STEPHEN, Saint. —
I. LIFE
Protomartyr (Gk. Στέφανος, “crown”), one of the first seven deacons chosen by the apostolic community of Jerusalem at the decision of the Twelve to attend to the distribution of food and assistance to the needy faithful (Acts 6:1-4). In the list he is placed first, and he is the only one whose name is accompanied by an encomium: “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.” The Greek name of Stephen and of the other six may indicate their Hellenistic origin, but Greek names among Jews of the Christian era were very common. In Acts 6–7 the preaching, work, and martyrdom of Stephen are presented in rich detail. The figure of Stephen gains prominence from the historical moment in which he appears and of which he becomes representative: “The number of disciples was increasing in Jerusalem” (ibid., 6:7). Stephen’s zeal, accompanied byII. CULT
1. Discovery of the body of St. Stephen in 415. — After his glorious death, the first μάρτυς of the Lord (St. Paul in Acts 22:20), he received a more worthy burial from men (Acts 8:2), but there is no mention of any cultic manifestations in his honor. Only in the fourth century, when the cult of the martyrs began to develop extraordinarily, do the first accounts of the cult paid to Stephen appear. This cult was established and spread rapidly throughout the Church after the discovery of his relics, together with those of Gamaliel, Nicodemus, and Abibas, which took place on December 18 or 19, 415, at Kaphar Gamala, through the efforts of the monk Migetius and the local priest Lucian, who had been warned in a dream on December 3, 10, and 17 by Gamaliel (q.v.). The details of the discovery, which moved the entire Church and against which no doubt was raised, are known through the intervention 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 second column, an interpolated recension is reproduced]). This relation, or rather Revelatio, in its Greek, Latin, and Syriac versions and in Armenian, Georgian, etc., translations, soon enjoyed considerable diffusion. In the West, it was brought by Paul Orosius ([q.v.], cf. the letter of Avitus to Palconius, bishop of Braga: PL 41, 805-808). The Decretum Gelasianum lists among the apocrypha a Revelatio quae appellatur Stephani, apocrypha (ed. E. V. Dobschütz, in DACL, Gelasien Décret. VI, 1, 744), but it is unclear whether this refers to the letter of Lucian.2. Shrines and churches in honor of St. Stephen. — The principal part of the relics, brought to Jerusalem and deposited by Bishop John in the church of Sion, was transferred in 439 by Patriarch Juvenal to the church of the stoning of Stephen, which was later replaced by the great basilica built by the Empress Eudoxia and dedicated on June 15, 460. The portion that remained at Kaphar Gamala (the ruins of the fifth-century sanctuary are still visible) was generously distributed by the priest Lucian to all who requested II. In the West, certain churches that obtained relics became true shrines to which the thaumaturgic power of the saint drew numerous devotees; these privileged centers were the island of Minorca (cf. the letter of Bishop Severus [q.v.]: PL 41, 821-32), and in Africa, Uzalum (cf. De miraculis s. Stephani, two books: PL 41, 833-54), Calama, and Hippo (a memoria dedicated in 425). St. Augustine became the herald of devotion to the protomartyr, and it was through his initiative that the faithful were asked to compile, for the bishop, the libellus, that is, the account of the miracle, intended to be read to the people (cf. De Civitate Dei, XXII, VIII, 20-21: PL 41, 768-69). Well known is the libellus of Paul of Caesarea, who was miraculously healed at the memoria of St. Stephen 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 Stephen’s body, there was already a church dedicated to the protomartyr, in which a stone believed to have been used in his stoning was preserved (cf. Augustine, Serm. 323, 2: PL 38, 1445-46). At Constantinople, around 380, Aurelian, consul in 460 (cf. Theodorus Lector, Hist. eccl. fragmenta: PG 86, 221), and the Novatian bishop Sisinnus (d. 407; cf. Sozomen, Hist. eccl., VIII, 24), erected two churches in honor of Stephen, and the Empress Pulcheria (d. 453) built the famous St. Stephen’s in the Palace. At Rome, the virgin Demetrias (q.v.) built, under the pontificate of St. Leo the Great, the basilica of St. Stephen on the Via Latina (cf. Lib. Pont., I, pp. 238, 531); Pope Simplicius dedicated to him the centrally planned church known as St. Stephen in the Round on the Caelian Hill, and another near St. Lawrence outside the Walls (cf. Lib. Pont., I, p. 249). Not much later must be the oratory of St. Stephen in the monastery of St. Mary Major, near St. Peter’s, now known as St. Stephen of the Abyssinians. At Ravenna, Archbishop Maximian dedicated to St. Stephen on December 11, 550, a great basilica, now lost, which stood on the site of a fifth-century memoria sacred to the protomartyr (cf. Agnellus, ed. A. Testi Rasponi, Bologna 1924, pp. 190-92). At Naples, toward the end of the fifth century, Bishop Victor erected a church to St. Stephen in front of the cemetery basilica of St. Januarius (cf. D. Mallardo, Il Calendario Marmoreo di Napoli, Rome 1924, pp. 121-22). From the sixth century onward, churches in honor of St. Stephen became exceedingly numerous; suffice it to say that in Rome, in addition to those already mentioned, there are twenty-six others (cf. Ch. Hülsen, *Le chiese di Roma nel medioevo*, Florence 1927, pp. 471-86), and as many as sixty-nine in the diocese of Milan (cf. F. Savio, *Gli antichi vescovi d'Italia. La Lombardia*, I, ibid. 1913, p. 775).
