Stephen, Saint

STEPHEN, Saint. - I. LIFE. - Protomartyr (Gr. Στέφανος "crown"), one of the first seven deacons chosen by the apostolic community of Jerusalem by decision of the Twelve to attend to the distribution of food and aid to the needy faithful (Acts 6:1-4). In the list S. is in first place, and the only one to whose name a commendation is added: "a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit." The Greek name of S. and of the other six would stand for their Hellenistic origin: but Greek names among the Jews of the Christian era were very common. In Acts 6-7 the preaching, the work and the martyrdom of S. are presented with a wealth of detail.

The figure of S. gains prominence from the historical moment in which he appears and of which he becomes representative: "The number of the disciples kept increasing in Jerusalem" (ibid. 6:7). The zeal of S., accompanied by charismatic thaumaturgic qualities, stands out in the work of propaganda, which brings about an ever wider movement of adherence to the new religious message; and the first reprisal is aimed at him. In a popular uprising he is brought before the Sanhedrin and put on trial: he has blasphemed against God, religion and the Temple. In his speech of self-defense the deacon (ibid. 7) answers the three accusations, but the ideas that predominate in his mind give the speech the substance for a higher meaning: affirmation of Christian universalism as against Jewish particularism, which in reality, throughout its whole history, proves to be the guilty party.

The full harmony between the figure of the man and the words, in which the ideas fermenting at that moment in the Christian community find expression, leaves no doubt about the authenticity of the speech, which formally may have been elaborated by St. Luke according to the scheme of Christian-Hellenistic writings, predominantly apologetic, which was followed from the earliest times in Christian preaching.

Immediately after the speech, by the fury of the crowd S. is dragged outside the city, stripped (and the keeper of the garments is Saul) and stoned, while he implores forgiveness for his killers. He was the first Christian martyr. The year of his death is probably 35, or 36 (Lagrange), near the feast of Pentecost or of Tabernacles, because the adversaries were especially fanatical foreigners.

II. CULT

1. Discovery of the body of St. S. in 415. - After his glorious death, the first μάρτυς of the Lord (St. Paul in Acts 22:20), he received a worthy burial from "devout men" (Acts 8:2), but there is not the slightest mention of any manifestations of cult in his honor. Only with the 4th century, an era in which the cult of the martyrs developed extraordinarily, do we have the first reports on the cult paid to S. This cult established itself and spread rapidly throughout the whole Church, after the discovery of his relics together with those of Gamaliel, Nicodemus and Abibon, which took place on 18 or 19 December 415 at Kap'ar Gamla through the work of the monk Migetius and the local priest, Lucian, who had been warned in a dream on the 3rd, 10th and 17th of December by Gamaliel (v.). The details of the discovery are known, which moved the whole Church and against which no one raised the slightest doubt, through the efforts of the priest Avitus of Braga, who translated into Latin the account given to him in Greek by the priest Lucian (Epist. Luciani ad omnem Ecclesiam de revelatione corporis Stephani martyris primi et aliorum: PL 41, 807-18 [in the 2nd column, an interpolated recension is reproduced]). This account, or more precisely Revelatio, in its Greek, Latin and Syriac redactions and in the Armenian, Georgian, etc. versions, immediately enjoyed a notable diffusion. In the West, it was brought by Paul Orosius ([v.], cf. the letter of Avitus to Pulconius, bishop of Braga: PL 41, 805-808). The Decretum Gelasii places among the apocrypha a Revelatio quae appellatur Stephani, apocrypha (ed. E. v. Dobschütz, in DACL. Gelasius Décret. VI, 1, 744), but it is not known whether the letter of Lucian is to be recognized in it.

