St Stephen

St Stephen, Deacon and First Martyr

The day after the joyous occasion of Christmas, in a plot twist reminiscent of J R R Martin, the Catholic Church remembers its first martyr Saint Stephen. 

Stephen, full of faith and the Holy Spirit

In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke praises St. Stephen as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit,” who “did great wonders and signs among the people” during the Church's earliest days.

  

Stephen was a Jew who most likely came in contact with Jesus during the Lord's ministry on earth. He may have been among the 70 or 72 disciples whom Christ sent out as missionaries, who preached the coming of God's kingdom while travelling with almost no possessions. [Luke 10:1-24]
 

Stephen, the Archdeacon  

Stephen's reputation as a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, led the twelve Apostles to choose him, along with six others (Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas), to assist them in administering to the growing needs of the early Church in Jerusalem. 

Through the sacramental power Christ gave them, the Apostles ordained the seven men as deacons and set them to work allowing the Apostles to spread the Gospel outside Jerusalem as the Holy Spirit had commanded them. [Acts 6:4-6]

 
Of the seven ordained, Stephen was the oldest and given the title of "archdeacon," the chief among them. Stephen wasted no time in boldly preaching about Christ as the fulfilment of the Old Testament law and prophets and in performing miracles - drawing the wrath and jealousy of some Jews, members of the Synagogue of Roman Freedmen. 

Trail before the Sanhedrin

Unable to refute his message, some members of local synagogues brought him before the Sanhedrin, the council of religious authorities, charging him with spreading the Gospel that Christ was the Messiah sent to redeem the Jews and accused him of blasphemy and of destroying their traditions. [Acts 6:7-14]

 
Stephen, inspired by the Holy Spirit, was not one to back down in front of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council in Jerusalem. He responded with a fiery zeal recorded in great detail in the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles [Acts 7], describing Israel's multiple rejections of God's prophets in the past. 

He outlined many of the countless blessings God had bestowed upon his chosen people and pointed out how disobedient Israel had become, despite the goodness and mercy of the Lord. Stephen explained that Jesus had come to fulfil the law of Moses, not destroy it. He quoted extensively from the Hebrew scriptures to prove his case. 

The accused becomes the accuser

Then he admonished the Sanhedrin, saying, "You stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Can you name a single prophet your ancestors never persecuted? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Upright One, and now you have become his betrayers, his murderers. Despite being given the Law through angels, you have not kept it." [Acts 7:51-53]

Martyrdom

As Stephen concluded his defence, he looked up and saw a vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of God the Father. “Look,” he told the court, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”


The council, hard of heart, took this vision as the final proof of blasphemy to the Jews who did not believe Jesus was the Messiah or Son of God. They dragged Stephen out of the gates of the walled city and stoned him to death at the site now called St. Stephen’s Gate (also known as the Lions' Gate) or near the area of Golgotha.

Stoning outside the city gates was meant to send a very powerful message to the early Christians. The city of Jerusalem was considered sacred, and executions were seen as defiling acts that had to be carried out outside the camp or city [Leviticus 24:14, Numbers 15:35-36]. Being executed outside the city also symbolized the ultimate removal or excommunication from the community of God's people.

Father forgive them

While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then in a powerful gesture following his Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died.
 

Brush with Saul aka St Paul

The first Christian martyrdom was overseen by an overzealous Pharisee named Saul aka Paul [Acts 7:58, Acts 8:1] who was on a tear persecuting early Christians and whose own dramatic encounter with Christ on the Road to Damascus [Acts 9:1-19, Acts 22:6-21 and Acts 26:12-18] would transform him into an Apostle of the Gentiles spreading the Gospel far and wide, and later being martyred by Emperor Nero (r. 54-68 AD) in Rome around 64-67 AD.

Pope Francis' message to the persecuted today

In his Angelus address on Dec. 26, 2024, Pope Francis reflected on Stephen’s last words as he was being stoned to death as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

Pope Francis said: “Even though at first sight Stephen seems to be helplessly suffering violence, in reality, as a truly free man, he continues to love even his killers and to offer his life for them, like Jesus; he offers his life so that they may repent and, having been forgiven, be given eternal life. Unfortunately, even today there are, in various parts of the world, many men and women who are persecuted, at times, even to death, because of the Gospel."

"What we have said about Stephen," he stressed, "applies to them too. " "They do not allow themselves to be killed out of weakness, nor to defend an ideology, but to make everyone participants in the gift of salvation."”
“Stephen is a witness to the Father — our Father — who wants good and only good for each of his children, and always; the Father who excludes no one, the Father who never gets tired of seeking them out and of welcoming them back when, after having strayed, they return to him in repentance [Luke 15:11-32] and the Father who does not tire of forgiving.”

References

1. St. Stephen. (n.d.). Catholic News Agency. Retrieved December 28, 2024, from https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-stephen-666
2. Feast Day of Saint Stephen, the First Martyr. (n.d.). St. Boniface Parish. Retrieved December 28, 2024, from https://stboniface-lunenburg.org/feast-day-of-saint-stephen-the-first-martyr
3. Lubov, D. C. (2024, December 26). Pope on St. Stephen’s Day: God forgives always and everything. Vatican News. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-12/pope-st-stephens-day-angelus-do-i-think-of-those-persecuted.html