Stephen, Saint — Plan of St. Stephen on the Via Latina (5th century), executed by the Restoration School of the School of Architecture in Rome (1952).
### Liturgical Feasts
The name of St. Stephen appears as early as the 5th century in the Roman and Ambrosian Eucharistic canons (in the *Nobis quoque* list). In the Latin Church, his feasts are celebrated on August 2 and December 26; in the Greek Church, on August 2 and December 27; in the Nestorian Church, on the fourth Friday after Epiphany; and in the Chaldean, Coptic, and Syriac Churches, on January 8 (other dates in N. Nilles, *Kalendarium manuale utriusque Eccl. Orient. et Occid.*, 2 vols., 2nd ed., Innsbruck 1866–97, see index). Since the exact day of St. Stephen’s death remains unknown, his *dies natalis* was assigned to December 26 because, from the 4th century onward, his status as the protomartyr of the nascent Church led him to be placed at the head of the group of biblical figures venerated in the East immediately after Christ’s Nativity due to their special relationship with Him. For this, see the interesting section 23 of Afraates’ *Demonstratio XXI*, written in 344–45 (ed. J. Parisot, in R. Graffin, *Patrologia Syriaca*, I, Paris 1894, p. 937).
The feast of December 26 is attested by St. Gregory of Nyssa in 379 (*In laudem fratris Basilii: PG 46, 789*); by Asterius of Amasea at the beginning of the 5th century (*Hom. XII in laudem S. Stephani: PG 40, 340*); by the *Syriac Martyrology* of 411–12 (ed. H. Lietzmann, Bonn 1911, p. 7); by the *Calendars* of Silvius Polemius of 448 (ed. Th. Mommsen, in *CIL*, I, 2nd ed., Berlin 1893, p. 279), of Carthage from the beginning of the 6th century (ed. Lietzmann, op. cit., p. 6), and of Carmona in Spain from the 6th century (ed. J. Vives, *Inscripciones cristianas de la España romana y visigoda*, Barcelona 1942, p. 113); by the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum*; and by the so-called *Leonine Sacramentary* (ed. Ch. L. Feltoe, Cambridge 1896, pp. 85–98, where the *libellus missarum* of St. Stephen, placed on August 2 under the heading of Pope Stephen, includes nine Masses, eight of which are for the *dies natalis* of December 26, as revealed in the preface of Mass VII [p. 89], which refers to the Nativity of Christ); by the ancient *Gelasian Sacramentary* (ed. H. A. Wilson, Oxford 1894, pp. 6–7), and subsequently by all Western liturgical books.
In the Eastern Churches, where it was and still is customary to commemorate Christ’s relatives on December 26, the feast of St. Stephen was moved to December 27. This date is attested at the beginning of the 7th century by Sophronius of Jerusalem (*Orat. VIII in ss. apost. Petrum et Paulum: PG 87, 3361*), by the Jacobite Syriac Menology of the 7th century (ed. F. Nau, in *Patrologia Orientalis*, X [1915], p. 31), by the Greek Synaxaria, etc.
On August 2, the Greek Church commemorates the translation of St. Stephen’s relics to Constantinople under Theodosius II, a story known through an anachronistic account (*BHL*, 7857–58; *BHG*, 1649–51). On the 3rd of the same month, the Latin Church instead celebrates the feast of the discovery of the Saint’s relics, which occurred, along with the event, on December 18 or 19, 415. This feast, though mentioned in the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum* on August 2 and 3, did not enter the Sacramentaries and Missals before the 9th–10th centuries (cf. A. Ebner, *Missale Romanum in Mittelalter. Iter Italicum*, Freiburg in Br. 1896, pp. 81, 215; V. JALABERT, LOUIS, *Les sacramentaires et missels manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France*, I, Paris 1924, pp. 42, 46, 72 [see index, III, pp. 415–16]; A. Baumstark, *Missale Romanum*, Eindhoven 1929, p. 224). Stephen, Bishop of Liège (903–920), composed the Office for this feast, including both text and melody, which enjoyed wide diffusion (cf. A. Auda, *L'école musicale de Liège au Xe siècle. Étienne de Liège*, Brussels 1923, pp. 42–66).
