Jeremiah 31:15. “Thus saith the Lord: A voice was heard on high of lamentation, of mourning, and weeping, of Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted for them, because they are not.”

The martyrdom of the Holy Innocents is recounted in St. Matthew 2:16-18. Herod the Great, King of Judea, sought to eliminate the Infant Christ by ordering the massacre of all male children under the age of two in Bethlehem and the surrounding area.