Who was St Stephen and why is he remembered on December 26?

The carol says, “Good King Wenceslas last looked out on the Feast of Stephen.” In many countries, December 26, also generally known as Boxing Day, is healthier generally known as St Stephen’s Day. Stephen was the primary Christian martyr. This is the story …

The name Stephen

The name Stephen in English comes from the Greek Στέφανος (Stephanos), where it means wreath or crown. In English use, variants include Steven and Stefan, and it is commonly abbreviated as Steve. The female version is Stephanie.

In other languages it appears in numerous forms, comparable to Étienne in French, Esteban in Spanish, Stefano in Italian, Štěpán in Czech, Štefanije in Croat, Fan in Albanian, and Steffan in Welsh. It is a well-liked name in lots of countries of Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant heritage. Stephen was considered an honourable name and was the name of a king of England from 1135 to 1154. It was also utilized by five kings in Hungary and by 10 popes.

Stephen of Jerusalem

The name Stephen is simply used of 1 person within the Bible. He comes into the New Testament story in Acts chapters 6 and seven. His story is about within the early years of the Church, when it was growing. There were Christians who were Greek-speaking Jews and others who were Hebrew Jews. These first Christians, mostly from a Jewish heritage, held property in common, with the wealthier sharing what they owned with the poorer members of the community. At this time, there have been many widows in need of charity. The Greek-speaking Christians, also called the Hellenists, complained that their widows were being discriminated against within the each day distribution of food (Acts 6:1–6).

As a result, the apostles called the Jerusalem community together. They asked them to pick seven reputable men who can be appointed to minister to the duty. The seven men who were chosen were Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus of Antioch (Acts 6:5). The apostles laid their hands upon them and set them apart to serve those that were neglected locally. Stephen was first within the list and was appointed because he was “a person stuffed with faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5).

Stephen the Martyr

Luke wrote that Stephen performed great wonders and signs (Acts 6:8), and that the variety of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, including many Jewish priests (Acts 6:7). As a result, this caused consternation among the many Jewish authorities. Opposition arose and false accusations were brought against him, especially from the Synagogue of the Freedmen, which was a Greek-speaking synagogue for Diaspora Jews now living in Jerusalem. The text specifically mentions that it included Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria in North Africa, and Jews from the Roman provinces of Cilicia and Asia. They argued with Stephen, who seems to have preached on the synagogue, and he may have been a member or former member of the synagogue himself.

Some members of the synagogue made false accusations against him, claiming that he had spoken blasphemous words against God and Moses (Acts 6:11). He was hauled before the Sanhedrin on charges of speaking against “this holy place and the law” (Acts 6:13). Luke notes that in that hostile courtroom, “all who were sitting within the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, they usually saw that his face was just like the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15).

In Acts 7 we read that the High Priest spoke to Stephen (Acts 7:1), who responded not with self-defence but with a sweeping retelling of Israel’s story, from Abraham through Moses and the prophets. Stephen showed how God has all the time been on the move, not confined to at least one land or one constructing, and the way God’s people have repeatedly “resisted the Holy Spirit” and rejected the messengers sent to them (Acts 7:1–53). Perhaps the part that annoyed them most was that Stephen confronted them and said that that they had “betrayed and murdered” the “Righteous One” about whom the prophets had spoken (Acts 7:52), meaning Jesus. The response was fury (Acts 7:54).

Luke’s narrative in Acts then turns from Stephen’s words to his vision. He looked up “and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the suitable hand of God” (Acts 7:55). He cried out and said, “Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the suitable hand of God” (Acts 7:56). The implications of this were outrageous and blasphemous to those present.

Stoning

The crowd dragged him outside the town and stoned him. As the stones fell, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59), echoing Jesus’s cry, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46) when he was on the cross. Then Stephen fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60), echoing Jesus’s prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they have no idea what they’re doing” (Luke 23:34). After he was killed, he was buried and the church mourned for him (Acts 8:2–3).

Persecution

The book of Acts describes how, following the stoning, great persecution broke out, and most believers fled Jerusalem and were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. This was prophesied by Jesus when he said that some people would kill them, flog them within the synagogues, and pursue them from town to town (Matthew 23:35), and that in Jerusalem they’d stone a few of them (Matthew 23:37).

Saul on the Stoning

Luke added a small detail that the “witnesses laid their coats on the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58), who “approved of their killing him” (Acts 8:1). Saul began to attempt to destroy the church by going from house to deal with and dragging off men and ladies and putting them in prison. This man who witnessed the death was Saul of Tarsus, who later had a dramatic conversion and is healthier known today as St Paul. Tarsus is in Cilicia, and Luke specifically mentions that the Synagogue of the Freedmen included Jews from Cilicia, which seems to point that Saul was from this synagogue. Paul later stated, “When the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the garments of those that were killing him” (Acts 22:20). The first martyr’s death thus becomes the catalyst for Saul’s journey to faith in Christ.

Traditions about St Stephen

Stephen is taken into account the primary Christian martyr and one in every of the primary deacons of the Christian Church. The site of his death will not be laid out in the Bible, but by tradition it was east of Jerusalem, outside Lion’s Gate, which results in one in every of the quarters of the town. Christians have thus traditionally known it as St Stephen’s Gate.

His death occurred a number of years after the beginning of the Church at Pentecost and is dated variously as AD 33, 34, 35, or 36. Stephen was never formally canonised, but he’s generally known as St Stephen. St Stephen’s Day is traditionally on December 26 within the Western Church, December 25 within the Armenian Church, and December 27 within the Eastern Orthodox world. He is taken into account the patron saint of deacons and stonemasons. There are many churches around the globe dedicated to St Stephen, including 145 within the Church of England. The most famous is Stephansdom, the cathedral in Vienna, Austria.

St Stephen’s Day

St Stephen’s Day, also called the Feast of Stephen, is an official public holiday in lots of Central European countries comparable to Austria, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, where it’s the second day of Christmas and a time for visiting family and friends.

The Christmas song about Good King Wenceslas was inspired by Duke Václav of Bohemia, who lived in Prague. In the song he goes out “on the Feast of Stephen,” which is December 26. The parallel with St Stephen is that each men were concerned with the poor and each were martyred.

In the UK and plenty of Commonwealth countries, the day is a bank holiday but is as an alternative called Boxing Day, from the tradition of giving boxes or gifts to servants and the poor — a practice that attracts on Stephen’s role in serving the needy.

Collect

The traditional Anglican collect prayer for St Stephen’s Day is: “Grant, O Lord, that in all our sufferings here upon earth, for the testimony of thy truth, we may steadfastly look as much as heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and, being crammed with the Holy Ghost, may learn to like and bless our persecutors, by the instance of thy first Martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to thee, O blessed Jesus, who standest at the suitable hand of God to succour all people who suffer for thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.”