Saint Stephen (in Greek Stephanos, “the crown”) is the first martyr of the Christian Church: tradition gives him the Greek title of protomartyr, “the one who first bore witness by his blood”. A deacon of the community of Jerusalem, he was stoned shortly after Pentecost, around the years 34–36, for proclaiming before the Sanhedrin that the crucified Jesus is the Messiah and the glorified Son of Man.[1]
His story is told almost entirely in two chapters of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 6 and 7).[2] Stephen appears there as a man “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit”, whose face shines “like that of an angel”, and whose death reproduces that of Jesus feature for feature: the vision of the open Heaven, the surrender of his spirit, the forgiveness of his executioners.[3]
One detail changes the course of history: at his feet, a young man named Saul guards the cloaks of the stoners and approves the killing.[4] This persecutor will become Saint Paul, the Apostle to the nations. Catholic tradition, since Saint Augustine, sees in Stephen's prayer for his murderers the hidden seed of that conversion.
Venerated from the earliest centuries, then forgotten as to the place of his burial, then rediscovered in 415 in a famous inventio, Saint Stephen is celebrated today on 26 December, in the immediate wake of Christmas. His relics rest in Rome, in the basilica San Lorenzo fuori le mura, alongside those of Saint Lawrence, the other great deacon-martyr.[5]
Who is Saint Stephen, the first martyr?
A Hellenist deacon of the first Church
Stephen belonged to the group of “Hellenist” Christians of Jerusalem: Jews of Greek language and culture, returned from the diaspora or influenced by it, distinct from the Aramaic-speaking “Hebrews”. His name is Greek, which confirms this origin; the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that Stephanos may have corresponded to an Aramaic name such as Kelil, “crown”.[6]
The Acts tell how the rapid growth of the community caused a very concrete tension: the widows of the Hellenists were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. The Twelve then summoned the assembly and instituted seven men charged with this service, so that they themselves could remain devoted “to prayer and to the ministry of the word”.[7] Stephen is named at the head of this list.
“They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolaus. [...] They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.” — Acts of the Apostles 6:5–6[8]
The apostles' laying on of hands has traditionally been seen in this account as the origin of the diaconate: Stephen is honoured as the first of the deacons, the model of all those who, in the Church, unite the service of the poor with the proclamation of the Gospel.[9]
The meaning of his name: “the crown”
The name Stephanos literally means crown or garland in Greek. The Fathers of the Church saw a providence in this coincidence: the one who was called “Crown” was the first to receive the crown of martyrdom.[10] The idea runs through the whole liturgy of his feast, in which Stephen is celebrated as the one who “first wore the crown” promised to faithful witnesses.
This symbolic reading is no late fancy: it is rooted in the vocabulary of the New Testament, where the “crown of life” and the “crown of glory” denote the reward of the faithful who persevere to death.[11] The first martyr thus bears, in his very name, the sign of his calling.
The account in the Acts of the Apostles
Stephen's portrait is contained almost entirely in chapters 6 and 7 of the Acts. Saint Luke, their author, devotes considerable space to him: an account built in four movements — the first signs, the dispute, the great speech, the death — which makes Stephen a figure of transition between the Church of Jerusalem and the universal mission.
“Full of grace and power”: the first signs
Once instituted, Stephen does not confine himself to material service. Luke notes that “he worked great wonders and signs among the people”, reaching well beyond the expected role of a steward of the tables.[12] The power of the Spirit at work in him naturally carries him towards the proclamation of the faith.
“Stephen, full of grace and power, worked great wonders and signs among the people.” — Acts of the Apostles 6:8[13]
The dispute with the synagogues and the arrest
Members of several synagogues of Hellenist Jews — the one called “of the Freedmen”, of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and others from Cilicia and Asia — set out to debate with Stephen. But, the text says, “they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke”.[14] Defeated in debate, they stir up false witnesses who accuse him of blasphemy against Moses, against God, against the Temple and the Law.
Dragged before the Sanhedrin, Stephen then offers a striking sight: all fix their eyes on him, and his face appears to them “like the face of an angel”.[15] The detail, peculiar to Luke, signals that the human trial is already overtaken by a presence from above.
