The Holy Innocents, by Stephen P. White

It is Christmas, and the Church spares nothing in rejoicing at the arrival of the Child of Bethlehem. But amid the light and joy of the season, neither does the Church fail to remind us just what it was that the Christ-child came to accomplish.

St. Stephen, the protomartyr, whose death by stoning is recorded in Acts, is celebrated on December 26. On December 27, the Church celebrates St. John the Apostle, who, though he did not die a martyr’s death, according to tradition, miraculously survived several attempts on his life. If Stephen was a martyr in will and deed, as the old catechesis has it, then John was a martyr in will, though not in deed. …