Today, Holy Innocents is known for its progressive yet traditional outreach: a food pantry that operates without questions asked, and a music program that somehow blends Gregorian chant with local folk bands. But ask any longtime parishioner, and they’ll tell you the same thing: You don’t choose this parish. It chooses you. There’s a quiet intensity beneath the suburban calm—a reminder that even in a town known for its Jacob Burns Theatre and pleasant coffee shops, some places still take their name from the cry of children in the dark.
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. holy innocents parish pleasantville ny
Tucked a block off Pleasantville’s quaint Wheeler Avenue, Holy Innocents Parish doesn’t scream for attention. Its brick exterior and modest steeple blend into the Westchester landscape. But the name itself is a theological time bomb. Today, Holy Innocents is known for its progressive