The church level stairway landing is the new home for the Holy Innocents carving.
This image directs us to 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.
The inspired words of Jeremiah the prophet and St. Matthew the Evangelist are united in this evocative wood carving. We see an angel reaching out to the sorrowing Rachel while two other angels carry the Innocents to Heaven. The artist assists the viewer by positioning the angels’ wings to frame the image and to direct our attention upward.