He was the first martyr in all of Christendom – and when they were stoning him to death outside the gates of Jerusalem, he prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ so that those who were killing him would be forgiven for their crime. It happened at Jerusalem, around 37 A.D., when St. Stephen the Archdeacon (his name means “a crown”) paid the ultimate price for defending the Holy
Gospel of the Lord.
A Hellenic Jew who spent most of his life in Palestine, St. Stephen was the first of seven deacons who were ordained and instructed by the Holy Apostles to assist with the distribution of communion, preach the Gospel and help feed the suffering poor. During the years immediately after Christ’s death and resurrection, the steadfastly loyal St. Stephen would share those duties with six other deacons: Philip, Prochoros, Nikanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas.
Especially blessed by God and a kinsman of St. Paul, St. Stephen had been well educated by his brilliant rabbinical tutor, Gamaliel. Supremely knowledgeable about matters of faith, he soon displayed the gift of miraculous healing as well. But his growing reputation as a passionate preacher of the Holy Gospel did not please the ruling priests of Jerusalem, who soon began to plot against his life, while also doing everything they could to slander him as a “blasphemer” who had attacked the legacy of the Holy Prophet Moses.
In spite of their hatred, however, the Archdeacon continued to make converts to the Good News of Jesus Christ, while declaring that he had witnessed the glorious perfection of the Almighty Himself: “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! “ (Acts 7:56)
Responding to these declarations of faith, the infuriated citizens soon decided that St. Stephen had to be silenced. Led by the great Christian persecutor Saul – who would later be converted and become (as St. Paul) one of the most ardent advocates of the Holy Gospel – these angry opponents of the Holy Redeemer agreed that the valiant Archdeacon deserved to die.
While a sorrowing group of Christians looked on from a distance (the mourners included the Blessed Mother and St. John the Theologian), the infuriated mob killed the Holy Church’s first martyr with stones torn from the roadway.
St. Stephen answered their cruelty out of his deep faith. Instead of condemning his killers, he prayed for them. He died at the age of 30, and according to the writings of Asterias, he was “ . . . the starting-point of the martyrs, the instructor of suffering for Christ, the foundation of righteous confession, in that Stephen was first to shed his blood for the Gospel.”
Left out overnight in the weather to be eaten by wild animals, St. Stephen’s body was secretly gathered up by Gamaliel the Pharisee and his son Habib and given a decent burial two days after his death. Weeping with sorrow for the cruel death of a man known everywhere for his compassion for the poor and his deep humility, they led a tiny procession of the faithful through a brief funeral service.
An articulate and thoughtful defender of the faith, St. Stephen could rise to rhetorical brilliance when describing the glorious reality of Christ’s saving miracles on earth. On one occasion, for example, when he came upon a group of citizens who were quarreling over the meaning of the Holy Gospel, the Archdeacon summed up his powerful faith by reportedly addressing them as follows:
“Brethren, why are you at odds with one another, disturbing all Jerusalem? Blessed are they that believe in Jesus Christ, Who bowed the heavens and came down to cleanse our sins, and was born of the holy and immaculate Maiden chosen before the world’s creation. He took upon Himself our infirmities, granting sight to the blind, cleansing lepers, and expelling demons.”
St. Stephen was an accomplished debater – but this courageous Archdeacon was not afraid to censure his countrymen outright for their lack of faith at times. On one particular occasion, he chastised them with biting severity: “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the Messiah’s coming.”
St. Stephen was buried on the property of his tutor, Gamaliel, located in the village of Kaphargamala, about two miles from Jerusalem. Many years later the pious Empress Eudocia, wife of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius the Lesser, would build a magnificent church where the first martyr’s blood had been spilled onto the earth. For nearly 2,000 years, this First Holy Martyr and dedicated servant of the Gospel has been revered by Christians everywhere, because his early sacrifice provided the first example of what it truly means to “die for the Lord.”
The life of the Archdeacon and First Martyr St. Stephen reveals for us the immense power of God’s grace in assisting those who suffer for His sake. Stephen's honest confrontation with the disobedience and rejection of the Jewish people (from the time of Abraham to the present day) infuriated the Sanhedrin; as a result, he was taken outside the city and stoned.
Perhaps most memorable of all are Stephen's final words: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit . . . followed by his triumphant prayer of compassion as they were stoning him: Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
The crown of the Kingdom hath adorned the brow of thy head because of the contests that thou hast endured for Christ God, thou first of the martyred Saints; for when thou hadst censured the Jews’ madness, thou sawest Christ thy Saviour standing at the right hand of the Father. O Stephen, ever pray Him for us, that He would save our souls.
Kontakion in the Third Tone
Yesterday the Master came, to be with us in the body; and today His faithful slave departeth out of the body; yesterday the King was born in the flesh for our sakes; and today the servant suffereth death by stoning; and for His sake is perfected the first of Martyrs, Stephen the truly divine.
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