Day of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem for Catholics

Every year on December 28, the Catholic world celebrates the Day of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem By the way, a similar holiday is celebrated by the Orthodox Church, only a little later - on January 11 This is a religious holiday celebrating events that were described in the New Testament of the Bible They are described most extensively in the Gospel of Matthew On this day, the memory of the babies who were killed by order of King Herod a few days after the birth of Jesus Christ is honored According to the Bible, the Magi, seeing a bright star in the sky that marked the birth of the Messiah, went to King Herod to ask where this happened But Herod did not know that the messiah was about to be born Having learned about this, he was not happy like the Magi, because he saw in the Messiah, whom the Magi called the future king, a real threat to his power During the visit of the Magi, Herod asked them to inform him of the whereabouts of the baby, ostensibly in order to praise him and bow down to him In fact, he decided that the child needed to be disposed of so that nothing would threaten his dominance But the wise men understood his plan and, having found Jesus with his mother, did not tell the king anything All Herod knew about the child was that he was born in Bethlehem Therefore, he ordered the death of all infants under 2 years of age This order was immediately carried out and all the babies that were found in Bethlehem were killed But Jesus was saved; his mother and Joseph fled to the lands of Egypt shortly before the tragedy The number of victims of this “beating” (a term often used in church practice) is unknown According to Byzantine church tradition, 14 thousand babies were killed then According to Syrian tradition - 60 thousand Historians are very skeptical both about the fact that this event took place at all and about the number of its victims Some historians, doubting that this event actually happened, argue that it is not described in any historical source This is only written about in the gospels Moreover, in its different editions this story is described differently Some historians, while recognizing the fact of the event itself, do not agree with the number of its victims They claim that at that time Bethlehem itself had no more than 1,000 inhabitants Even if we take into account that at that time there was an influx of people from other cities due to the population census, the number of children killed could not have been so huge Based on the results of that very census, the birth and death rates of children characteristic of that time, most historians put the number of children killed at 10-20 people Christians began to honor these innocently murdered babies in the 5th century From that time on, everyone who died defending Christ began to be recognized as saints, without even realizing it And these babies are recognized as the first martyrs of Christ First they were recognized by the Church of Constantinople, and then by all other denominations On December 28, Catholics hold services in all churches; pilgrims flock from all over the world to the relics of the holy murdered infants Most often they go to Bethlehem to the Cave of the Bethlehem Babies, where, according to legend, the corpses of murdered children were carried away And also many pilgrims come to France, to the city of Brantome on this day Here there are the incorruptible remains of one of the babies, placed by Charlemagne People from all over the world flock not only to honor the memory of innocent babies It is believed that their relics can heal various physical and mental illnesses, and women who wish to have children are given a blessing