Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr, the first martyr of Christianity. His story opens, oddly, with a pile of coats. According to the Acts of the Apostles, the people who threw the first stones laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. Saul was a Pharisee and a Roman citizen, and he would later become Paul the Apostle. Acts is the only source for anything known about Stephen. That raises questions the rest of this documentary follows. What did Stephen say to a court of Jewish elders that ended in stones? What became of his body? And how did one man with so few recorded details end up on a public holiday, a silver coin and the name of a London tower?
Acts 6 begins with a quarrel over food. In the early church at Jerusalem, Greek-speaking Hellenistic Jews complained that their widows were being slighted in the daily distribution, while Hebrew widows were favored. The Apostles answered by appointing seven deacons to hand out food and charitable aid to the poorer members of the community. Stephen is the first of the Seven to be named. Orthodox belief holds that he was the eldest, which is why he is called archdeacon.
His name offers the main clue to his background. Stephanos is Koine Greek, so he is assumed to have been one of the Hellenistic Jews. Another of the Seven, Nicholas of Antioch, is explicitly described as a convert to Judaism before he became a Christian. Nothing is said about Stephen's earlier life, so the most that can be assumed is that he was born Jewish. Acts describes him as full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and as a man who performed miracles among the people.
Pope Leo XIV has found meaning in the job description. He called it significant that the first disciple to shed his blood for Christ belonged to the group chosen to serve the poor. In Stephen, he said, care for the poor and martyrdom are united. The wonders and signs that Acts credits to Stephen played out mostly in the synagogues of Hellenistic Jews, and that is where the trouble began.
Acts names several groups among the synagogues that rose against Stephen: the Libertines, the Cyrenians, the Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia. Members of these congregations challenged his teaching and lost the debate. Furious at being bested, they arranged false testimony that he had preached blasphemy against Moses and God. They dragged him before the Sanhedrin, the supreme court of Jewish elders. The charge was preaching against the Second Temple and the Torah. Stephen is said to have stayed calm, with a face like that of an angel.
Almost the whole of Acts 7 consists of his reply. He retells the history of the Israelites, beginning with the God of glory appearing to Abraham in Mesopotamia. That opening sets up a major theme: God does not dwell only in one building, meaning the Temple. Stephen covers the patriarchs in some depth and Moses in even more. God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and inspired him to lead his people out of Egypt. Even so, the Israelites turned to other gods, which sets up the second theme of the speech, Israel's disobedience.
Stephen faced two accusations. One was that he said Jesus would destroy the Temple in Jerusalem, and the other was that he had changed the customs of Moses. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI said Stephen drew on the Jewish scriptures to show that Jesus did not subvert the laws of Moses but fulfilled them. Then Stephen turned on his listeners. He called them "stiff-necked" people who, like their ancestors, resist the Holy Spirit. He asked them, "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" His accusers had one answer left, and it was not an argument.
"Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." With those words Stephen answered a crowd that could no longer contain its anger. He meant that the recently resurrected Jesus stood at God's side. Stephen then prayed that the Lord would receive his spirit and that his killers would be forgiven. He sank to his knees and, in the phrase of Acts, "fell asleep". Saul, the account adds, "was consenting unto his death."
Antioch became a destination for many of the disciples who fled after Stephen's death. According to Acts, everyone except the apostles scattered to distant lands.
Acts does not say where the stoning took place, and two traditions fill the gap. The French archaeologists Louis-Hugues Vincent (1872-1960) and Félix-Marie Abel (1878-1953) judged the tradition of Jerusalem's northern gate to be ancient. They dated the rival tradition of the eastern gate to the Middle Ages, no earlier than the 12th century.
Acts 8:2 says devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. The text never says where he was buried, and the search for that grave would come centuries later.
Of all the speeches in Acts, Stephen's address to the Sanhedrin is the longest, and that length troubles some readers. They doubt that a text this long could be reproduced exactly as spoken. Some Biblical scholars reply that a distinctive personality shows through it.
At least five places in the speech depart from the scriptures it retells. In one, Stephen places Jacob's tomb in Shechem, while Genesis 50:13 says Jacob was buried in a cave at Machpelah, near Hebron. Some theologians suggest he was condensing history for an audience that already knew the stories. They note that Joshua 24:32 describes the bones of Joseph being buried at Shechem, so Jacob's bones may have followed. Other scholars call the differences errors, and still others read them as deliberate theological points. A further view is that Stephen drew on an ancient Jewish tradition outside the scriptures, perhaps popular among Jerusalem people who were not scribes.
The speech is also severe. When Stephen says God does not live in a dwelling "made by human hands", he uses wording that biblical texts often apply to idols. The priest and scholar of comparative religion S. G. F. Brandon wrote: "The anti-Jewish polemic of this speech reflects the attitude of the author of Acts." He is one of several people who have charged the speech with anti-Judaism.
