Feast of the Holy Innocents

The Feast of the Holy Innocents is a Christian feast in remembrance of the massacre of young children in Bethlehem by King Herod the Great in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus.

Why is it important?

The slain children were regarded by the early church as the first martyrs, but it is uncertain when the day was first kept as a saint's day. It may have been celebrated with Epiphany, but by the 5th century it was kept as a separate festival. In Rome it was a day of fasting and mourning.

The feast, also known as Childermas is observed by Western churches on December 28 and in the Eastern churches on December 29.

Significance

The Gospel

The Massacre of the Innocents is the incident in the nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (2:16–18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem.

Herod

Herod, byname Herod the Great, was a Roman-appointed king of Judaea (37–4 BCE), who built many fortresses, aqueducts, theatres, and other public buildings and generally raised the prosperity of his land but who was the center of political and family intrigues in his later years. The New Testament portrays him as a tyrant, into whose kingdom Jesus of Nazareth was born.

boy bishops

In the Middle Ages, St. Stephen's Day was one of a series of days known as the Feast of Fools, and the last day of authority for boy bishops (boys chosen to act as bishops while parents temporarily abdicated authority). In convents and monasteries the youngest nuns and monks were allowed to act as abbess and abbot for the day. These customs, which were thought to mock religion, were condemned by the Council of Basel (1431).

Christian Interpretation

In the context of martyrdom, the murder of the holy innocents is seen in a positive light, as evidenced in Roger Baxter's (a Catholic missionary) Meditations, where he writes:

"Admire the goodness of God, who from the wickedness of men draws advantages for His servants

[...] Imitate, in your life, the innocence of these infant saints, that you may be 'without spot before the throne of God'."

Customs

In medieval England children were reminded of the mournfulness of the day by being whipped in bed in the morning; this custom survived into the 17th century.

The day is still observed as a religious feast day and, in Roman Catholic countries, as a day of merrymaking for children. Some churches omit both the Gloria and the Alleluia of the mass in honour of the grieving mothers of Bethlehem, unless the feast falls on a Sunday.

Christian Art

The theme of the "Massacre of the Innocents" has provided artists of many nationalities with opportunities to compose complicated depictions of massed bodies in violent action. It was an alternative to the Flight into Egypt in cycles of the Life of the Virgin (narrative scenes from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, which was a common subject for pictorial cycles).

It decreased in popularity in Gothic art, but revived in the larger works of the Renaissance, when artists took inspiration for their "Massacres" from Roman reliefs of mythological battles.

The horrific subject matter of the Massacre of the Innocents also provided a comparison of ancient brutalities with the brutalities of the early modern period, during the period of religious wars that followed the Reformation – Bruegel's (Nederland painter) versions show the soldiers carrying banners with the Habsburg (House of Austria) double-headed eagle

source: wikipedia.org

Guido Reni, Massacre of the Innocents (1611)

The Bruegels, Massacre of the Innocents (16th-17th Century)

Rubens, The Massacre of the Innocents, 1609-1611

Rubens, The Massacre of the Innocents, 1638