Stephen is a Greek name; in Latin it means crown, in Hebrew it means rule. He was the crown of the martyrs, for he was their forerunner under the New Covenant, just as Abel had been their precursor under the Old. He was an exemplar, or rule: he showed how one should suffer for Christianity, how one should act and live, and how one should pray for one's enemies. Or again, Stephen comes from strenue fans, one who speaks with zeal. This he showed in his teaching and in his preaching of the word of God. Or Stephen comes from strenue fans anus, he who speaks with zeal to the aged. For he taught and ruled the widows over whom he was placed by the apostles, and they are the same as the aged. So Stephen is a crown or the beginning of martyrdom; a rule, because of his example of righteous conduct and of patience in suffering; a zealous preacher, because of his splendid and enlightened preaching; a zealous speaker to the aged because of his meritorious teaching of the widows.

Stephen was one of the seven deacons whom the apostles ordained for the sacred ministry. We know that as the number of the disciples increased, the Christians of Gentile origin began to murmur against those who had been Jews, because the widows were being neglected in the daily ministrations. These complaints can be taken in two ways: either the widows were not admitted to the ministry, or else they were too burdened with its works, the apostles having entrusted to them the material services of the cult, so that they might devote themselves entirely to preaching. However that may be, the apostles, confronted with these murmurings, called together the multitude of the disciples, and said: 'It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.' This saying was liked by all the multitude. They elected seven men, of whom Stephen was the first; these they set before the apostles, and they praying, imposed hands upon them.

Now Stephen, full of grace and fortitude, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then the Jews, being jealous of him and desiring to be rid of him, joined issue with him in three ways: by disputing with him, by suborning false witnesses against him, and by putting him to the torture. He, however, had the better of the disputes, exposed the fraud of the false witnesses, and triumphed over those who tortured him. In this threefold struggle, he received a threefold aid from Heaven. In the disputes he received the assistance of the Holy Ghost, Who gave him wisdom. Before the false witnesses, his face took on an angelic purity which gave the lie to their testimony. In his torture Christ appeared to him, helping him to bear martyrdom. As to the details of the discourse which he delivered to the Jews, we find it given at length in chapter seven of the Acts of the Apostles.

And while the Jews, hearing the saint's words, were carried away with rage and threatened him, Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost, and looking up steadfastly to Heaven, cried out: 'Behold I see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God!' Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, as if not to hear him blaspheming; and with one accord they ran violently upon him, and casting him forth without the city, they stoned him. And the two false witnesses, who were to throw the first stone, laid aside their garments, either to avoid soiling them by contact with Stephen, or to have more strength; and they placed them at the feet of a young man whose name was Saul, and who later became Saint Paul; with the result that he, by guarding the garments of those who were stoning Stephen in order to aid them in their business, can be considered as contributing to his lapidation. And while they were stoning him, Stephen prayed and said: 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit' Then, falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!' In this the martyr imitated Christ, Who, in His Passion, had prayed first for Himself, saying: 'Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit' and then had prayed for his executioners, saying: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do! And the author of the Acts adds that after having spoken thus, Stephen 'fell asleep in the Lord.' A right and true expression: for the saint did not die, but 'fell asleep' in the hope of resurrection.

Stephen's martyrdom took place the very year of the Ascension of the Lord, the third of August. Saint Gamaliel and Nicodemus, who upheld the interests of the Christians in all the councils of the Jews, buried Saint Stephen in a plot belonging to Gamaliel, and a great mourning arose in his honour. And a violent persecution was directed soon after against all the Christians in Jerusalem, so that they had to disperse to the different quarters of Judea and of Samaria—all except the apostles, who went out to meet death instead of fleeing from it.

Saint Augustine relates that the blessed Stephen was glorified by numberless miracles. Seven times he brought back the dead to life, and cured a multitude of the sick. The same author asserts that the custom arose of laying flowers on the altar of Saint Stephen; which flowers healed the sick upon whom they were afterwards placed. Linens, likewise, laid on the altar and later applied to the sick, healed particularly the maladies of the bones. In the twenty-second book of the City of God, he reports the miracle of a blind woman who recovered her sight at the touch of a flower taken from the Saint's altar. He also tells the story of one of the leading men of the city of Hippo, who was called Martial. He was an infidel and refused to be converted. This man fell sick, and his son-in-law, who was a Christian, went to the church of Saint Stephen, took some flowers from the altar, and secretly put them under his father-in-law's pillow. When the latter awoke at the break of dawn, he sent for the bishop. The bishop being absent, a priest came to Martial's home, and Martial asked to be baptized. And as long as he lived, he repeated these words: 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!' without being aware that they were the last words of the Blessed Stephen.

Here is another miracle reported by Saint Augustine. A certain matron named Petronia, who had suffered for a long time from a serious illness, against which all remedies had failed, bethought herself to consult a Jew, who gave her a ring, garnished with a stone, and told her to apply it to her bare flesh. Petronia followed his advice, but it did her no good. She repaired then to the church of the First Martyr, and asked Saint Stephen to cure her. At once the Jew's ring, which she had tied around her middle on a cord, fell to the ground albeit neither the cord nor the ring was broken. And on the instant the lady was healed.

Saint Augustine recounts another miracle, no less astounding than the last one. At Caesarea of Cappadocia lived a noble lady who widowed, but who was blessed with ten children, of whom seven were boys and three were girls. One day the mother, feeling that her children had offended her, cursed them. Instantly the children, as a result of their mother's curse, were stricken with a dreadful ailment. Their limbs were afflicted with a trembling that left them neither by day nor by night. Not daring to let themselves be seen by their fellow citizens, they left the city, and wandered to different parts of the world; and everyone stared at them wherever they went. Two of them, a brother and a sister, named Paul and Palladia, reached Hippo, and told their story to Saint Augustine, who was bishop of that city. It was then ten days before Easter, and the afflicted pair betook themselves every morning to the church of Saint Stephen, beseeching the saint to have mercy on them. On Easter Day, before the whole assemblage, Paul suddenly entered the chapel of the saint, and prostrated himself devoutly before the altar; and then everyone saw him rise completely cured, and his trembling never began again. Then his sister Palladia entered the chapel in her turn, and appeared to be overcome all at once by a slumber, from which she awakened entirely healed. The brother and sister were shown to the congregation, and a great chorus of thanksgiving was addressed to Saint Stephen for their cure.

We have forgotten to say that Orosius, returning from a visit to Saint Jerome had brought back some relics of Saint Stephen to Saint Augustine, and that it was these relics that effected the miracles of which we have spoken, and many others besides.

We should recall, finally, that it was not on the 26th of December that Saint Stephen was martyred, but on the 3rd of August, the day when the Church celebrates the Invention of the saint. The reason for this we shall explain when we come to speak of the Invention. We may say here, however, that there is a double reason for which the Church has placed the three feasts of Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Stephen, and the Holy Innocents, immediately after the Nativity of Our Lord. Firstly, the Church wished to place Christ any His first companions together. Secondly, the Church wished to group the three kinds of martyrs close to the Birth of Christ, which is the first reason for all martyrdom. For there are three sorts of martyrdom: the first is that which is willed and accomplished, the second that which is willed and not accomplished, the third that which is accomplished without being willed. The first of these martyrdoms was earliest represented by Saint Stephen, the second by Saint John, the third by the Holy Innocents.

---

¹The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, trans. and adapted by Ryan, Granger and Helmut Ripperger. (Arno Press: Longmans, Green & Co) 1941. pp. 54–8.