The great speech before the Sanhedrin
Called upon to answer, Stephen delivers the longest speech in the Acts (Acts 7:1–53). Far from defending himself point by point, he rereads the whole of sacred history — Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the desert, the Tent, Solomon's Temple — to show a constant: the people have always resisted the Spirit and persecuted the prophets.[16]
The speech culminates in a direct accusation, which seals his fate:
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the Holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors! [...] They put to death those who foretold the coming of the Just One, and now you have betrayed and murdered him.” — Acts of the Apostles 7:51–52[17]
The vision of the Son of Man and the stoning
At these words, the members of the Sanhedrin “were infuriated”. Stephen, “filled with the Holy Spirit”, lifts his eyes to heaven and beholds the glory of God. His vision is the highest Christological confession of the narrative: he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God — not seated, but standing, like the witness who rises to welcome his martyr.[18]
“Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” — Acts of the Apostles 7:56[19]
These words, which apply to Jesus the messianic title of “Son of Man”, are received as blasphemy. The crowd stops its ears, rushes upon him, drags him outside the city and stones him. Stephen dies praying, in words that copy those of Christ on the cross:
“As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed: ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice: ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And with these words he fell asleep.” — Acts of the Apostles 7:59–60[20]
The verb used — he fell asleep — would become one of the oldest Christian words for the death of the saints: not an annihilation, but a sleep while awaiting the resurrection.[21]
As for the exact year of the martyrdom, biblical chronologies differ: 31 for the Osty Bible, about 33 for the Jerusalem Bible, 34 to 36 for the Chouraqui Bible, about 35 for the Maredsous Bible.[22]
The presence of Saul
Luke insists on one precise witness. The stoners, according to custom, lay down their cloaks “at the feet of a young man named Saul”, who “approved the killing”.[23] This is Saul of Tarsus's first appearance in the Acts. The persecutor who “was ravaging the Church” thus attends, consenting, the death of the first martyr — before himself becoming, on the road to Damascus, the greatest of the Apostles.
Stephen and Paul: the prayer that converted the persecutor
Catholic tradition has never read Stephen's death and Paul's conversion side by side without seeing a bond of grace between them. A saying attributed to Saint Augustine, in the spirit of his sermons for the protomartyr's feast, put it thus:
“If Stephen had not prayed thus, the Church would not have had Paul.” — Saying attributed to Saint Augustine, sermons for the feast of Saint Stephen[24]
The insight is a strong one: in asking that this sin not be held against his executioners, Stephen intercedes for the very one holding the cloaks. His charity unto death obtains what violence could never have produced — the transformation of the persecutor into the Apostle to the nations. The first blood shed for Christ thus becomes fruitful, in Tertullian's phrase: “the blood of martyrs is a seed of Christians”.[25]
Paul himself never forgot that scene. Years later, now an Apostle, he would recall his own responsibility before the Lord:
“And when the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I stood by and approved, and kept the garments of those who killed him.” — Acts of the Apostles 22:20, Paul's words[26]
The spirituality of the protomartyr
Dying like Christ: configured to the Crucified
Stephen's death is constructed by Luke as a deliberate echo of the Passion. Where Jesus said: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”, Stephen says: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. Where Jesus prayed: “Father, forgive them”, Stephen pleads: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”.[27] The martyr does not do better than the Master: he resembles him, and that is precisely what martyrdom is — not a heroic feat, but a configuration to Christ down to the very manner of dying.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums it up: martyrdom is the supreme witness borne to the truth of the faith, the act of the one who “endures death through an act of fortitude” in union with Christ who gave his life.[28]
The first witness by blood
The Greek word martys first means witness. Stephen is the first to carry this witness as far as the gift of blood: he is the protomartyr, the one who opens the long procession of the Church's martyrs. His feast, placed on the morrow of Christmas, states this logic boldly: scarcely is Christ born in the flesh than the first of his witnesses enters glory through blood.[29]
The deacon, model of service and of the Word
Stephen holds together two dimensions the Church has never wanted to separate: the service of the poor (the diaconate of the tables) and the proclamation of the Word (the preaching that leads him to martyrdom). He is, for this reason, the patron of deacons, and his example structures diaconal spirituality: serving the table of the brethren and confessing Christ, to the very end.[30]
The discovery of the relics: the inventio of 415
The revelation to the priest Lucian
For nearly four centuries, the exact place of Stephen's burial was lost. In December 415, according to a famous account, a priest named Lucian, serving a village near Jerusalem, received in a dream the revelation of the body's location.[31] The account of this discovery, the Epistola Luciani, translated into Latin by the priest Avitus of Braga, spread at once throughout the West.
