Vere dignum et justum est, æquum et salutare: nos in pretiosa morte parvulorum te, sancte Pater omnipotens, gloriosius collaudare quos propter Filii tui Domini nostri Salvatoris infantiam immani sævitia Herodes funestus occidit: immensa clementiæ tuæ dona cognoscimus. Fulget namque sola magis gratia, quam voluntas et clara est prius confessio, quam loquela. Ante passio, quam membra passionis existerent: testes Christi, qui ejus nondum fuerant agnitores, O infinita benignitas Omnipotentis: cum pro suo nomine trucidatis, etiam nescientibus, æternæ meritum gloriæ perire non patitur; sed proprio cruore perfusis et salus regenerationis expletur et imputatur corona martyrii !

It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should exceedingly praise thee, O Holy Almighty Father, in the precious death of the Infants, whom the unhappy Herod, with savage cruelty, slew because of the Infant Jesus, thy Son, our Lord. Herein do we recognise how immeasurable are the gifts of thy mercy, for the splendour of thy free grace outshines the martyrs' will; and they nobly confess thy name, who are not yet able to speak. They suffer martyrdom before their bodies are ripe for martyrdom: they bear testimony to Christ, before they have even known him. O the infinite goodness of the Omnipotent God! He suffers not the merit of everlasting glory to be lost by them that are slain for his sake, though they know not what they do: and being bathed in their own blood, he effects in them the salvation of regeneration, and gives them the crown of martyrdom.

Dignum et justum est: vere dignum et justum est, nos tibi semper et ubique

It is meet and just, yea truly right and just, that we should always and in all places,

give thanks to thee, O Holy Lord, Almighty Father, Eternal God, and now especially for these whose yearly feast we this day keep, celebrating the memory of their passion. These are they, whom Herod's satellites snatched from their mothers' breasts. Rightly are they called The Flowers of the Martyrs, for they grew in the mid-winter of infidelity, as the first buds of the Church, and, being nipped by the frost of persecution, filled the city of Bethlehem with a ruddy stream. They were Babes, and could not speak; yet did they joyfully proclaim the praise of the Lord. Their deaths profess, what their lives could not. They say by their blood, what they could not with their tongue. Martyrdom gave them power to praise, though their tongue denied them that of speech. The Infant Jesus sends these Infants, before himself, to heaven he presents these new gifts to his Father, and offers to him, as the first fruits of martyrdom, this of the Innocents, who were slain by the wicked Herod. This enemy confers on them what their body could not; while he injures their body, he benefits it; whilst their body falls, it lives by its death, it rises by its fall, it conquers by its defeat.

gratias agere, Domine, sancte, Pater omnipotens, æterne Deus, pro his præcipue, quorum hodierno die annua festivitate recolentes memoriam passionis celebramus: quos Herodianus satelles lactantum matrum uberibus abstraxit. Qui jure dicuntur Martyrum flores; qui in medio frigore infidelitatis exorti, velut primas erumpentes Ecclesiæ gemmas quædam persecutionis pruina discussit, rutilante fonte in Bethlehem civitate. Infantes enim quia ætate loqui non poterant, laudem Domini cum gaudio resonabant. Occisi prædicant: quod vivi non poterant. Loquuntur sanguine, quod lingua nequiverunt. Contulit his Martyrium laudem ; quibus abnegaverat lingua sermonem.

Præmittit infantes Infans Christus ad cœlos; transmittit nova xenia Patri; primitias exhibet Genitori parvulorum prima martyria, Herodis scelere perpetrata. Præstat hostis corpori; dum nocet, beneficium tribuit; dum occidit, moriendo vivitur: cadendo resurgitur: victoria per interitum comprobatur.

Bimos et infra parvulos, Herodis ira perculit; Finesque Bethlemiticos, Sancto respersit sanguine.

Præclara Christo splenduit Mors innocens fidelium: Coelis ferebant Angeli Bimos et infra parvulos.

Vox in Rama percrebuit, Lamenta luctus maximi, Rachel suos, cum lacrymis Perfusa, flevit filios.

Gaudent triumpho perpeti, Tormenta quique vicerant, Quorum gemens ob verbera, Vox in Rama percrebuit. Ne, grex pusille, formides Dentes leonis perfidos!

Let us chant the hymn of the Martyred Innocents, whom earth lost, and wept, but heaven gained and was glad.

Their Angels see the Face of the Eternal Father, and sing the Hymn of their Martyrs, lauding the grace of God.

A cruel king destroyed them, the merciful Creator received them, making them happy with Himself in the brightness of the never-ending kingdom.

He that gives to each elect a mansion in his Father's house, places the Innocents, massacred by the impious king, on thrones in heaven above.

Herod was angry, and slew every child below the age of two, staining with their sacred blood the borders of Bethlehem.

Precious in the sight of Jesus shone the innocent death of these his faithful ones; and Angels came down to carry them to the land of heaven.

A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation of poignant grief, and Rachel shed a flood of tears over her infant sons,

Who now rejoice in endless triumph, for they overcame their torments, whose cruel blows filled Rama with the voice of wailing.

Fear not, Little Flock, the prowling lion's tooth! for the