The Catholic theologian Friedrich Justus Knecht listed the likenesses between Stephen's death and the death of Jesus. Both were condemned as blasphemers after speaking of the Son of Man at the right hand of God. Both were treated as outcasts and put to death outside the city. Both prayed for their enemies, and both commended their souls to God. Stephen's words were "Lord Jesus, receive my soul!"
Some suspect that the author of Acts stressed or even invented some of these parallels. The aim, on that view, was to show that people become holy by following the example of Christ. Whatever the truth, a dream centuries later would send men searching for Stephen's bones.
In 415, a priest named Lucian purportedly had a dream that revealed where Stephen's remains lay, at Beit Jimal. Eastern tradition adds that Gamaliel appeared to the presbyter Lucian and told him to go to Jerusalem and inform Bishop John. The tomb also held the relics of Nicodemus, Gamaliel and Abibas, the son of Gamaliel. Bishop John II came to Beit Jimal with the bishops Eusthia of Sebastia and Eleutherius of Jericho. They moved the relics to Jerusalem, an event commemorated on the 15th of September.
The Western account follows the relics in procession to the Church of Hagia Sion on the 26th of December 415, which became the date of Stephen's feast. A letter by Avitus of Braga described the recovery. Avitus himself was involved in a plot to bring some of the relics to Braga through the historian and theologian Paulus Orosius.
A new church awaited the relics in 439. The empress Aelia Eudocia built it north of the Damascus Gate in honor of Stephen. It was destroyed in the 12th century, and a 20th-century French Catholic church, Saint-Étienne, now stands in its place. The Crusaders named Jerusalem's main northern gate "Saint Stephen's Gate", in Latin Porta Sancti Stephani, because it lay close to the church and monastery. Near the end of the Crusader period the Byzantine church had disappeared, and pilgrims were forbidden to approach the exposed northern wall. So the name moved to the still accessible eastern gate, which bears it to this day.
Other cities claimed a share. In 428, in the reign of Theodosius II, the relics of Stephen, Nicodemus, Gamaliel and Abibas were moved from Jerusalem to Constantinople. They went first to a church of Saint Lawrence and then, on the 2nd of August, to a specially prepared church of Saint Stephen. Pope Pelagius II later brought Stephen's relics to Rome during the building of the basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura. They were interred beside Saint Lawrence. According to the Golden Legend, the relics of Lawrence shifted miraculously to one side to make room.
In Africa, Augustine of Hippo describes many miracles in The City of God when part of the relics arrived there. The Imperial Regalia of the Holy Roman Empire holds St. Stephen's Purse, a gold and jewel-encrusted box believed to contain soil soaked with Stephen's blood. It is likely a 9th-century creation. Calendars across the Christian world fixed his memory to particular days, and they do not all agree.
Western Christianity keeps Saint Stephen's Day on the 26th of December, the "Feast of Stephen" named in the English Christmas carol "Good King Wenceslas". It is a public holiday in many nations of historic Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran tradition. The list includes Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Catalonia and the Balearic Isles. The Church of England remembers him with a Festival on the same day.
The 3rd of August once carried a second feast, the Invention of the Relics, meaning their reputed discovery. Historical documents produced in England used both dates in dating clauses.
The 27th of December is Stephen's day in the Eastern Orthodox Church, in Eastern Catholic Churches of the Byzantine Rite, and among Oriental Orthodox churches such as the Coptic, Syrian and Malankara. The Synaxis of the Theotokos takes the 26th, and that pushes the Feast of the Holy Innocents to the 29th. This day is also called the Third Day of the Nativity. Churches that keep the original Julian calendar, including the Oriental Orthodox, observe the 27th of December Julian. Throughout the 21st century that date falls on the 9th of January in the Gregorian calendar. Eastern Orthodox churches also commemorate Stephen on the 4th of January, as a member of the Seventy Apostles.
In the Armenian Apostolic and Armenian Catholic Churches, Stephen's day falls on the 25th of December. Armenian churches maintain the decree of Constantine, which set the Nativity and Theophany of Jesus on the 6th of January. In Armenian dioceses that use the Julian calendar, Stephen's day falls on the 7th of January and the Nativity on the 19th. On the feast, every deacon serving at the altar wears a liturgical crown, called a khooyr. On all other days of the year it is a vestment for priests alone, and here it symbolizes martyrdom.
Artists usually show Stephen as a young, beardless man with a tonsure, dressed in a deacon's vestments. His signs include a crown symbolising martyrdom, three stones, a martyr's palm frond and a censer. He is often shown holding a miniature church building. The Catholic, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox and Lutheran churches and the Church of the East all venerate him as a saint. In Florence, a sculpture of Stephen stands on the side of Orsanmichele, where he is patron saint of the wool guild.
A misreading of his image gave a medieval coin its nickname. From the 14th to the 16th century, the bishopric of Halberstadt issued one-sided silver coins showing Stephen's face above two large rocks, with a martyr's palm frond on the left. The halo around his head and the two rocks were mistaken for hands, so he seemed to be lying in state inside a coffin. The coins were nicknamed sargpfennig, meaning "coffin pennies".