Caphargamala, Gamaliel and Nicodemus
According to this account, it was Gamaliel — the teacher of the Law mentioned in the Acts, and by tradition Paul's teacher — who appeared to Lucian and pointed out the place called Caphargamala. There were found, with Stephen's body, those of Gamaliel, of Nicodemus (the Pharisee who came to find Jesus by night) and of Abibas, Gamaliel's son.[32] The Church has always distinguished here the fact of the rediscovery of the relics, solidly attested by its impact, from the details of the dream narrative, which belong to an ancient pious tradition to be received with respect without confusing it with a datum from the Acts.
The radiance of the inventio
The discovery of 415 had an immense effect. Fragments of the relics were scattered throughout the Christian world, everywhere prompting the building of shrines (memoriae) dedicated to the protomartyr. It is this movement that explains the extraordinary spread of Saint Stephen's cult in the 5th century — and, in North Africa, the pages Saint Augustine would devote to him.[33]
Saint Stephen's miracles according to Saint Augustine
One of the most precious testimonies to Stephen's cult comes from Saint Augustine. In The City of God, book XXII, chapter 8, Augustine answers the objection that miracles have ceased: they continue, he says, but they go unrecorded. And he takes as proof the healings obtained through Saint Stephen's relics, recently arrived in Africa.[34]
Augustine speaks as a direct witness: the memoria of Stephen at Hippo, where he is bishop, is not two years old, and already the officially recorded miracles approach seventy in number.
“It is not yet two years since these relics were brought to Hippo [...] and those of the miracles which have been published already reach almost seventy in number as I write.” — Saint Augustine, The City of God, XXII, 8[35]
And he adds that at Calama, where the relics arrived earlier, the wonders are “incomparably more numerous”.[36] Several of Augustine's sermons for Saint Stephen's feast (Sermons 314 to 324) comment on these healings and on the meaning of martyrdom.[37] This dossier is one of the oldest detailed testimonies to a cult of relics in the Church, defended by one of her greatest doctors.
The journey of the relics: Jerusalem, Constantinople, Rome
From Jerusalem to Constantinople
After the inventio of 415, the principal relics were laid in a basilica raised in Stephen's honour at Jerusalem, on the presumed place of his martyrdom, north of the city. In the 5th century, under Theodosius II, a large share of the relics was transferred to Constantinople, the imperial capital, where several shrines were dedicated to the protomartyr.[38]
Rome and San Lorenzo fuori le mura
It is from Constantinople that the relics reached Rome. Roman tradition associates them with the basilica San Lorenzo fuori le mura, rebuilt by Pope Pelagius II (579–590), where Stephen was laid beside Saint Lawrence, the other great deacon-martyr of the Roman Church.[39] Gathering the two deacon-martyrs in one tomb had an obvious symbolic force: the first martyr of the Church and the most famous martyr of Rome, side by side.
The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine reports on this point a touching pious tradition: when Stephen's body was to be placed beside Lawrence's, the latter is said to have moved of his own accord to make room for his guest. Catholic tradition receives such accounts as images of the communion of saints, without confusing them with strict historical data.[40]
The cult of Saint Stephen
The feast of 26 December, on the morrow of Christmas
From the 4th century, the West celebrates Saint Stephen on 26 December, immediately after Christmas. The liturgy has seen a profound logic in this proximity: Stephen is the first to follow the Child of the manger into glory, through the gift of blood. The Eastern Churches celebrate him on 27 December and also commemorate, on other dates, the discovery (15 September) and the translation (2 August) of his relics.[41] In many countries, 26 December, “Saint Stephen's Day”, has remained a public holiday.
“Yesterday we celebrated the temporal birth of our eternal King; today we celebrate the triumphant passion of a soldier.” — Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe, sermon for the feast of Saint Stephen[42]
Patron of deacons, stonecutters, help in sickness
By reason of his diaconate, Stephen is universally honoured as the patron of deacons. The manner of his death made him the patron of stonecutters and masons, whose craft works the stone that was the instrument of his martyrdom. Popular piety also invokes him against headaches, in memory of the blows received on the head during the stoning.[43]
| Patronage domain | Origin | Link with his life |
|---|---|---|
| Deacons | First of the seven deacons (Acts 6) | Service of the poor and proclamation of the Word |
| Stonecutters, masons | Manner of his martyrdom | Stoning outside the walls of Jerusalem |
| Sick, headaches | Popular piety | Blows struck on the head during the stoning |
Iconography: the dalmatic, the stones, the palm
Christian art almost always depicts Stephen as a deacon, vested in the dalmatic (often red, the colour of martyrdom). His attributes are immediately recognisable: stones, sometimes laid on his head or shoulders, recalling his stoning; the palm of martyrdom; and the book of the Gospels which he serves as deacon.[44] He is also seen, in the great painted cycles, contemplating the open Heaven at the moment of his death — the scene the Acts fixed for ever.
