Virtual Nativity - Massacre of the Innocents

Sadly, there is a gruesome side to the nativity story.

Attempting to thwart the prophecy about Christ's rise to power, King Herod orders his soldiers to kill all the male infants under the age of two living in Bethlehem.

“When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.”
Matthew 2.16

A Salerno ivory panel depicts Herod viewing the murderous act.

Other depictions appear in literature.

Christianity is a book-based religion, its central pivot being the Four Gospels chronicling the life and resurrection of the Son of God. Access to Christian writings was essential for every priest, both as a foundation for his teaching and in the performance of the liturgy. Illuminated books provided a visual focus for the devotions of the newly faithful, most of whom were illiterate. For several centuries copies of the gospels were presented in illuminated books.

One example is the Golden Legend (Latin: ‘Legenda aurea’) by Jacobus de Voragine (1229-1298). It is a collection of the legendary lives of the greater saints of the medieval church that became a late medieval bestseller. The ‘Legenda aurea’ was the most popular and most widespread religious folk book of the middle ages and in its time it was read more often than the Bible. It was likely compiled around the year 1260.

The book attracted a huge audience right across Europe. Chaucer adapted the section on Saint Cecilia in his Canterbury Tales and Caxton published an expanded English version in 1483. The ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ featured in the book.