2. Sanctuaries and churches in honor of St. S. - The principal part of the relics, brought to Jerusalem and deposited by the bishop John in the church of Sion, was transported in 439 by the patriarch Juvenal from the church of the stoning of S., later replaced by the great Basilica of the empress Eudoxia, dedicated on 15 June 460. The part that remained at Kap'ar Gamla (the ruins of the sanctuary erected in the 5th century are still visible) was generously distributed by the priest Lucian to all who requested it of him. In the West some churches, which were able to procure relics, became true sanctuaries in which the thaumaturgic power of the Saint drew numerous devotees: these privileged centers were the island of Minorca (cf. the letter of the bishop Severus [v.]: PL 41, 821-32), and in Africa Uzalum (cf. De miraculis s. Stephani l. duo: PL 41, 833-54), Calama and Hippo (a memoria dedicated in 425). St. Augustine became the herald of devotion to the protomartyr, and it is due to him that those concerned were to draw up for the bishop the libellus, that is, the account of the miracle, destined to be read to the people (cf. De Civitate Dei, XXII, VIII, 20-21: PL 41, 768-69). Very well known is the libellus of Paul of Caesarea, who was miraculously healed in the memoria of S. in Hippo (cf. Serm. 322: PL 38, 1443-45; De Civitate Dei, XXII, VIII, 22: PL 41, 469-71). In Italy, at Ancona, even before the discovery of the body of S., the church dedicated to the protomartyr was already known, in which a stone used in his stoning was believed to be preserved (cf. Augustine, Serm. 323,2: PL 38, 1445-1446). At Constantinople, around 380 Aurelian, consul of 400 (cf. Theodore the Lector, Hist. eccl. fragmenta: PG 86,221) and the Novatianist bishop, Sisinnius (d. in 407: cf. Sozomen, Hist. eccl., VIII, 24), had two churches erected in honor of S., and the empress Pulcheria (d. in 453) the famous S. S. of the Palace. At Rome, the virgin Demetrias (v.) built, under the pontificate of St. Leo the Great, the basilica of S. S. on the Via Latina (cf. Lib. Pont., I, pp. 238, 531); pope Simplicius dedicated to him the centrally planned church, called S. S. Rotondo, on the Caelian, and another near S. Lorenzo al Verano (cf. Lib. Pont., I, p. 249). Slightly later must be the oratory of S. S. of the monastery of S. S. Maggiore, near St. Peter's, today's S. S. degli Abissini. At Ravenna, the archbishop Maximian dedicated to St. S., on 11 December 550, a great basilica, now vanished, which stood on the area of a memoria of the 5th century, sacred to the protomartyr (cf. Agnello, ed. A. Testi Rasponi, Bologna 1924, pp. 190-92). At Naples, toward the end of the 5th century, the bishop Victor erected to St. S. a church in front of the cemetery basilica of St. Januarius (cf. D. Mallardo, Il Calendario Marmoreo di Napoli, Rome 1924, pp. 121-22). From the 6th century onward the churches in honor of S. became everywhere very numerous; suffice it to say that at Rome, besides those mentioned, 26 others are counted (cf. Ch. Hülsen, Le chiese di Roma nel medioevo, Florence 1927, pp. 471-86) and as many as 69 in the diocese of Milan (cf. F. Savio, Gli antichi vescovi d'Italia. La Lombardia, I, ibid. 1913, p. 775).