His name marks places across the world. The Stephansdom in Vienna was founded in 1147, serves as the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna, and has the tallest spire in Austria. In Rome, Santo Stefano Rotondo was built in the 5th century and was the first church in the city with a circular floor plan. St Stephen's Green in Dublin, the largest of the city's Georgian squares, is named after a former leper hospital nearby.
In London, St Stephen's Chapel in the Palace of Westminster was built in the reign of Henry III and became the first site of the House of Commons debating chamber. Victorian journalists called the tower that houses Big Ben "St Stephen's Tower", though its proper name was the Clock Tower. It was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2013 for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. Stephen is also the eponymous subject of a song by the Grateful Dead.
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Common questions
Who was Saint Stephen?
Saint Stephen is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr, the first martyr of Christianity. According to the Acts of the Apostles, he was one of the Seven Deacons chosen to distribute food to widows in the early church at Jerusalem. Acts is the only source for information about him.
Why was Saint Stephen stoned to death?
Saint Stephen was stoned after being accused of blasphemy before the Sanhedrin. He was charged with saying that Jesus would destroy the Temple in Jerusalem and with changing the customs of Moses. His long speech denouncing his listeners as stiff-necked ended the trial.
What role did Saul play in the death of Saint Stephen?
Saul of Tarsus witnessed the stoning of Saint Stephen. The crowd laid their coats at his feet, and Acts says Saul was consenting to the death. Saul was a Pharisee and Roman citizen who later became Paul the Apostle.
When is Saint Stephen's Day celebrated?
Western Christianity celebrates Saint Stephen's Day on the 26th of December. Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches keep it on the 27th of December, and Armenian churches keep it on the 25th of December. It is a public holiday in many countries, including Ireland, Germany, Italy and Poland.
Where are Saint Stephen's relics today?
Tradition says Saint Stephen's remains were found at Beit Jimal in 415 after a priest named Lucian had a dream. Pope Pelagius II later brought relics to Rome, where they lie in San Lorenzo fuori le Mura beside Saint Lawrence. St. Stephen's Purse, part of the Imperial Regalia of the Holy Roman Empire, is believed to contain soil soaked with his blood.
Where was Saint Stephen stoned in Jerusalem?
Acts does not name the site of Saint Stephen's stoning, and two traditions exist. One places it at Jerusalem's northern gate, which the archaeologists Louis-Hugues Vincent and Félix-Marie Abel considered ancient. The other, at the eastern gate, they dated to the Middle Ages and no earlier than the 12th century.
All sources
53 references cited across the entry
- 3Saint StephenSouvay, Charles — New Advent
- 4Mal Couch, A Bible Handbook to the Acts of the Apostles, 2003, p. 246. "Stephen is distinguished as "a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 6:5). Stephen and the other men were Hellenistic
- 7David J. Williams (1989), Acts (Understanding the Bible Commentary Series), Baker Books, Chapter 16, .
- 10David J. Williams, Acts (Understanding the Bible Commentary Series), Baker Books 1989, chapter 17,
- 11and
- 12BookThe New Unger's Bible DictionaryMerrill F. Unger — Moody Publishers — 2006
- 13BookJerusalem, Part 2: 705–1120De Gruyter — 2012
- 14Stephen's Speech: A Theology of Errors?Rex A. Koivisto — Grace Theological College — 1987
- 15BookThe People's Bible: ActsRichard Balge — Northwestern Publishing House — 2016
- 16Marian Wolniewicz as the translator of the Book of Acts from: The Millennium Holy Bible; Warsaw, 1980
- 17BookJesus and the Zealots: A Study of the Political Factor in Primitive ChristianityS. G. F. Brandon — Charles Scribner's Sons — 1967
- 18BookA Practical Commentary on Holy ScriptureFriedrich Justus Knecht — B. Herder Book Company — 1910
- 20The standard edition of the Revelatio Sancti Stephani and the Epistula Aviti is that of S. Vanderlinden in Revue des Etudes Byzantines 4 (1946:178-217).
- 21BookA dictionary of early Christian biography: and literature to the end of the sixth century A.D.; with an account of the principal sects and heresiesHendrickson Publ — 2014
- 22St Stephen ChurchMinistry of Tourism, Government of Israel
- 23BookJerusalem in the time of the crusades: society, landscape, and art in the Holy City under Frankish ruleAdrian J. Boas — Routledge — 2001
- 24BookThe Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700Jerome Murphy-O'Connor — Oxford University Press — 2008
- 27Oxford Dictionary of Saints, ed. David Hugh Farmer, corr. ed. (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1979), p. 361.
- 28Handbook of dates for students of British history, ed. C. R. Cheney. New, rev. ed. (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 59, 85.
- 38JournalSt. Stephen's GreenThe Office of Public Works