Feast Day:
December 28
Profile
The children slaughtered by Herod when he tried to kill the
infant Christ.
Patronage
babies, children's choir, choir boys, foundlings
Additional
Information
Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church,
Compass,
Catholic Encyclopedia,
The Golden Legend
Reading
A tiny child is born, who is a great king. Wise men are led
to him from afar. They come to adore one who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and
on earth. When they tell of one who is born a king, Herod is disturbed. To save his
kingdom he resolves to kill him, though if he would have faith in the child, he himself
would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come.
Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a
king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not
understand this you are disturbed and in a rage. To destroy one child whom you seek, you
show your cruelty in the death of so many children.
You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers and
fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You
destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. You imagine that
if you accomplish your desire you can prolong you own life, though you are seeking to kill
Life himself.
The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The
parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The Christ child makes of those as yet unable to
speak fit witnesses to himself. But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and
furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage,
and do not know it.
To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of
victory? 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.
(from a sermon by Bishop Saint Quodvultdeus)
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