3. Feste liturgiche

Il nome di S. figura sin dal sec. v nel canone della Messa romana e ambrosiana (lista del Nobis quoque). Nella chiesa latina le feste in onore di S. ricorrono il 2 ag. e il 26 dic.; nella greca il 2 ag. e il 27 dic.; nella nestoriana il 4° venerdì dopo l'Epifania; nella caldea, copta e sira l'8 genn. (altre date in N. Nilles, Kalendarium manuale utriunque Eccl. Orient. et Occid., 2 voll., 2ª ed., Innsbruck 1896-97, v. indice). Il giorno della morte di s. S. essendo rimasto sconosciuto, il suo dies natalis è stato assegnato al 26 dic. perché sin dal sec. IV la sua qualità di protomartire della Chiesa nascente lo fece porre a capo del gruppo di personaggi biblici che, in Oriente, vennero venerati subito dopo il Natale di Cristo per i peculiari rapporti che ebbero con la sua persona; si veda al riguardo l'interessante paragrafo 23 della demonstratio XXI di Afraate, scritta nel 344-45 (ed. J. Parisot, in R. Graffin, Patrol. Syriaca, I, Parigi 1894, p. 937). La festa del 26 dic. è attestata da s. Gregorio Nisseno nel 379 (In laudem fratris Basilii: PG 46, 789); da Asterio di Amasea, all'inizio del sec. V (Hom. XII in laudem S. Stephani: PG 40, 340), dal Martirologio striaco del 411-12 (ed. H. Lietzmann, Bonn 1911, p. 7); dai Calendari di Silvio Polemio del 448 (ed. Th. Mommsen, in CIL, I, 2ª ed., Berlino 1893, p. 279), di Cartagine, dell'inizio del sec. VI (ed. Lietzmann, cit., p. 6), di Carmona in Spagna del sec. VI (ed. J. Vives, Inscripciones cristianas de la España romana y visigoda, Barcellona 1942, p. 113); dal Martirologio geronimiano; dal cosiddetto Sacramentario leoniano (ed. Ch. L. Feltoe, Cambridge 1896, pp. 85-98, il libellus missarum di S., posto al 2 ag. sotto l'indicazione di Stefano papa, comprende 9 messe di cui 8 per il dies natalis del 26 dic., come si rivela dal prefazio della messa VII [p. 89] che accenna al Natale di Cristo); dal Sacramentario gelasiano antico (ed. H. A. Wilson, Oxford 1894, pp. 6-7) e in seguito da tutti i libri liturgici occidentali. Nelle Chiese orientali, ove vigeva e vige tuttora l'uso di ricordare al 26 dic. i Parenti di Cristo, la festa di S. fu spostata al 27 dic. Questa data è attestata all'inizio del sec. VII da Sofronio di Gerusalemme (Orat. VIII in a. apost. Petrum et Paulum: PG 87, 3361), dal Menologio siro giacobita del sec. VII (ed. F. Nau, in Patr. Orientalis, X [1915], p. 31), dai Sinassari greci. ecc. Il 2 ag. la Chiesa greca commemora la traslazione di reliquie di S. a Costantinopoli, sotto Teodosio II, nota per mezzo di un racconto anacronistico (BHL, 7857-58; BHG, 1649-51). Il 3 dello stesso mese la Chiesa latina celebra invece la festa dell'invenzione delle reliquie del Santo, avvenuta, con'è noto, il 18 o 19 dic. 415. Questa festa pur ricordata dal Martirologio geronimiano il 2 e il 3 ag., non entrò nei Sacramentari e Messali prima del sec. IX-X (cf. A. Ebner, Missale Romanum im Mittelalter. Iter Italicum, Friburgo in Br. 1896, pp. 81, 215; V. Leroquais, Les sacramentaires et missels mss. des bibl. pub. de France, I, Parigi 1924, pp. 42, 46, 72 [v. indice, III, pp. 415-16]; A. Baumstark, Missale Romanum, Eindhoven 1929, p. 224); Stefano vescovo di Liegi (903-20) ne compose l'Ufficio, testo e melodia, che ebbe una larga diffusione (cf. A. Auda, L'école musicale de Liège au Xe siècle. Etienne de Liège, Bruxelles 1923, pp. 42-66). In origine, la festa del 2 o 3 ag. doveva ricordare la dedicazione di una chiesa; il p. Delehaye propone di vedervi la dedica del santuario di Ancona; ma non è improbabile che a Roma si volesse ricordare in tal giorno la dedicazione di una delle Basiliche sopra ricordate, poiché nel cosiddetto Sacramentario leoniano la IX messa del libellus missarum di S. inserito al 2 ag. è stata composta per la dedicazione di una basilica al Santo, come si rileva espressamente dal Prefazio (ed. cit., p. 90).

(do O. Marucchi, in Nuovo Bulletin di arch. crist., II [1911], tav. 3) STEFANO, santo - Affresco nel cimitero di Commodilla (sec. VII). Roma.

in DACL, V, II (1922), coll. 624-71; H. Vincent - F. - M. Abel, Jérusalem. rech. de topogr., d'archéol. et d'hist., II, IV, Parigi 1926, pp. 743-804; F.-M. Abel, La légende apocryphe de st Etienne. A propos de quelques textes géorgiens (pro manuscripto), Gerusalemme 1931; H. Delehaye, Quelques dates du martyrol. Hiéronym., in Anal. Boll., 49 (1932), pp. 23-30; id., Les orig. du culte des Martyrs, 2ª ed., Bruxelles 1933, pp. 80-82, 122-31, passim (completare con F. Halkin, Inscript. grecques relatives à l'hagiogr., in Anal. Boll., 67 [1949], p. 503, indice. s. v.; ibid., 69 [1951], p. 462, indice. s. v.); R. Krautheimer, S. S. Rotondo a Roma e la chiesa del S. Sepolcro in Gerusalemme, in Riv. arch. crist., 12 (1935), pp. 51-102; F. Antonelli, in Verbali Soc. dei cultori di Arch. Crist. Adun. 15 apr. 1934, ibid., pp. 173-75; G. Segui Vidal, La carta-enciclica del obispo Severo estudio critico de su autenticidad e integridad con un bosquejo historico del cristianismo Balear anterior al siglo VIII, Palma di Maiorca 1937, pp. 39-49 (Orosio e le reliquie di s. S.), 149-83 (ed. critica); V. L. Kennedy, The saints of the Canon of the Mass, Città del Vaticano 1938, pp. 145-148; P. Peeters, Le tréfonds orient. de l'hagiogr. byz., Bruxelles 1950, pp. 53-58; J. M. Gosol, Scoperta di una bas. paleocristiana con battistero a Minorca, in Riv. Arch. crist., 28 (1952), pp. 184-186 (può darsi che si tratti delle rovine della chiesa dedicata a s. S.).

