The Christmas Eve Martyrology, or “Proclamation of the Nativity,” is a traditional reading from the Roman Martyrology that situates Jesus’ birth within salvation history, counting years from Creation, the Flood, Abraham, Moses, David, Rome’s founding, and Augustus’s reign, culminating in Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, chanted historically during the liturgical hour of Prime on the morning of the Christmas Vigil. It is this little babe born at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold, the Christ, w