So next time you drive through Pleasantville, glance at the small sign on Washington Avenue. It’s not just a church. It’s a memorial to the world’s oldest tragedy, kept alive by a community that refuses to forget.
The term “Holy Innocents” refers to the male children of Bethlehem slaughtered by King Herod in his desperate attempt to kill the infant Jesus. It is one of the most haunting feasts on the Catholic calendar—a day with no alleluias, only tears. Most parishes avoid such a somber namesake. Pleasantville’s founders chose it deliberately. holy innocents parish pleasantville ny
Just two blocks south lies the old Pleasantville Cemetery, where Revolutionary War soldiers rest. For decades, the parish has held an annual Procession of the Innocents on December 28 (Feast of the Holy Innocents). Children carry white candles and white roses, processing from the church to the cemetery gates. It’s said that the wind often dies completely during those ten minutes of walking—as if history itself holds its breath. So next time you drive through Pleasantville, glance
Founded in 1925, the parish rose during the Roaring Twenties, a decade of jazz and flappers, yet its cornerstone was laid in memory of the most vulnerable. Locals whisper that the name was a quiet act of reparation—a reminder that even in a prosperous railroad town, innocence must be protected. The term “Holy Innocents” refers to the male
Walk the grounds today, and you’ll find a hidden gem: a stone grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, built by Italian immigrants who worked the rock quarries of nearby Mount Pleasant. During the Cold War, parishioners would gather there at dawn to pray the Rosary for nuclear disarmament—a small, stubborn echo of the original innocents crying out against the Herods of the modern age.