into Egypt. Both of those themes mingle together as they actually do in the Gospel of the day and in the Divine Office. At Matins we hear the psalm characteristic of the feast: "Why are the nations in tumult, and why do the peoples devise vain things? The kings of the earth rise up, and the princes take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed...." --Psalm 2 We have already heard this ominous note on Christmas Day, in the martyrdom of Stephen, and in the poisoned drink of St. John. We shall hear it again on the Sunday within the octave and on the feast of the Circumcision, when the Child shall shed His first blood for our redemption. This reminder constitutes a transition from the Christmas cycle to the Easter cycle, for the Incarnation is but the prelude to the great sacrifice of the redemption. Since ancient times the bodies of five of the Innocents have been honored in the stational church of St. Paul. Their bodies are interred in a sarcophagus which is deposed in a place of distinction beneath the apse of the basilica. The second and third nocturns of Matins develop the Gospel account of the feast. In the second nocturn St. Augustine tells us that "Today we honor the birthday of those infants whom the text of the Gospel relates to have been slain by Herod, that most cruel king. And therefore let the earth rejoice with the greatest exultation as the fruitful parents of his heavenly throng and of such great virtues. Behold, this wicked enemy could never have so greatly benefited the blessed children by honor as he did by hate. For as today's most sacred feast shows, as much as iniquity did abound against the blessed children, so much the more did the grace of benediction flow out upon them. Blessed art thou, O Bethlehem in the land of Judea, which endured the cruelty of King Herod in the slaughter of thy children; who deserved to offer to God at one time a snow white army of defenseless infants. Fittingly, indeed, do we celebrate the birthday of those whom the world brought forth into eternal life more happily than did birth from their mothers' wombs. Indeed, they possessed the dignity of eternal life before they partook of the enjoyment of the present."5 In the third nocturn emphasis is placed upon the flight into Egypt in the homily of St. Jerome: "When Joseph took the Child and His Mother to flee into Egypt he took them in the night and in the darkness, because he left the night of ignorance to those infidels from whom he fled. But when he returned into Judea, neither night nor darkness are mentioned in the Gospel because at the end of the world the Jews shall be enlightened, receiving faith as if receiving Christ returning from Egypt."6 There are many ways by which the great themes of the feast of the Holy Innocents may be made comprehensible to children. Many pastors, for example, invite the mothers to bring their children to church on that day or on the following Sunday, in order to receive a special blessing. (We shall treat of this blessing in our development of the Sunday within the octave of the Nativity.) In schools and convents the youngest are given a turn at being "Superior"; and at home they may preside at the table, offering their own ideas on how to sing and pray, eat and play. There are, moreover, several beautiful carols which are particularly suitable. The "Coventry Carol" was sung in the fifteenth century "Pageant of the Shearman and Tailors" by the women of Bethlehem, just before Herod's soldiers came to slaughter their children: "Lulla, lulla, thou little tiny child, By by, lully lullay. Thou little tiny child, By by, lully lullay . . . Herod the king in his raging, Charged he hath this day His men of might In his own sight, All young children to slay...." A seventeenth century Italian carol, "Herod Dead," is again in keeping with the feast as is the lovely traditional German carol, "Maria on the Mountain." A birthday cake in honor of the birthday into heaven of the little saints would make a timely dessert. Mrs. Berger tells us that "German cooks created a Bavarian cream with either a strawberry or cherry sauce to symbolize the blood spilled. They felt that blanc-mange would be suitable for little children and grownups after too much Christmas feasting."