Icon Saint Stephen polisher

Saint of the Christian Church. He is called “the first martyr” because he was the first to martyr for Christ. His memory is celebrated by the Orthodox Church on 27 December, the finding of his relic on 15 September and his reburial on 2 August. The Western Churches (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran) commemorate his memory on 26 December.

Stephen was the first and most distinguished of the seven deacons, elected and ordained by the apostles to help the poor, orphans and widows with common meals and by every other means. He was distinguished for his oratorical ability and his general Christian activity. The Jews, seeing his activity and fearing his activity, ordered him to stop preaching. (Acts, ch. 6, 1-8).

He ignored them and continued to preach the Word of God. Then some intolerant Jews slandered him for blaspheming God, Solomon’s Temple and the prophet Moses. On this charge he was arrested and dragged before the Jewish Court for an apology and trial. (Acts of the Apostles, chap. f, 9-15). Stephen boldly defended his faith and accused the Jews of being cruel to the prophets whom they killed, as well as to all God’s people, and argued for the divinity of Christ. (Acts of the Apostles, ch. G, 1-53)

All Stephen managed to do was to further enrage his accusers, who grabbed him from the conference hall and led him out of Jerusalem, where they began to stone him. Stephen calmly accepted the stoning with the words “Lord Jesus, receive the spirit of mind” and knelt down and prayed for his persecutors, saying: “Lord, do not impute this sin to them.” Immediately afterwards he surrendered his spirit. The scene of the stoning was also witnessed by a young Pharisee named Saul, who kept the clothes of the stoners and applauded Stephen’s execution. (Acts of the Apostles, chap. g, 54-60). He was the later Apostle Paul. According to tradition, the relic of the first martyr Stephen was carried by the Emperor Constantine to Constantinople.