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 [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] 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).

Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman and all Western Martyrologies. Not the old Roman Kalendar of the middle of the 4th cent., but the Carthaginian Kalendar ol the 5th cent In the Glagolitic Kalendar of the nth cent, on Sept. 15; also in the Moscow Kalendar, and the great Russian Menology published at Moscow, 1850; also the Greek Menaeas. A commemoration of S. Stephen in the Greek Menaea of the Milan Library, and that published by Sismondi, on Nov. 19; in the same Menaeas on Dec. 11, “in Constantianis; n on Jan. n, “in Placidianis,” in the same. On Dec. 27 all Eastern Menaeas and Menologies. On Aug. 2 the translation of the relics of S. Stephen.] N the Apostolic Constitutions, a work of the end of the 2nd or 3rd century, the festival of S. Stephen is mentioned, but not that of the Nativity, for the commemoration of the birth of Christ was of later institution. But S. Gregory of Nyssa, in the 4th century, united this feast with that of the Nativity. “See, -beloved ! we celebrate one festival after another. Yesterday the Lord of the Universe feasted us, and to-day the follower of Christ feeds us. How so ? Christ put on for us manhood, Stephen put it off for Christ. Christ, for S. STEPHEN, CARRYING THE STONES OP HIS MARTYRDOM. After the Painting by Martin Schoengauer. Dec. 26. S. Stephen.

…us, came down into the valley of life, Stephen for Christ departed out of it. Christ was wrapped for us in napkins, and Stephen for Christ was covered with stones.” There is a fragment of Asterius on this festival. Eusebius [Eusebius of Caesarea (d. c. 339), the first historian of the Church] also mentions it. It is curious that there should be no commemoration of S. Stephen in the old Roman Kalendar, published by Bucherius, which belongs to the middle of the 4th century, but which does give the Feast of the Nativity. The festival of the Nativity was conveyed from the West to the East, and that of S. Stephen followed the reverse course. In the sacramentary of S. Leo we find this festival. Its extension in the Western Church was probably due to the discovery of the relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of S. Stephen in 415, after which, but not before, do we meet with the commemoration in the West. It appears in the Kalendar of Ptolemy Sylvius, written in 448. S. Stephen was the chief of the seven deacons appointed by the apostles to assist them in the daily ministrations, and to attend to the relief of the widows. His Greek name, signifying a wreath, indicates his Hellenistic origin. His importance is stamped on the narrative by a reiteration of emphatic phrases. He was “full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,”1 “ full of faith, and power,” 2 his “ wisdom and spirit ” manifested by his speech were irresistible.3 He is said to have performed great wonders and miracles.

He was arrested at the instigation of the Hellenistic Jews and brought before the Sanhedrim.4 His eloquent speech cut his hearers to the heart, and he was cast out of the court and stoned to death.5 In the midst of his passion, he saw heaven opened and our Lord standing at the right hand of the Father, risen, as it were, out of His seat, to welcome His first martyr.8 The person who took the lead in his death was Saul of Tarsus, and the answer to the prayer of Stephen for his murderers was the conversion of Saul the Persecutor into Paul the Apostle. According to the earliest traditions, the martyrdom took place outside the Damascus gate of Jerusalem, that very gate through which Saul was one day to pass to his miraculous conversion. But the later tradition is that the site of the death was outside the gate now called the Gate of S. Stephen.

The narrative of the discovery of the relics of S. Stephen in 415, by Lucian, priest of Capharmajala, and John, patriarch [the title of the bishops of the great ancient sees: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem] of Jerusalem, is a sad story of fraud for the attainment of what was deemed a pious end. It is not necessary to tell here the humiliating tale. It is given by Marcellinus, chancellor of Justinian [Byzantine emperor 527–565], in his Chronicle (379-534). Part of these pretended relics were carried by Orosus (A.D.418) to the island of Minorca, where they are still preserved and venerated. Another portion of the relics was conveyed to Uzala, in Africa. But most of the* bones were preserved in a church dedicated to him in 422 in Jerusalem. At Ancona, in Italy, is shown one of the stones, reddened with his blood, which struck him on the head. At Longpont, near Paris, is a bone of the protomartyr. At Metz, a stone reddened with his blood, and a bottle containing his blood. At Halberstadt, some of his blood and two joints of his fingers. Some bones also at Metz. Some bones at S. Etienne, the Birmingham of France. Others in the cathedral at Vienna.

S. Stephen, from having been stoned to death, is the patron of stone-cutters. In accordance with the words of Scripture in detailing his martyrdom, “ they saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.” 1 S. Stephen is always yotmg and beardless, both in Eastern and Western art, with the exception of Spain, which represents him with a beard and with the lineaments of a man of thirty. He usually Dec. a&] S. Dionysius.

heads the class of deacons, and sometimes the whole body of martyrs. He wears the dalmatic, &c. of a deacon, though this is, of course, an anachronism; he bears the palm and a book of the Gospels; a stone, or several stones, are on his head, in his lap, in his hand, or on his book; when this, his peculiar emblem, is omitted, it is difficult to distinguish him from S. Vincent (January 22). S. Stephen’s Day was in the south of France called “Straw Day,” from the benediction of the straw, which some rituals then appointed. Hence, in Germany, it was “ HaferWeyhe,” with the same meaning. In the North of England it is known as “ Wrenning Day,” from the custom of stoning a wren to death, a cruel commemoration of S. Stephen’s martyrdom. In the South, the pigeon matches usually there celebrated are a relic of the old rite. In Denmark it was sometimes called “ Second Christmas Day.”