While touring the Vatican Museums, we walked into a hall full of tapestries. These wall hangings are huge, almost 30 feet high. Designed by the artist Raphael, they were woven in Belgium and hung in the Vatican over 600 years ago.

One side of the wall depicts scenes from the life of Christ, from birth to resurrection. Included in the stories is the Massacre of the Innocents. Perhaps you remember the passage, one of the most chilling in the Bible:

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

I stopped and stared at a tapestry of terror. Take a closer look. Raphael captured the stark desperation of mothers as they fought for their children—to no avail—and the viciousness of men bent on infanticide.

Warned by an angel, Joseph escaped to Egypt with Jesus and Mary. Herod’s plan failed, but not before dead baby boys and shattered parents littered Bethlehem and the surrounding communities.

The tapestry reminds us of the evil residing in the hearts of men, especially those bent toward power and holding it at all costs. Unfortunately, not much has changed since the days of Herod.

The butchered children came to be known as the Holy Innocents, and were later venerated as the first martyrs of the Christian church.

The mothers and fathers who lost their sons? We can only imagine their pain. Perhaps they deserve their own place in the list of martyrs associated with the life of Jesus.

Matthew 2 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo of the tapestry thanks to Walks in Rome