Today many Christians mark the feast of the holy innocents. In Spain and Latin America, people traditionally play pranks on each other on this day.
It is an event recounted in the Gospel of Mathew in which Kind Herod orders the massacre of all infants in Bethlehem in order to assure the killing of Jesus. Christians traditionally regard these innocents as martyrs although they were not Christians. The martyrdom of the holy innocents is conundrum for our less tolerant Christian fundamentalists to consider?
Someone who definitely was a Christian, Francesco Grimaldi died today in 1663. The inventor of the word “diffraction” for how light breaks up when it encounters and obstacle, also conducted experiments in the free fall of objects and was a Jesuit priest.
– Posted by Douglas Racionzer (serendipiday.blogspot.com)