St stephen protomartyr biography of donald

He shows that the mystery of the Cross stands at the centre 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 also shows that the cult of the temple was over and that Jesus, the Risen One, was the new, true "temple". It was precisely this "no" to the temple and to its cult that led to the condemnation of St.

Stephen, who at this moment, St. Luke tells us, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and seeing heaven, God and Jesus, St. Stephen said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God" cf. This was followed by his martyrdom, modelled in fact on the passion of Jesus himself, since he delivered his own spirit to the "Lord Jesus" and prayed that the sin of those who killed him would not be held against them cf.

The place of St. Stephen's martyrdom in Jerusalem has traditionally been located outside the Damascus Gate, to the north, where indeed the Church of Saint-Etienne [St. Stephen] stands beside the famous Ecole Biblique of the Dominicans. The killing of Stephen, the first martyr of Christ, unleashed a local persecution of Christ's disciples cf.

Acts , the first one in the history of the Church. It was these circumstances that impelled the group of Judeo-Hellenist Christians to flee from Jerusalem and scatter. Hounded out of Jerusalem, they became itinerant missionaries: "Those who were scattered went about preaching the word" Acts Their persecution and consequent dispersion became a mission.

Thus, the Gospel spread also to Samaria, Phoenicia and Syria, as far as the great city of Antioch where, according to Luke, it was proclaimed for the first time also to the pagans cf. Acts , and where, for the first time the name "Christians" was used Acts In particular, Luke noted that those who stoned Stephen "laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul" Acts , the same man who from being a persecutor was to become an outstanding Apostle of the Gospel.

This means that the young Saul must have heard Stephen's preaching and must therefore have been acquainted with its principal content. Paul was probably among those who, following and listening to this discourse, "were enraged and And at this point, we can see the marvels of divine Providence.

St stephen protomartyr biography of donald

After his encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Saul, a relentless enemy of Stephen's vision, took up the Christological interpretation of the Old Testament made by the First Martyr, deepening and completing it, and consequently became the "Apostle to the Gentiles". The Law is fulfilled, he taught, in the Cross of Christ. And faith in Christ, communion with Christ's love, is the true fulfilment of all the Law.

This is the content of Paul's preaching. John the Theologian, and witnessed the martyrdom of this first martyr for the truth of her Son and God, and she prayed for Stephen. This all occurred exactly one year after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, which we celebrate on Pentecost. Stephen's body was taken secretly and buried by Gamaliel on his own land.

Gamaliel was a Jewish prince and a secret Christian. Thus this first of Christ's martyrs made a glorious end and entered into the Kingdom of Christ our God. Stephen's relics. This occurred about a year after the first Pentecost. When the Jews stoned St. Stephen, they left his body at the foothill of the city for two days to be eaten by dogs.

But on the second night, Gamaliel—teacher of the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Barnabas—came and moved the body to his own land in Capharganda. Nicodemus, who died while weeping at this grave, was also buried there along with Gamaliel's godson Abibus and Gamaliel himself upon his repose. After many years the memory of St. Stephen's burial place had left the minds of men, until when Gamaliel appeared three times to Father Lucian, priest at Capharganda.

He revealed to Fr. Lucian the place of his burial and everything about it. Lucian received the blessing of the Patriarch to exhume the saints from their grave where a strong, sweet fragrance fillled the cave. Stephen's relics were tranlated to Zion and honorably buried, and many of the sick were healed by his relics. Stephen was arrested, not without some violence it seems the Greek word synerpasan implies so much , and dragged before the Sanhedrin , where he was accused of saying that " Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place [the temple], and shall change the traditions which Moses delivered unto us" vi, 12 No doubt Stephen had by his language given some grounds for the accusation; his accusers apparently twisted into the offensive utterance attributed to him a declaration that "the most High dwelleth not in houses made by hands" vii, 48 , some mention of Jesus foretelling the destruction of the Temple and some inveighing against the burthensome traditions fencing about the Law, or rather the asseveration so often repeated by the Apostles that "there is no salvation in any other" cf.

However this may be, the accusation left him unperturbed and "all that sat in the council Stephen's answer Acts 7 was a long recital of the mercies of God towards Israel during its long history and of the ungratefulness by which, throughout, Israel repaid these mercies. This discourse contained many things unpleasant to Jewish ears; but the concluding indictment for having betrayed and murdered the Just One whose coming the Prophets had foretold, provoked the rage of an audience made up not of judges, but of foes.

When Stephen "looking up steadfastly to heaven , saw the glory of God , and Jesus standing on the right hand of God ", and said: "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God " vii, 55 , they ran violently upon him vii, 56 and cast him out of the city to stone him to death. Stephen's stoning does not appear in the narrative of the Acts as a deed of mob violence ; it must have been looked upon by those who took part in it as the carrying out of the law.

According to law Leviticus , or at least its usual interpretation, Stephen had been taken out of the city; custom required that the person to be stoned be placed on an elevation from whence with his hands bound he was to be thrown down. It was most likely while these preparations were going on that, "falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" vii, Meanwhile the witnesses, whose hands must be first on the person condemned by their testimony Deuteronomy , were laying down their garments at the feet of Saul, that they might be more ready for the task devolved upon them vii, The praying martyr was thrown down; and while the witnesses were thrusting upon him "a stone as much as two men could carry", he was heard to utter this supreme prayer : " Lord Jesus , receive my spirit" vii, Little did all the people present, casting stones upon him, realize that the blood they shed was the first seed of a harvest that was to cover the world.

The bodies of men stoned to death were to be buried in a place appointed by the Sanhedrin. For centuries the location of St.