Vigils & Feasts

[Lorik]

Can someone tell me the reason why the Church remembers the Feast of the Holy Innocents before the Feast of the Epiphany? I would think that the Feast of the Epiphany would be celebrated first b/c it was only after the kings failed to return to Herod that the boys were massacred. Thanks!

 

[AJV]

Can someone tell me the reason why the Church remembers the Feast of the Holy Innocents before the Feast of the Epiphany? I would think that the Feast of the Epiphany would be celebrated first b/c it was only after the kings failed to return to Herod that the boys were massacred. Thanks!

It’s because they are the martyrs: the ‘comites Christi’ (companions of Christ) feasts of St. Stephen, St. John and the Holy Innocents. They are all martyrs: St. Stephen of course, voluntarily, the Holy Innocents involuntarily, and St. John although not martyred was arrested and totured and was willing to be martyred. Commentators usually draw the parallel with the lives of Christians in the current era whichever that is: those martyred, those who unknowingly die for Christ and those willing to die. Remember that death, and especially martyrdom, is usually viewed for the saints as their birth into the heavenly kingdom-a phrase found frequently in the liturgical texts-and this I suppose is how you can connect it with the birth of Christ. Also perhaps as their confession in the truth of the Incarnation.