The Martyrdom of St. Stephen, deacon

[In the Byzantine Church today is the feast day for St. Stephen while in the Latin Church December 26 is the day on which Stephen is liturgically commemorated.]

On December 27, the Church remembers the martyrdom of the Holy Apostle, the first Deacon, and the first Martyr, Stephen. The Ambon Prayer for this feast begins, “O Christ our God, you accepted the weakness of our flesh and strengthened it against the spiritual enemy. By your life-giving death you gave it courage against death. Because of this your holy martyrs preferred to die for you rather than to live. You revealed the man named Stephen as the founder of the assembly of martyrs.”

St. Stephen was the first martyr (witness) to our Lord because he was Christ-like himself. Jesus said that he came “not to be served, but to serve,” and so Stephen became a servant (diakonos). When he was tried for his faith, the Acts of the Apostles (6:15) says, “All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” He was deified and made God-like through his faith. As they became to stone him, he had a vision of the coming of Christ, “filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (7:55),” and like Christ on the Cross, he forgave his persecutors, “‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’; and when he said this, he fell asleep. (7:60)” Indeed, one of his persecutors, a man name Saul, would become one of the greatest apostles (8:1). How do Christians do that? How can they forgive people who hate them and take their lives? This cannot be done by human powers, but only by the grace of God. We can fulfill the meaning of Christmas, of a God who humbled himself for our sake, only by the power and love of God, only if we open our hearts to him entirely and submit to his will.

In virtually every rite of Christianity, the feast of St. Stephen’s martyrdom is immediately connected with Christmas. The faith and sacrifice of Stephen is the only proper response to the birth of the Son and Word of God as our Savior and Redeemer. In fact the feast of Christmas is surrounded by commemorations of martyrs:

On December 20, we remember St. Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch, who gave himself to be devoured by lions.

On December 21, we remember St. Juliana, who refused to marry her suitor, Eleusis, unless he converted to Christianity, and who paid for her conviction with her life.

On December 22, we remember St. Anastasia, named for the resurrection, and remembered in the Roman Canon, who gave her life to service to the Christian community, who was betrayed by her husband but who said of Christ, “It is he who has taken away our human weakness, and it is he who now clothes us with divine strength.”

On December 23, we remember the ten holy martyrs who were the glory of Crete.

On December 24, we remember the holy virgin-martyr Eugenia, who was born into a senatorial family, but learned of the foolishness of Christ that surpasses the wisdom of this world. Disguised as a man, she accomplished the greatest of ascetical struggles, and converted so many to Christ, that she was beheaded on the day of his birth.

On December 26, we remember the holy father and confessor Euthymius, Bishop of Sardis, who opposed the iconoclast heresy, and died for the faith after numerous exiles and tortures

On December 27, we remember the holy Apostle, Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen, the model for all martyrdom, who name means the “crowned one,” who won his victory for the Lord.