HOLY
419
HOLY
Holy Innocents, the children mentioned in St.
Matthew, ii, 16-lS: "Herod perceiving that he was de-
luded by the wise men, was exceeding angry ; and send-
ing killed all the men 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 Jeremias the prophet, saying:
A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great
mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would
not be comforted, because they are not. " The Greek
Liturgy asserts that Herod killed 14,000 boys (rSy
aylwy iS" x^"4Swi' NijTriMi/), the Syrians speak of 64,000,
many medieval authors of 144,000, according to Apoc,
xiv, 3. Modern writers reduce the number consid-
erably, since Bethlehem was a rather small town.
Knabenbauer brings it down to fifteen or twenty
(Evang. S. Matt., I, 104), Bisping to ten or twelve
(Evang. S. Matt.), Kellner to about six (Christus und
seine .A.postel, Freiburg, 1908) ; cf. "Anzeiger kath.
Geistlichk.Deutschl.", 15Febr.,1909,p.32. Thiscruel
deed of Herod is not mentioned liy the Jewish historian
Flavins Josephus, although he relates quite a number
of atrocities committed by the king during tlie last
years of his reign. The number of these children was
so small that this crime appeared insignificant amongst
the other misdeeds of Herod. Macrobius (Saturn., IV,
xiv, de Augusto et jocis ejus) relates that when Au-
gustus heard that amongst the lioys of two years and
under Herod's own son also had been massacred, he
said: "It is better to he Herod's hog [Cs], than his son
[liiAs]," alluding to the Jewish law of not eating, and
consequently not killing, swine. The Middle Ages
gave faith to this story; Abelard inserted it in his
hymn for the feast of Holy Innocents: —
Ad mandatum regis datum generale
nee ipsius infans tutus est a ca;de.
Ad Augustum hoc delatum risum movit,
et rex mitis de immiti digne lusit:
malum, inquit, est Herodis esse natum.
prodest magis talis regis esse porcum. (Dreves, "Petri Abselardi Hymnarius Paracletcnsis", Paris, 1891, pp. 224, 274.) But this "infant" men- tioned by Macrobius, is .4ntipater, the adult son of Herod, who, by command of the dying king was decap- itated for having conspired against the life of his father. It iy impossible to determine the daj' or the year of the death of the Holy Innocents, since the chronology of the birth of Christ and the subsequent Biblical events is most uncertain. All we know is that the in- fants were slaughtered within two years following the tpparition of the star to the Wise Men (Belser, in the Tubingen "Quartalschrift", 1890,p.301). The Church venerates these children as martyrs (flores martyrum) ; they are the first buds of the Chm-ch killed by the frost of persecution; they died not only for Christ, but in his stead (St. Aug., "Sermo lOus de Sanctis"). In connexion with them the Apostle recalls the words of the Prophet Jeremias (xxxi, 15) speaking of the lamen- tation of Rachel. At Rama is the tomb of Rachel, rep- resentative of the ancestresses of Israel. There the remnants of the nation were gathered to be led into captivity. .\s Rachel, after the fall of Jerusalem, from her tomb wept for the sons of Ephraim, so she now weeps again for the men children of Bethlehem. The ruin of her people, led away to Babylon, is only a type of the ruin which menaces her children now, when the Messias is to be murdered and is compelled to flee from the midst of His own nation to escape from the sword of the apparitor. The lamentation of Rachel after the fall of Jerusalem receives its eminent com- pletion at the sight of the downfall of her people, ushered in by the slaughter of her children and the banishment of the Messias.
The Latin Church instituted the feast of the Holy Innocents at a date now unknown, not before the end of the fourth and not later than the end of the
fifth century. It is, with the feasts of St. Stephen and
St. John, first found in the Leonine Sacramentary,
dating from about 485. To the I'hilocalian Calendar
of 354 it is unknown. The Latins keep it on 28 De-
cember, the Greeks on 29 December, the Syrians
and Chaldeans on 27 December. These dates have
nothing to do with the chronological order of the event;
the feast is kept within the octave of Christmas be-
cause the Holy Innocents gave their life for the new-
born Saviour. Stephen the first martyr (martyr by
will, love, and blood), John, the Disciple of Love (mar-
tyr by will and love), and these first flowers of the
Church (martyrs by blooil alone) accompany the Holy
Child Jesils entering this world on Christmas day.
Only the Church of Rome applies the word Innocentes
to these children; in other Latin countries they are
called simply Infantes and the feast had the title " Al-
lisio infantium" (Brev. Goth.), " Natale infantum",
or "Necatio infantum". The Armenians keep it on
Monday after the Second Sunday after Pentecost
(.\rmen. Menology, 11 May), because they believe
the Holy Innocents were killed fifteen weeks after
the birth of Christ.
In the Roman Breviary the feast was only a semi- double (in other breviaries a minor double) up to the time of Pius V, who, in his new Breviary (1568), raised it to a double of the second class with an octave (G. Schober, "Expl. rit. brev. rom.", 1891, p. 38). Healso introduced the two hymns " Salvete flores martyrum " and ",\udit tyrannus anxius", which are fragments of the Epiphany hymn of Prudentius. Before Pius V the Chvu'ch of Rome sang the C'hristmas hymns on the feast of the Holy Innocents. The proper preface of the Gelasian Sacramentary for this feast is still found in the Ambrosian Missal. We possess a lengthy hymn in honour of the Holy Innocents from the pen of the Ven- erable Bede, " Hymnum canentes martyrum " (Dreves, "Analecta hjTnnica") and a sequence composed by Notker, "Laus tibi Christe", but most Churches at Mass used the "Celsa pueri concrepant melodia" (Kehrein,"Sequenzen", 1873, p. 348). At Bethlehem the feast is a Holy Day of obligation. The liturgical colour of the Roman Church is purple, not red, because these children were martyred at a time when they could not attain the beatific vision. But of compassion, as it were, towards the weeping mothers of Bethlehem, the Church omits at Mass both the Gloria and Alleluia; this custom, however, was unknown in the Churches of France and Germany. On the octave day, and also when the feast falls on a Simday, the Roman Liturgy, prescribes the red colour, the Gloria, and the Alleluia. In England the feast was called "Childermas".
The Roman Station of 28 December is at St. Paul's Outside the Walls, because that church is believed to possess the bodies of several of the Holy In- nocents. A portion of these relics was transferred by Sixtus V to Santa Maria Maggiore (feast on 5 May; it is a semi-doul.ile) . The church of St. Justina at Padua, the cathedrals of Lisbon and Milan, and other churches also preserve bodies which they claim to be those of some of the Holy Innocents. In many churches in England, Germany, and France on the feast of St. Nicholas (6 December) a boy-bishop (q. v.) was elected, who officiated on the feast of St. Nicholas and of the Holy Innocents. He wore a mitre and other pontifical insignia, sang the collect, preached, and gave the blessing. He sat in the bishop's chair whilst the choir-boys sang in the stalls of the canons. They directed the choir on these two days and had their solemn procession (Schmidt, "Thesaurus jur. eccl.", Ill, 67 sqq.; Kirchenlex., IV, 1400; P. L., CXLVII, 1.35).
Helmling in Kirrheidei., XII. 869-71; Nilles, Kal. man. utriusque eccl. (Innshnirk, 1897); Tondini. Calendrier de la nation armcnienne (Rome, 1906): Hamp-son, Calendarium mcdii oevi (London, 18.57); Hoeynck. vlu»si<urf«T Liturgie (,\ugsburg, 18S9); Rock, Church of Our Fnllirrs (London, 1905).
Frederick G. Holweck.
