Stephen was a deacon in the early Church at Jerusalem who aroused the enmity of members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy at his trial, he made a speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment on him and was then stoned to death. His martyrdom was witnessed by Saul of Tarsus, also known as Paul, a Pharisee and Roman citizen who would later become a Christian apostle. The Lutheran Church recognizes Stephen as an saint as it recognizes all Christians as saints.
About Saint Stephen in brief
Stephen was a deacon in the early Church at Jerusalem who aroused the enmity of members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy at his trial, he made a speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment on him and was then stoned to death. His martyrdom was witnessed by Saul of Tarsus, also known as Paul, a Pharisee and Roman citizen who would later become a Christian apostle. The Catholic, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Church of the East venerate Stephen as a saint. Traditionally, Stephen is invested with a crown of martyrdom; artistic representations often depict him with three stones and the martyr’s palm frond. Stephen is first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as one of seven deacons appointed by the Apostles to distribute food and charitable aid to poorer members of the community in theEarly church. According to Orthodox belief, he was the eldest and is therefore called ‘archdeacon’”. As another deacon, Nicholas of Antioch, is specifically stated to have been a convert to Judaism, it may be assumed that Stephen was born Jewish, but nothing more is known about his previous life. The reason for the appointment of the deacons is stated to be dissatisfaction among Hellenistic Jews that their widows were being slighted in preference to Hebraic ones in the daily distribution of food.
Since the name ‘Stephanos’ is Greek, it has been assumed that he was one of these Hellenism Jews. The Lutheran Church recognizes Stephen as an saint as it recognizes all Christians as saints. Stephen appealed to the Jewish scriptures to prove how the laws of Moses were not subverted by Jesus. Benedict XVI stated that St. Stephen was standing by the side of God. He said that Jesus was recently executed by the people from the crowd, who threw the stones down so as to be able to do this account at the feet of a young man. Stephen said that the God of glory, he says, appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, thus establishing at the beginning of the speech one of its major themes, that God does not dwell only in one particular building. Stephen recounts the stories of the patriarchs in some depth, and goes into even more detail in the case of Moses. This establishes the second main theme of Stephen’s speech, Israel’s disobedience to God. Stephen denounces his listeners as ‘stiff-necked people who, just as their ancestors had done, resist the coming of the Holy Spirit. They even killed those who predicted his coming, now killed him. And now you have betrayed and murdered him.’ He said: ‘Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God!’
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This page is based on the article Saint Stephen published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
