The Holy Innocents: The First Martyrs for Christ

After the Magi let it slip that they were looking for the newborn King of the Jews, the tyrant King Herod ordered a massacre of all infant boys in Bethlehem.

The gruesome story of the massacre of the Holy Innocents is told in Chapter 2 of the Gospel of Matthew. Accordingly, after the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, wise men from the East — often referred to as the Magi or, inaccurately, the Three Kings — came to Jerusalem in search of the newborn King of the Jews.

They had seen a star that they believed signalled the birth of a special king. It had guided them so far. King Herod of Judea, the tyrannical and ruthless puppet ruler for the Roman occupation, heard about the Magi’s search and saw this newborn king as a potential threat to his own rule.

Herod summoned the Magi and asked them about the exact time the star had appeared. He then instructed them to find the child and report back, claiming that he too would go and worship the child. The wise men eventually found the child Jesus, giving him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

However, after being warned in a dream not to return to Herod and reveal the child’s identity, the men took a different route home. This infuriated Herod. In a fit of rage and paranoia, he ordered the elimination of any potential threat to his throne — all male infants aged two years and younger in Bethlehem and its surrounding areas were to be killed.

The “Massacre of the Innocents” fulfilled a prophecy from the Book of Jeremiah (31:15), which Matthew quotes: “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.”

By the time Herod’s order was executed, an angel had warned Joseph in a dream of the impending danger, and he took his family into exile in Egypt.

Reminder of cruelty

The story of the Holy Innocents serves as a reminder of the cruelty and darkness that can exist in the world, as well as the lengths to which some individuals might go to hold on to power. It’s also a testament to the lengths which God went to protect the infant Jesus and fulfil his divine plan.

The Holy Innocents did not know Jesus, but they died in his place. So the Church regards these boys, unknown in number, as the first martyrs and commemorates them with a feast on December 28 (in the Latin-rite; in some Eastern rites the feast is on December 27, in the Chaldeans and Syro-Malabar rites on January 10).

Is the story true?

Some scholars dispute the Massacre of the Innocents, noting that there is no historical record of such a bloodbath, other than Matthew’s assertion and a reference in the Protoevangelium of James, which focuses on St Elizabeth’s efforts to hide the infant John, future Baptiser.

The Jewish historian Josephus Flavius made no mention of such a massacre, and Josephus relished any opportunity to paint Herod as a monster (just read his gleefully grotesque description of the dying Herod’s diseased body). Moreover, the sceptics argue, the Roman occupiers — on whose patronage Herod’s reign depended — would not have stood for such a genocidal campaign, because infant-killing rampages have a way of provoking civil uprisings.

On the other hand, Herod was a paranoid sociopath who murdered even three of his own sons and his beloved wife whom he perceived to threaten his power, so the massacre of the infants is not out of character.

A massacre of infants might also have escaped popular notice if it was limited to the environs of the small town of Bethlehem, where the numbers of age-appropriate boys would have been relatively small, perhaps a dozen or less (as opposed to the inflated figures offered by excitable Byzantine writers, who suggested tens of thousands of victims).

Another consideration is this: Would Matthew have risked being caught in an easily disputed lie about a massacre of babies, just a few kilometres outside Jerusalem?

Case of martyrdom

For St Augustine (354-430), the case was clear that there was a massacre and that its victims were martyrs for Christ, even if they did not know him.

St Augustine wrote: “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’.”

This position was officially affirmed by the Church about 485 in the Leonine Sacramentary.

Tradition places the bones of the Holy Innocents in the Milk Grotto in Bethlehem, the cave church that has long been regarded as the hiding place of the Holy Family before their flight into Egypt.

The Massacre of the Innocents has been depicted in many works of art, with Peter Paul Rubens offering two paintings on the subject, as well the artwork of the Madonna with the Holy Innocents that serves as our poster in this issue. The story is also referred to in the famous 16th-century “Coventry Carol”.

The Holy Innocents are the patron saints of foundlings, babies, and children’s choirs. Unofficially, they are often invoked in pro-life issues, especially abortion.