To go further
- Saint Paul (5–66) — the persecutor present at Stephen's death, become the Apostle to the nations; the protomartyr's prayer and the conversion on the road to Damascus.
- Saint Lawrence of Rome (225–258) — the other great deacon-martyr, with whom Stephen shares his tomb at San Lorenzo fuori le mura.
- Saint Peter (1st century–c. 64/67) — the apostle who, with the Eleven, laid hands on the first seven deacons.
- Saint John the Baptist (7 BC–AD 30) — the martyr forerunner, another great witness who precedes and heralds.
- The Incarnation and the Cross — Christ's Passion, of which Stephen's death is the first replica in the Church.
Notes and References
Maurice Hassett, "St. Stephen", The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 14, New York, Robert Appleton Company, 1912; text reproduced on New Advent: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14286b.htm. Synthesis used for the Hellenistic origin, the meaning of the name Stephanos/Kelil (“crown”), the diaconate, the trial, the death c. 34–36, the inventio of 415 by the priest Lucian, the translation of the relics and the feast of 26 December.
1 6 9 10 21 30 31 32 38Acts of the Apostles 6:1–7 (institution of the Seven and choice of Stephen). French quotation from the Traduction officielle liturgique (AELF), aelf.org; English rendering here is an Ignispedia translation. The account links the service of the tables (“diakonia”) to the apostles' freedom for “prayer and the ministry of the word”.
2 7 8Acts of the Apostles 6:8 and 6:15. Stephen “full of grace and power” works “great wonders and signs”; before the Sanhedrin, his face appears “like the face of an angel”. French liturgical translation (AELF); English rendering here is an Ignispedia translation.
3 12 13Acts of the Apostles 7:58; 8:1; and 22:20. The stoners lay down their cloaks “at the feet of a young man named Saul”, who “approved the killing”; later recalled by Paul himself before the Lord (Acts 22:20). French liturgical translation (AELF); English rendering here is an Ignispedia translation.
4 23 26History of the basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le mura (Rome): rebuilt by Pope Pelagius II (579–590), its confessio, beneath the high altar, houses the reunited bodies of Saint Lawrence and Saint Stephen. See the historical notice of the papal basilica and Maurice Hassett, "St. Stephen", Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent), for the translation of the relics from Constantinople to Rome.
5 39On the “crown” as the reward of the faithful: James 1:12 (“the crown of life”); 1 Peter 5:4 (“the crown of glory”); 2 Timothy 4:8 (“the crown of justice”). French liturgical translation (AELF). Scriptural background of the patristic reading of the name Stephanos.
11Acts of the Apostles 6:9–14. The Hellenistic synagogues (Freedmen, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, Cilicia, Asia) cannot “withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke” and stir up false witnesses. French liturgical translation (AELF); English rendering here is an Ignispedia translation.
14Acts of the Apostles 6:15. Detail peculiar to Luke: Stephen's face before the Sanhedrin “like the face of an angel”. French liturgical translation (AELF); English rendering here is an Ignispedia translation.
15Acts of the Apostles 7:1–53 (Stephen's speech before the Sanhedrin), with the accusatory climax of 7:51–52 (“stiff-necked people [...] you always oppose the Holy Spirit”). The longest speech in the Acts; a rereading of sacred history from Abraham to the Temple. French liturgical translation (AELF); English rendering here is an Ignispedia translation.
16 17Acts of the Apostles 7:54–56. Stephen “filled with the Holy Spirit” sees the glory of God and “the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”. The Christ “standing” (and not seated) is read by tradition as the witness rising to welcome his martyr. French liturgical translation (AELF); English rendering here is an Ignispedia translation.
18 19Acts of the Apostles 7:57–60. Stoning outside the city; Stephen's double prayer (“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”; “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”) copying the words of Christ on the cross (Lk 23:34, 46); the verb “he fell asleep”. French liturgical translation (AELF); English rendering here is an Ignispedia translation.
