Today is the feast of the Holy Innocents (c. 750 AUC). It is also called "the birthday of the holy babes and sucklings" -- in honor of these littlest victims of King Herod's butchery. He was trying to destroy the One "born king of the Jews," whom he didn't know and who actually escaped him into Egypt. These children (anywhere from a half dozen in number on up) were technically called "flores martyrum" . . . "buds" killed by the frost of persecution. They are no ordinary martyrs. Frank Sheed says, "There is anguish for us, 20 centuries after, in thinking of the slain babies and their parents. For the babies, the agony was soon over, in the next world they would know Whom they had died to save and for all eternity would have that glory. For the parents, the pain would have lasted longer; but at death they too must have found that there was a special sense in which God was in their debt, as he had never been indebted to any. They and their children were the only ones who ever agonized in order to save God's life."
So in their honor, let us have a happy feast day. Holy Innocents, pray for us.
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