Originally, the feast of August 2 or 3 may have commemorated the dedication of a church. Fr. Delehaye suggests that it might refer to the dedication of the sanctuary in Ancona; however, it is not unlikely that in Rome this day was intended to recall the dedication of one of the aforementioned basilicas, since in the so-called *Leonine Sacramentary*, the ninth Mass of the *libellus missarum* of St. Stephen, inserted under August 2, was composed for the dedication of a basilica to the Saint, as explicitly stated in the Preface (op. cit., p. 90).
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### Iconography
St. Stephen is depicted as a young man dressed in the sacred vestments of a deacon, and his representations are often characterized by the stones that allude to his martyrdom by stoning. He is frequently portrayed alongside the second patron of the diaconate, St. Lawrence. Several representations of St. Stephen survive from the early Middle Ages, among which the most notable are the mosaic in the triumphal arch of the basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls in Rome, datable between 578 and 590 (cf. pl. CVI of Vol. VII), and the frescoes in the Cemetery of Commodilla (7th century) and in Santa Maria Antiqua in the Roman Forum (8th century). The scene depicting the stoning of the Saint, 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. Stephen appears among the Apostles and other saints seated beside Christ in the *Last Judgment* frescoed by Pietro Cavallini around 1290 in Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome. Giotto also portrays him in a panel at the Horne Museum in Florence, providing an excellent iconographic model of the Saint. A magnificent bronze statue of St. Stephen adorns the tabernacle of the Lanauloi in Orsanmichele, Florence; it is the work of Lorenzo Ghiberti (1426). Also noteworthy is the marble figure adorning 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. Stephen, along with those of St. Lawrence, was frescoed around 1450 by Fra Angelico on the walls of the Niccoline Chapel in the Vatican Palace. It consists of six scenes: 1) the diaconal ordination of St. Stephen; 2) the distribution of alms; 3) his preaching to the people; 4) St. Stephen before the Jewish priest; 5) his being led to martyrdom; and 6) his stoning.
Another notable cycle depicting the Stories of St. Stephen was painted by Vittore Carpaccio between 1511 and 1515 for the scuola di S. Stefano in Venice. Four scenes from this now-dismantled cycle survive: one, showing the consecration of the Saint, is in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin; another, depicting the dispute, is in the Brera Gallery in Milan; a third, with the Saint’s sermon, is in the Louvre; and a fourth, illustrating the stoning, is in the Stuttgart Gallery.
Sixteenth-century painting produced several splendid and highly characteristic individual representations of the Saint. First among these is a panel by Francia in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, where St. Stephen is seen kneeling, his bleeding head bowed in prayer during his martyrdom (cf. pl. xcvii of vol. IV). Also notable is the triptych by Pier Francesco Bissolo in the Brera Gallery in Milan, whose central panel shows the Saint in a dalmatic, with stones—miraculously suspended, it would seem—hovering above his head and right arm.
Raphael included St. Stephen among the figures of the celestial choir in the Disputa del Sacramento in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican. The Vatican Pinacoteca holds a painting of the Stoning of St. Stephen executed by Giorgio Vasari around 1560.
Among the most notable nineteenth-century works were the frescoed Stories of St. Stephen and St. Lawrence in the nave of the basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le mura, painted by Cesare Fracassini and others during the restoration of the basilica under the pontificate of Pius IX; these frescoes were almost entirely destroyed when the basilica was bombed on 19 July 1943. — See pl. XCI.
IV. APOCALYPSE OF ST. STEPHEN — An apocryphal work rejected as such (*Revelatio quae appellatur* [sancti] Stephani, apocr.) in the Decretum (*Gelasianum*) de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis (260, after the apocrypha of Paul and Thomas: PL 59, 177–78).
Following P. von Winterfeld (1902), O. Bardenhewer proposed identifying it 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 two Latin recensions (PL 41, 805–18), which in the codex Floriacensis and elsewhere begins: *Revelatio s. Stephani*; yet this attractive hypothesis remains doubtful. Equally unproven is the identification with the legendary *Revelatio or Martyrium Stephani* from the Pseudo-Clementine cycle, whose Greek original is lost but survives in a Georgian version (Codex of Mount Athos, 10th cent., ed. du Marr: PO 19, 689–99) and in a Slavonic text published by Ivan Franko in Ukrainian and later rendered into German from the Lvov and Zamosty manuscripts. Some have conjectured 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 (*Bibliotheca Sancta*, Naples ed. 1742, p. 193) asserts that this Apocalypse of St. Stephen was held in honor among the Manichees.