I realized that over the past 9 years since I’ve been doing this blog, I never placed a post on St. Stephen, probably because it is close to Christmas and I add a few other reflections on the seasonal festivities. And since he is the name of my Guardian Angel, I think he deserves an appropriate post on his feast day. St. Stephen was a Christian deacon and the first Christian martyr, dying in 36 AD in Jerusalem. He was a foreign-born Jew who spoke Greek. It happened that there were some complaints that the care of the elderly widows was being neglected by the Hebrew-speaking majority. The apostles presented the matter to the congregation and, instructing it to select seven deacons for this community service. They were chosen and ordained, and Stephen, became the best known of the seven. Stephen was bitterly opposed to the Temple of Jerusalem and its sacrificial cult. He revered the law of Moses but considered the temple cult an illegitimate part of it. Stephen seems to think of Jesus as the “restorer of Mosaic religion.” In his discourse, he sets Aaron over against Moses, the Temple over against the tent, and Solomon, who built the Temple, over against David. For Stephen, the building of the Temple was a bit of idolatry, comparable to Aaron’s golden calf; “the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands.” His martyrdom is described in detail in in the Acts of the Apostles, (chapter 7) where we see him confronting the Sanhedrin about his defense of the faith. This defense before the rabbinic court enraged his Jewish audience, and he was taken out of the city and stoned to death. Saul was present at the stoning, but did not participate, but those who did placed their clothes next to him. Stephen’s final words, a prayer of forgiveness for his attackers, echo those of Jesus on the cross. Stephen is the patron saint of deacons and stonemasons.
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