King Herod in the Gospel

The second chapter of Saint Matthew’s Gospel tells the story of these babies whom the Church honors as martyrs. When Jesus was born, Herod “the Great” was king of Judea by appointment of the Roman Empire. A paranoid ruler who struck out ruthlessly at any perceived threat to his power, as Jimmy Akin explains at the National Catholic Register, Herod was alarmed at the Wise Men’s inquiry about a new king: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him” (Mt 2:2). Saint Joseph’s obedience to God’s warning, as he took his family into Egypt, saved Jesus from Herod’s subsequent slaughter of all the baby boys in Bethlehem, a horror known as the “massacre of the innocents.” 

Baptism of Blood

The Church’s tradition honors these little ones as martyrs, since they died for Christ, making their death a “baptism of blood” (see Catechism §1258). “They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory” (Office of Readings for the Holy Innocents). “It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking of martyrdom as a kind of good work that the martyr does for Christ,” says Joe Heschmeyer at Catholic Answers, citing Saint Cyprian. “Instead, martyrdom is a grace that—if need be—we receive from Christ. … So it’s not the Holy Innocents who make themselves martyrs. It’s ultimately Christ who makes them saints and martyrs.”

Violence and Injustice to the Innocent

Many also revere the Innocents as patrons of the most vulnerable: unborn babies, children, the sick and the elderly, all who are in special need of care and protection, who often suffer from violence and injustice. At the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Memorial to the Unborn serves in the same spirit, lovingly honoring all the littlest children who have died, whether they were killed, like the Innocents, or tragically lost to miscarriage. 

“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more” (Mt 2:18, quoting Jeremiah). On the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Mother Church weeps for all innocent victims and those who mourn them. At the Shrine’s Memorial, the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Unborn, cradles three tiny babies in her arms, a sign of comfort and hope. She opens that same embrace to all who bring her their sorrow, at the Memorial or anywhere; she is their Mother, and carries their pains in her heart. Christmas joy does not erase or deny the fallen world’s miseries, but promises a hope that will ultimately transcend them.