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, 2012 (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. Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. 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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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.
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
Highlights and Things to Do:
- Today is also called Childermas Day. Read about the customs and traditions of this day, including the Feast of Fools and the Feast of the Boy Bishop.
- Read this article by Msgr. Luciano Alimandi on the humility of children.
- Read the Golden Legend of the Holy Innocents.
- Read more about the Holy Innocents:
- 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 on San Paolo fuori le mura, see:
For further information on the Station Churches, see The Stational Church.
