There are so many barbaric murders recorded in the Bible, but perhaps the most horrific was that of the Holy Innocents – the baby boys whom we remember on this annual feast day (Dec. 28, 2025) as the first martyrs for Christ.
While scripture references about this event are brief, researchers have been trying to determine what actually occurred.
Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt from Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, following the instructions of an angel who appeared to Joseph in a dream. Meanwhile, King Herod, who after a visit from the three wisemen seeking the “king of the Jews,” was threatened at the thought of a new king. Known for merciless killings, he wanted Jesus dead. To that end, he ordered the massacre of all male children under the age of two who lived in Bethlehem.
The number of children killed varies from one account to another, but many experts have settled on somewhere between six and 20, based on the estimate by Professor William F. Albright, the dean of American archaeology in the Holy Land, who writes that the total population of Bethlehem at the time was about 300.
Mary, who had just presented Jesus to the elders in the temple, was forewarned by Simeon about the many sorrows she would endure as her son lived out his mission of salvation. That unnerving prophesy was the beginning of what would end with Christ’s crucifixion.
Mary had been visited by an angel who shared the news that she would be carrying God’s only begotten son. And Joseph was visited by angels twice – once when he was told not to divorce Mary, but to care for her because she was carrying the son of God. The second time was when the angel told Joseph to take Mary and Jesus and flee Bethlehem. Their faith had to have been strengthened by those angelic visits.
I can’t imagine what the mothers of those infants who were murdered endured as they fought to save their sons’ lives. They didn’t have the benefit of learning from angels the magnitude of the sacrifice of their children. And the grief of losing them was multiplied many times over because of the circumstances. Their collective horror is captured in the painting titled “Massacre of the Innocents,” by Guido Reni.
Imagining the merciful God I believe in, those little boys surely didn’t feel any pain and they had to have been taken immediately into Heaven. But their mothers had to live the rest of their lives grieving. They also, because of their sacrifice, must have entered Heaven upon their deaths, able to see and to hold their sons once again.
Every night as I say my prayers, I pray: “God bless the Holy Innocents and comfort those who mourned their loss.”
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