Feast day: December 26
St. Stephen
One of the first seven deacons and the first Christian martyr, stoned while praying for his killers — as a young Pharisee named Saul held the coats.
Stephen appears in the Acts of the Apostles as the first of the seven deacons chosen by the early Church in Jerusalem to care for the daily distribution to the poor, freeing the apostles for prayer and preaching. He was, the Acts say, 'a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,' full of grace and power, who worked wonders among the people and could not be bested in argument by his opponents.
His powerful preaching, especially among the Greek-speaking Jews, stirred up fierce opposition. Unable to answer his wisdom, his adversaries suborned false witnesses and dragged him before the Sanhedrin on charges of blasphemy against the Temple and the Law. There Stephen delivered a long, fearless speech, retelling the whole history of Israel to show that his people had always resisted God's messengers — and now had betrayed and murdered the Righteous One himself.
As the council raged, Stephen gazed upward and cried out that he saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. At this they stopped their ears, rushed upon him, and dragged him out of the city to stone him — and at their feet, holding the cloaks of those who threw the stones, stood a young man named Saul, who approved of the killing and would later become the apostle Paul.
As he was stoned, Stephen prayed in the very words of his Lord: 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,' and then, kneeling, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' So died the first martyr of the Church — the 'protomartyr' — and the Church keeps his feast on December 26, the day after Christmas, joining the cradle of the newborn King to the witness of the first to die for him.
The man minding the coats at his stoning was Saul of Tarsus — St. Paul. Stephen's dying prayer for his killers may be the most consequential prayer after the Our Father.
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
— St. Stephen
Image: Carlo Crivelli (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: newadvent.org/cathen/14286b.htm
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