Saint Stephen, the First Martyr

26 December  ·  Feast  ·  Red

He lies in his deacon's vestment before the altar while the clergy read the office and the mourners crowd the nave. Stephen was the first of the seven men the Apostles chose and ordained to care for the poor of the Church at Jerusalem. Brought before the council, he answered with the long speech St Luke records, was taken outside the city and stoned, and the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. His grave was lost until the year 415, when a priest named Lucian learned in a vision that the body lay at Caphar Gamala, north of Jerusalem; it was carried to the church on Mount Sion, and in 460 to the basilica the Empress Eudocia built outside the Damascus Gate. The Church keeps him on the day after Christmas: the first to die for the Child, the day after the Child is born.

Charles Souvay, “St. Stephen”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 14 (1912): newadvent.org

The Scripture of the feast

⁵⁴Now hearing these things, they were cut to the heart: and they gnashed with their teeth at him. ⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said: Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. ⁵⁶And they, crying out with a loud voice, stopped their ears and with one accord ran violently upon him. ⁵⁷And casting him forth without the city. they stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul. ⁵⁸And they stoned Stephen, invoking and saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. ⁵⁹And falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: Lord, lay not his sin to their charge: And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord. And Saul was consenting to his death.

Acts 7:54–59, Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

In painting

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