A. Pietro Frutaz

III. ICONOGRAPHY

St. S. is depicted as a young man dressed in the sacred diaconal vestments, and his representations are often characterized by the stones that allude to his martyrdom by stoning. Not infrequently he is portrayed together with the second patron of the diaconal Order, that is, St. Lawrence. Several depictions of St. S. have come down to us from the early Middle Ages: among them the most notable are the mosaic one in the triumphal arch of the basilica of St. Lawrence outside the Walls in Rome, a work datable between 578 and 590 (cf. pl. cvi of vol. VII), and those frescoed in the cemetery of Commodilla (7th century) and in St. Maria Antiqua at the Roman Forum (8th century). The scene depicting the Saint's stoning, already reproduced in the Menologion of Basil (late 10th-early 11th century), becomes more frequent in the 12th century, especially in Spanish art.

The figure of St. S. is seen among the Apostles and other saints seated at the sides of Christ in the Last Judgment by Pietro Cavallini, frescoed around 1290 at St. Cecilia in Trastevere in Rome. Giotto too depicts him in a panel of the Horne Museum in Florence, providing an excellent iconographic model of the Saint. A beautiful bronze statue of St. S. adorns the tabernacle of the Wool Merchants in Orsanmichele in Florence: it is the work of Lorenzo

Ghiberti of 1426. Also notable is the marble figure that adorns the altar of the basilica of St. Agnes on Via Nomentana in Rome, a work by Andrea Bregno dated 1490.

The entire cycle of the Stories of St. S., together with those of St. Lawrence, was frescoed around 1450 by Fra Angelico on the walls of the Niccoline Chapel in the Vatican Palace. It is composed of six scenes, namely: 1) the diaconal consecration of S.; 2) the distribution of alms; 3) the preaching to the people; 4) the Saint before the Jewish priest; 5) the Saint being led to martyrdom; 6) his stoning.

Another notable cycle with the Stories of St. S. was painted by Vittore Carpaccio between 1511 and 1515 for the school of St. S. in Venice. Four scenes of this cycle, now dispersed, are preserved: one, with the consecration of the Saint, in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin; another, with the disputation, at the Brera Gallery in Milan; a third, with the Saint's preaching, at the Louvre; and a fourth, with the stoning, in the Stuttgart Gallery.

The painting of the early 16th century produced some very beautiful and highly characteristic individual representations of the Saint. Among them are cited first of all the panel by Francia, in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, where S. is seen kneeling, with his head bleeding, in the act of prayer during his martyrdom (cf. pl. xciv of vol. IV), and the triptych by Pier Francesco Bissolo, in the Brera in Milan, in which the central compartment depicts the Saint, dressed in a dalmatic, with stones, one might say miraculously suspended, on his head and on his right arm.

Raphael painted St. S. among the figures of the celestial choir in the Disputation of the Most Holy Sacrament, in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican. The Vatican Pinacoteca possesses a painting with the Stoning of St. S. painted by Giorgio Vasari around 1560.

Among the most notable paintings of the 19th century were the Stories of St. S. and those of St. Lawrence frescoed in the nave of the basilica of St. Lawrence outside the Walls by Cesare Fracassini and other painters, at the time of the restoration of that Basilica, carried out under the pontificate of Pius IX; but these paintings were almost entirely destroyed by the bombing suffered by the Basilica on July 19, 1943. - See pl. XCI.

Witold Wehr

IV. THE APOCALYPSE OF STEPHEN

An apocryphon, rejected as such (Revelatio quae appellatur [sancti] Stephani, apocr.) in the Decretum (Gelastianum) de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis (26th, after the Apocalypses of Paul and of Thomas: PL 59, 177-78).

After P. von Winterfeld (1902), O. Bardenhewer proposed its identification with the Greek original (written in 415, translated into Latin by Avitus of Braga) of the Epist. Luciani ad omnem Ecclesiam de revelatione corporis Stephani martyris primi et aliorum, preserved in a double Latin recension (PL 41, 805-18), which in the codex Floriacensis and others begins: Revelatio s. Stephani; but the hypothesis, attractive as it is, remains doubtful. Equally unproven is the identification with the legendary Revelatio or Martyrium Stephani of the pseudo-Clementine cycle, whose Greek original is lost but which was handed down in a Georgian version (Codex of Mount Athos, 10th cent., ed. du Marr: PO 19, 689-99) and in a Slavonic one published by Ivan Franko in Ukrainian, then in a German version from the two manuscripts of Lwów and of Zamość. Some supposed that the lost apocryphon recounted the mysteries revealed to the Protomartyr when he "saw the heavens opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:55), and Sixtus of Siena (Biblioth. Sancta, ed. Naples 1742, p. 193) asserts that this Apocalypse of St. Stephen was held in honor among the Manichaeans.

Antonino Romeo