Holy Innocents
Martyrological notice
Children killed by Herod, honoured as witnesses who died because worldly power feared the newborn King.
The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 15, December · THE HOLY INNOCENTS, MM.
THE HOLY INNOCENTS, MM.
[Roman Martyrology and all Western Martyrologies. Also in all Greek Meneeas and Menologies.]
1 1 E commemoration of the Holy Innocents seems to have been instituted very early. It is men- tioned by S. Irenaeus,1 S. Cyprian,2 S. Gregory Nazianzen,3 and S. Chrysostom.4 Origen, or who- ever was the author of the third homily, “de diversis,” says, that “ their memorial has continually been observed, accord- ing to their deserving, in the Church, and that the first martyrs went forth from Bethlehem, where Christ was born/'
But the observance of this day was in the earliest time bound up with that of the Epiphany. Pope Leo I., in almost all his sermons on the Epiphany, refers to the Inno- cents. But in his Sacramentary, the Mass of the Children of Bethlehem follows immediately after that of S. John, under the title “ In natali Innocentium.” It is, however, question- able if we have this Sacramentary in its most ancient form. The two hymns in the Roman Breviary for this day are centos from the hymn oi Prudentius on the Epiphany.
1 Adr. Hanes. 1. iiL c. 38. * Epist. 56. * Serin. 38, In Nativ.
4 HomiL ix. In Matth.
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Lives of the Saints.
[Dec. 28.
Hrabanus Maurus composed a hymn for the festival. Ac- cording to the Responsoriale of S. Gregory the Great, this day was observed with mourning, the “ Te Deum ” was omitted from the office, and the “Gloria in excelsis,” the “Alleluia,” and “ Ite, missa est,” were not used in the mass. Amalarius attributes this regulation to the composer of the Antiphonary, for he says : “ The author of this office would have us sympathize with the feelings of the pious women who wept and sorrowed at the death of their innocent children.”1 Micrologus gives another reason : “ With right are the sufferings of the Holy Innocents attended with less festivity than the celebration of other saints, for, though they were crowned with martyrdom, they went at once, not into Paradise, but into Limbo.”
In Rome meat was forbidden on this day.* The colours for the vestments on the feast of the Holy Innocents are to this day purple, as in Lent and Advent, except when the day coincides with the Sunday after Christmas, when the red of martyrdom overrides the purple of mourning.
Martyrologium Romanum · Latin witness
In Bethlehem Judae natalis sanctorum Innocentium Martyrum, qui pro Christo ab Herode Rege interfecti sunt.