The liturgical celebration of Saint Stephen has always been fixed on December 26, immediately after Christmas, because in the days following the manifestation of the Son of God, the comites Christithat is, the closest in his earthly journey and the first to bear witness to it with martyrdom.
So on December 26th there is St. Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity, followed by the 27th Saint John the Evangelista, the favorite of Jesus, author of the Gospel of love, then on the 28th i Holy Innocentschildren killed by Herod with the hope of also eliminating the Child of Bethlehem; centuries ago, the celebration of Saint Peter and Paul the apostles also occurred in the week after Christmas, and was then moved to June 29th.
What does the name mean?
Stephen in Greek has the meaning of “crowned”. He is the patron saint of deacons. His attribute are the stoning stones, which is why he is invoked against stone sickness, i.e. stones and he is the patron saint of stonecutters and bricklayers.
Giorgio Vasari, Martyrdom of Saint Stephen, circa 1560
Who was Santo Stefano?
The origin of the great and highly venerated martyr Saint Stephen is unknown, it is assumed that he was Greek, at that time Jerusalem was a crossroads of many populations, with different languages, customs and religions; It was also thought that he was a Jew educated in Hellenistic culture; he was certainly one of the first Jews to become Christians and who began to follow the Apostles and given his culture, wisdom and genuine faith, he also became the first of the deacons of Jerusalem.
The Acts of the Apostles, chapters 6 and 7 narrate his last days; some time after Pentecost, the number of disciples increasingly increased and disagreements also arose between the Greek-speaking Jews and the Hebrew-speaking Jews, because according to the former, in the daily care, their widows were neglected.
Then the twelve Apostles gathered the disciples, telling them that it was not right for them to waste their time in the “table service”, thus neglecting the preaching of the Word of God and prayer, therefore this task had to be entrusted to a group of seven of them, so the Apostles could dedicate themselves more to prayer and ministry.
The proposal was accepted and they were elected, Stephen man full of faith and Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicholas of Antioch; on all, the Apostles laid their hands; the Church saw in this act the institution of the diaconal ministry.
In carrying out this task, Stephen, full of graces and fortitude, performed great wonders among the people, not limiting himself to administrative work but also active in preaching, especially among the Jews of the diaspora, who passed through the holy city of Jerusalem and who he converted to faith in Jesus crucified and risen.
Martyrdom of Saint Stephen, painting by Pietro da Cortona (1660, currently preserved in the Hermitage)
For what reasons was he killed?
In about 33 or 34, the Hellenistic Jews, seeing the large number of converts, incited the people and accused Stephen of “uttering blasphemous expressions against Moses and against God”.
The elders and scribes captured him and dragged him before the Sanhedrin and with false witnesses he was accused: “He does not stop speaking words against this sacred place and against the law. We heard him declare that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.” And to the question of the High Priest “Are things really like this?”, the deacon Stephen gave a long speech, the longest of the Acts of the Apostles, in which he retraced the Sacred Scripture where it was testified that the Lord had prepared, through the patriarchs and prophets, the advent of the Righteous One, but the Jews had always responded with hardness of heart.
Addressed directly to the priests of the Sanhedrin, he concluded: “O stubborn and pagan people in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers, so also you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become traitors and murderers; you who received the Law at the hands of angels and did not keep it.” While the hatred and resentment of those present increased against him, Stephen, inspired by the Spirit, raised his eyes to heaven and said: “Behold, I behold the heavens opened and the Son of man, who is at the right hand of God”.
It was the last straw, raising very high cries and covering their ears, the present they threw themselves at him and dragged him outside the city walls and began to stone him with stones, their cloaks were placed at the feet of a young man named Saulo (the future Apostle of the Gentiles, Saint Paul), who witnessed the execution. In reality it was not an execution, as the Sanhedrin did not have the power to issue death sentences, but it was not even able to issue a sentence as Stephen was dragged out by the fury of the people, so it was an uncontrolled lynching .
How did the martyrdom happen?
While the young deacon protomartyr collapsed bloody under the blows of the unbridled tormentors, he prayed and said: “Lord Jesus, welcome my spirit”, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”.
The Acts of the Apostles says that pious people buried him, not leaving him prey to wild beasts, as was the custom then; while in the city of Jerusalem a violent persecution against Christians broke out, commanded by Saul.
When were the relics found?
After Stephen’s death, the story of his relics entered legend; The 3 December 415 a priest named Lucian of Kefar-Gamba, had in a dream the apparition of a venerable old man in liturgical clothes, with a long white beard and holding a golden wand with which he touched him, calling him three times by name. He revealed to him that he and his companions were sorry because they were buried without honor, that they wanted to be placed in a more dignified place and given a cult to their relics and certainly God would save the world destined for destruction due to too many sins committed by men.
The priest Lucian asked who he was and the old man replied that he was the learned Gamaliel who taught Saint Paul, his companions were the protomartyr Saint Stephen whom he had buried in his garden, Saint Nicodemus his disciple, buried next to Stephen and Saint Abibah his son buried near Nicodemus; toHe too was buried in the garden near the three saints, as per his will.
Finally he indicated the place of the collective burial; with the agreement of the bishop of Jerusalem, the excavation began with the discovery of the relics.
The news aroused amazement in the Christian world, now in full affirmation, after the freedom of worship sanctioned by the Emperor Constantine a century earlier. From here began the diffusion of the relics of St. Stephen for the known world of the time, a small part was left to the priest Luciano, who in turn gave them to various friends, the rest was transferred on 26 December 415 to the church of Zion in Jerusalem.
Many miracles happened just by touching them, even with the dust of his tomb; then most of the relics were raided by the crusaders in the 13th century, so that many actually arrived in Europe, although it was not possible to identify them from the many fakes that proliferated over time, in Venice, Constantinople, Naples, Besançon, Ancona, Ravenna, but above all in Rome, wherever you think, in the 18th century the skull was venerated in the Basilica of S. Paolo Fuori le Mura, an arm in S. Ivo alla Sapienza, a second arm in S. Luigi dei Francesi, a third arm in Santa Cecilia; also almost an entire body in the basilica of S. Lorenzo Fuori le Mura.
The proliferation of relics testifies to the great cult paid throughout Christianity to the protomartyr Saint Stephen, already highly venerated even before the discovery of the relics in 415. Churches, basilicas and chapels in his honor arose everywhere, in Rome alone there were about thirty of them, of which the most famous is that of S. Stefano Rotondo al Celio, built in the fifth century by Pope Simplicius.
Even today in Italy there are 14 municipalities that bear his name; in art he has always been depicted wearing the “dalmatic”, the liturgical vestment of deacons.
