One of the first deacons and the first Christian martyr; feast on 26
December. In the Acts of the Apostles the name of St. Stephen occurs for
the first time on the occasion of the appointment of the first deacons
(Acts, vi, 5). Dissatisfaction concerning the distribution of alms from
the community's fund having arisen in the Church, seven men were
selected and specially ordained by the Apostles to take care of the
temporal relief of the poorer members. Of these seven, Stephen, is the
first mentioned and the best known.
Stephen's life previous to this appointment remains for us almost
entirely in the dark. His name is Greek and suggests he was a
Hellenist, i.e., one of those Jews who had been born in some foreign
land and whose native tongue was Greek; however, according to a fifth
century tradition, the name Stephanos was only a Greek equivalent for
the Aramaic Kelil (Syr. kelila, crown), which may be the
protomartyr's original name and was inscribed on a slab found in his
tomb. It seems that Stephen was not a proselyte, for the fact that
Nicolas is the only one of the seven designated as such makes it almost
certain that the others were Jews by birth. That Stephen was a pupil of
Gamaliel is sometimes inferred from his able defence before the
Sanhedrin; but this has not been proved. Neither do we know when and in
what circumstances he became a Christian; it is doubtful whether the
statement of St. Epiphanius (Haer., xx, 4) numbering Stephen among the
seventy disciples is deserving of any credence. His ministry as deacon
appears to have been mostly among the Hellenist converts with whom the
Apostles were at first less familiar; and the fact that the opposition
he met with sprang up in the synagogues of the "Libertines" (probably
the children of Jews taken captive to Rome by Pompey in 63 B. C. and
freed hence the name Libertini), and "of the Cyrenians, and of
the Alexandrians, and of them that were of Cilicia and Asia" shows that
he usually preached among the Hellenist Jews. That he was pre eminently
fitted for that work, his abilities and character, which the author of
the Acts dwells upon so fervently, are the best indication. The Church
had, by selecting him for a deacon, publicly acknowledged him as a man
"of good reputation, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom" (Acts, vi, 3).
He was "a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost" (vi, 5), "full of
grace and fortitude" (vi, 8); his uncommon oratorical powers and
unimpeachable logic no one was able to resist, so much so that to his
arguments replete with the Divine energy of the Scriptural authorities
God added the weight of "great wonders and signs" (vi, 8). Great as was
the efficacy of "the wisdom and the spirit that spoke" (vi, 10), still
it could not bend the minds of the unwilling; to these the forceful
preacher was fatally soon to become an enemy.
The conflict broke out when the cavillers of the synagogues "of
the Libertines, and of the Cyreneans, and of the Alexandrians, and of
them that were of Cilicia and Asia", who had challenged Stephen to a
dispute, came out completely discomfited (vi, 9 10); wounded pride so
inflamed their hatred that they suborned false witnesses to testify that
"they had heard him speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against
God" (vi, 11).
No charge could be more apt to rouse the mob; the anger of the
ancients and the scribes had been already kindled from the first reports
of the preaching of the Apostles. Stephen was arrested, not without
some violence it seems (the Greek word synerpasan implies so
much), and dragged before the Sanhedrin, where he was accused of saying
that "Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place [the temple], and shall
change the traditions which Moses delivered unto us" (vi, 12 14). No
doubt Stephen had by his language given some grounds for the accusation;
his accusers apparently twisted into the offensive utterance attributed
to him a declaration that "the most High dwelleth not in houses made by
hands" (vii, 48), some mention of Jesus foretelling the destruction of
the Temple and some inveighing against the burthensome traditions
fencing about the Law, or rather the asseveration so often repeated by
the Apostles that "there is no salvation in any other" (cf. iv, 12) the
Law not excluded but Jesus. However this may be, the accusation left him
unperturbed and "all that sat in the council...saw his face as if it
had been the face of an angel" (vi, 15).
Stephen's answer (Acts, vii) was a long recital of the mercies of
God towards Israel during its long history and of the ungratefulness by
which, throughout, Israel repaid these mercies. This discourse
contained many things unpleasant to Jewish ears; but the concluding
indictment for having betrayed and murdered the Just One whose coming
the Prophets had foretold, provoked the rage of an audience made up not
of judges, but of foes. When Stephen "looking up steadfastly to heaven,
saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God", and
said: "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on
the right hand of God" (vii, 55), they ran violently upon him (vii, 56)
and cast him out of the city to stone him to death. Stephen's stoning
does not appear in the narrative of the Acts as a deed of mob violence;
it must have been looked upon by those who took part in it as the
carrying out of the law. According to law (Lev., xxiv, 14), or at least
its usual interpretation, Stephen had been taken out of the city; custom
required that the person to be stoned be placed on an elevation from
whence with his hands bound he was to be thrown down. It was most likely
while these preparations were going on that, "falling on his knees, he
cried with a loud voice, saying: "Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge" (vii, 59). Meanwhile the witnesses, whose hands must be first on
the person condemned by their testimony (Deut., xvii, 7), were laying
down their garments at the feet of Saul, that they might be more ready
for the task devolved upon them (vii, 57). The praying martyr was thrown
down; and while the witnesses were thrusting upon him "a stone as much
as two men could carry", he was heard to utter this supreme prayer:
"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (vii, 58). Little did all the people
present, casting stones upon him, realize that the blood they shed was
the first seed of a harvest that was to cover the world.
The bodies of men stoned to death were to be buried in a place
appointed by the Sanhedrin. Whether in this instance the Sanhedrin
insisted on its right cannot be affirmed; at any rate, "devout men"
whether Christians or Jews, we are not told "took order for Stephen's
funeral, and made great mourning over him" (vii, 2). For centuries the
location of St. Stephen's tomb was lost sight of, until (415) a certain
priest named Lucian learned by revelation that the sacred body was in
Caphar Gamala, some distance to the north of Jerusalem. The relics were
then exhumed and carried first to the church of Mount Sion, then, in
460, to the basilica erected by Eudocia outside the Damascus Gate, on
the spot where, according to tradition, the stoning had taken place (the
opinion that the scene of St. Stephen's martyrdom was east of
Jerusalem, near the Gate called since St. Stephen's Gate, is unheard of
until the twelfth century). The site of the Eudocian basilica was
identified some twenty years ago, and a new edifice has been erected on
the old foundations by the Dominican Fathers.
The only first hand source of information on the life and death of St. Stephen is the Acts of the Apostles (vi, i viii, 2).
CHARLES L. SOUVAY (Catholic Encyclopedia)
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