20 27Mgr René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise and Jean-François Lavère, Dictionnaire des personnages de l'Évangile selon Maria Valtorta, Salvator, 2012, p. 143: “Les différentes Bibles donnent des datations diverses : 31 pour la Bible Osty, vers 33 pour la Bible de Jérusalem, de 34 à 36 pour la Bible Chouraqui, vers 35 pour la Bible Maredsous.” In English: the various Bibles give differing datings — 31 for the Osty Bible, about 33 for the Jerusalem Bible, 34 to 36 for the Chouraqui Bible, about 35 for the Maredsous Bible.
22Saying traditionally attributed to Saint Augustine in his sermons for the feast of Saint Stephen, in the Latin form “Si Stephanus non orasset, Ecclesia Paulum non haberet” (“If Stephen had not prayed, the Church would not have had Paul”). It is relayed as Augustinian by several authors: E. de Pressensé, Histoire des trois premiers siècles de l'Église chrétienne, quoting it with the reference “Sermo XCIV” (old numbering; text reproduced at https://ccel.org/ccel/pressense/early.iii.i.ii.i.html), and Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, who attach it to the “Sermons in Festo Sancti Stephani”. The numbering of the sermons varying with editions, no precise modern reference (sermon, paragraph) could be established: the sentence is therefore presented here as an attributed saying, not as the verbatim quotation of an identified sermon. The link between Stephen's prayer and Paul's conversion remains constant among the Latin Fathers.
24Tertullian, Apology (Apologeticum), ch. 50: “Semen est sanguis christianorum” — “the blood of Christians is a seed”. Reference edition: Tertullien, Apologétique, text established and translated by Jean-Pierre Waltzing, Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1929. Applied by tradition to Stephen's blood, the first shed for Christ.
25Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§ 2473–2474, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1992: martyrdom is “the supreme witness to the truth of the faith”, the act of the witness who “endures death through an act of fortitude”. Official text: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P8C.HTM.
28The placing of the feast on 26 December, on the immediate morrow of Christmas, is interpreted by the liturgy as the entry of the first witness into glory scarcely has the Word been born in the flesh. See Maurice Hassett, "St. Stephen", Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent), liturgical section.
29Saint Augustine, The City of God (De civitate Dei), book XXII, chapter 8, c. 426–427. Augustine testifies as bishop of Hippo: the memoria of Saint Stephen there is not two years old and the published miracles already approach “almost seventy”; at Calama, where the relics arrived earlier, they are “incomparably more numerous”. French translation from the reference edition; English control text (NPNF, 1st series, vol. 2): https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120122.htm. English renderings here are Ignispedia translations.
33 34 35 36Saint Augustine, Sermones 314 to 324, delivered for the feast of Saint Stephen and on the miracles obtained through his relics in Africa. Patrologia Latina 38; partial critical edition in the Sources Chrétiennes collection and the Maurist edition of Augustine's works.
37Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend (Legenda aurea, c. 1260–1266), chapters on the Invention and the Translation of Saint Stephen: pious tradition according to which Saint Lawrence is said to have moved in his tomb to make room for Saint Stephen. Reference edition: La Légende dorée, trans. J.-B. M. Roze, Garnier-Flammarion, Paris, 1967. Received as an image of the communion of saints, not as historical data.
40Liturgical dates: 26 December (Western Roman calendar); 27 December in the Byzantine calendar, with in addition the commemoration of the discovery of the relics (15 September) and of their translation (2 August). See Maurice Hassett, "St. Stephen", Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent).
41Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (467–533), sermon for the feast of Saint Stephen: “Yesterday we celebrated the temporal birth of our eternal King; today we celebrate the triumphant passion of a soldier.” Text taken up by the Office of Readings of 26 December, Liturgia Horarum. Patrologia Latina 65. English rendering here is an Ignispedia translation.
42Patronages of Saint Stephen: deacons; stonecutters and masons (by the manner of his martyrdom); invocation against headaches (popular piety linked to the stoning). See Encyclopaedia Britannica, "St. Stephen", https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Stephen, and the classic hagiographical notices.
43Iconographic attributes of Saint Stephen: deacon's dalmatic (often red), stones of the stoning (sometimes on the head or shoulders), palm of martyrdom, book of the Gospels. See the "Saint Stephen" notice of the National Gallery in London, https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/, on the depiction of saints and their attributes.
44