Feast Day: December 28
Liturgical Rank (Traditional Calendar): Double of the Second Class
Vestment Color: Red
Introduction
The Feast of the Holy Innocents, also called Childermas or Innocents’ Day, commemorates the first martyrs for Christ — the male children in Bethlehem who were slaughtered by order of King Herod in his vain attempt to destroy the Infant Jesus. Though they were unable to profess Christ with their lips, their deaths became a glorious confession of Christ with their blood.
This feast is both sorrowful and triumphant: sorrowful for the cruelty and injustice done to these innocent children; triumphant because the Church honors them as martyrs — the youngest in her calendar — who now behold the Beatific Vision.
Scriptural Foundation
The principal account of the Holy Innocents is found in:
✠ Gospel of St. Matthew 2:16–18:
“Then Herod, perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceedingly angry: and sending, killed all the male children 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.
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet Jeremias, saying:
A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning: Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.“
This prophecy, originally referring to the Babylonian exile, is here seen as fulfilled mystically and tragically in Herod’s massacre of the children — an act of political paranoia, met with divine glory for the innocent victims.
Spiritual Significance
The Holy Innocents are honored as martyrs, not because of their free choice to die for Christ, but because they died in place of Christ. St. Augustine teaches that they were baptized in blood, rather than water. Though they did not yet know Christ, Christ knew them, and received their sacrifice as a testimony to His coming reign.
❝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.❞
— St. Augustine
They are therefore a sign of hope and mystery: that God in His mercy receives even the voiceless and the small as partakers of His glory. In their innocence, they bear the marks of Christ’s own Passion — reminding us of the mystery of redemptive suffering and the dignity of all human life, even the smallest.
Liturgical Observance (Traditional Rite)
- Mass and Office: The Mass is said in red, the color of martyrs, but during the octave of Christmas, the Gloria and Alleluia are retained — unusual for a martyr’s day — to emphasize their purity and the joy of Christmastide.
- Commemoration in the Octave: The Holy Innocents are remembered throughout the Octave of Christmas, and their feast often includes additional devotions for children and prayers for the protection of life.
- Special Traditions:
- In some monastic communities, the youngest member of the house takes the place of the superior for the day — a gentle inversion, recalling the exaltation of the humble and innocent in the Kingdom of God.
Patronage
The Holy Innocents are patrons of:
- Children
- The unborn
- Victims of abortion and infanticide
- Victims of violence and tyranny
Reflections from the Saints
❝They died for Christ, though they did not yet live for Him; their deaths confessed what their tongues could not yet proclaim.❞
— St. Bernard of Clairvaux
❝See how the infants die for Christ, though they cannot speak. The sword takes away their outer life, but confers the palm of martyrdom.❞
— St. John Chrysostom
Meditation and Prayer
Meditation: Reflect on the hidden ways God works in the world — through the weak, the unnoticed, the seemingly powerless. The Holy Innocents were taken from life before they could speak, act, or choose — and yet they are crowned in glory. How much more, then, does God value our choices, our sufferings, our sacrifices, made in freedom and love?
Prayer to the Holy Innocents:
✠ O Holy Innocents, first martyrs of Christ, your blood was shed before you could speak His Name. Yet you now sing His praises eternally. Intercede for us before the throne of God, that we may live in the innocence of heart and be made worthy of the crown of glory. Protect all children, especially the unborn, and obtain for us a deeper love for purity, humility, and trust in God’s providence. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.