Protomartyr 

The fourth week of Advent is usually cut short by the arrival of Christmas, which is the beginning (not the end!) of the Christmas season. One of the things I love about the first days of the Christmas season are all of the beautiful feasts contained in them. Right on the heels of the celebration of Our Savior’s birth on 12/25 is the Feast Day of St. Stephen on 12/26. Stephen is known in the Church as “protomartyr,” since he was the first to die for his faithful witness to the gospel.  His importance to the early Church is shown by the fact that his story takes up two whole chapters in the Acts of the Apostles. Stephen was among seven men chosen from the early Christian community for a special ministry of service to the Apostles. These were the first deacons, and they oversaw the provision of care for the poor members of the Church.  

Stephen was exceptional among his fellow deacons for also being a powerful preacher. His preaching was characterized by a presentation of the Old Testament as fulfilled in Christ.  Pope Benedict XVI likened Stephen’s preaching to that of Christ’s on the road to Emmaus. “Just as Jesus had shown the disciples of Emmaus that the whole of the Old Testament speaks of Him, of His cross and His Resurrection, so St. Stephen… show[ed] that the mystery of the Cross stands at the center of the history of salvation as recounted in the Old Testament; it shows that Jesus, Crucified and Risen, is truly the goal of all this history.” Stephen’s preaching also showed the people that the sacrifice of Christ had rendered the ritual sacrifices at the Jerusalem Temple obsolete. For all of this, he was condemned to death for blasphemy by the scholars of the Law whose hatred for Stephen was compounded by their inability to refute his arguments.  As he was being stoned to death outside the city walls of Jerusalem, Stephen prayed with his last breath that the sins of his killers would not be held against them, in imitation of his Savior. 

Overseeing Stephen’s execution was a young Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus, the future St. Paul. Pope Benedict writes that after his conversion Paul took up the themes of Stephen’s preaching, proclaiming that Christ’s act of sacrifice on the cross for the sake of reconciling fallen humanity with God is the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament. Thus, Paul showed “that the God of Abraham had become the God of all. And all believers in Jesus Christ, as children of Abraham, shared in [God’s] promises. St. Stephen’s vision was brought about in St. Paul’s mission.” 

In a famous sermon given on the feast of St. Stephen, St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430AD) noted that the celebration of the birth of Christ into the world is immediately followed by the birthday of Christ’s servant Stephen into eternal life. “What we celebrated on the Lord’s birthday was his becoming like us; what we are celebrating on his servant’s birthday is his becoming as close as possible to Christ.” And so, instead of spending 12/26 taking down decorations, relax and enjoy the feast of the protomartyr, who helps us understand the revolutionary significance of Our Savior’s birth. 

posted 12/21/24