In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men,
became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in
Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under,
according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.”
Thus took place the slaughter of the boy children of Bethlehem, known
to the Church throughout the ages as the Holy Innocents. These
otherwise innocent children had committed no extraordinary sin,
except that they had been born the same gender as our Lord.
Herod had been tricked, and he became furious. And then he sent an
order and had all the male children under two in the region of
Bethlehem killed. It is unclear the extent to which those two facts
were connected. Given Herod's violent history, it is entirely
possible that he may have had the Innocents slaughtered regardless of
the word sent back by the Magi.
