My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!
+
ON THE 27th OF DECEMBER OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE PASSION OF THE HOLY PROTOMARTYR AND ARCHDEACON STEFANOS (STEPHEN)
After accomplishing the mystery of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and sent down the Holy Spirit from the Father, in the form of fiery tongues (Acts, Ch. 2). The faithful began to multiply in number, and "there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews" (Acts Ch. 6). The Greeks here referred to were not the pagan idolaters generally called the heathen in the Holy Scripture, for the time had not come for the door of faith to be opened to these, nor had the word of salvation been preached to them. It was only later, following Stefano's murder, that the heathen began to be numbered among the believers (Acts, Ch. 14 ). The first of them to be baptized was Cornelius, who was initiated into Christ by Saint Peter (Acts, Ch, 10). When "they that were of the circumcision" (Acts, Ch. 11) heard that Peter had associated with "men uncircumcised" and eaten with them, they were extremely displeased and complained to the Apostle. He explained that he had seen a vision of a great sheet let down from heaven, full of unclean animals, and was told to kill and eat, and also that men came to him from Cornelius, announcing that an Angel had appeared to that just man with instructions for him to send for Peter the Apostle and accept his teaching (Acts, Ch. 10). After this "they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life" (Acts, Ch. 11).
The Greek Christians who grumbled against the Jews soon after the day of Pentecost were not, then, converts from heathenism, but Jews obedient to the Law of Moses, dispersed among other nations. Saint John Chrysostom writes, "The Greeks mentioned in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles were, I believe Greek-speaking Jews." Thus it was among Greeks of the Dispersion that "there arose a murmuring against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration" (Acts, Ch. 6): they were assigned the lowliest tasks, or given poor and insufficient food and clothing.
Because of this, the Twelve Apostles "assembled the multitude of the disciples" and said, "It is not reasonable that we should leave the word of God preaching, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen (Stefanos), a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte (convert) of Antioch." The very names of these men, which are Greek, show that they were not Jews from Jerusalem, but came from other lands. Stephen (Stefanos), for example, was a relative of Saul, known as Paul after he was called to the faith and the Apostolic dignity; and it is known that Saint Paul was from Tarsus in Cilicia (Acts, Ch. 21 and 22). Because the Apostles wished to placate and silence the Hellenes (Greeks), who were offended by the injustices done to their widows all seven men appointed were Greeks. The candidates were set "before the Apostles, who, when they had prayed, laid their hands on them" (they were ordained), making them Deacons.
Stefanos (Stephen), being full of faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, was the foremost of the Seven Deacons and received the title archdeacon. He "did great wonders and miracles among the people" (Acts, Ch. 6), although these are not described in the Scripture. Actually, not even Christ's miracles are fully recorded, for it says in the Gospel, "There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (John, Ch. 21).
Once St. Stephen came upon Jews, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Greek Jews quarreling about the Lord Jesus Christ: some of them saying that He was a Prophet, others that He was a deceiver still others that He was the Son of God. Standing on a high place, the Saint proclaimed Christ the Lord, saying, "Brethren, why are you at odds with one another, disturbing all Jerusalem? Blessed are they that believe in Jesus Christ, Who bowed the heavens and came down to cleanse our sins, and was born of the holy and immaculate Maiden chosen before the world's creation. He took upon Himself our infirmities, granting sight to the blind, cleansing lepers, and expelling demons."
Confuted by the truth, which shone brighter than the sun, the Jews burned with anger and paid men to accuse Stephen before the High Priest of having blasphemed Moses and God. In addition, they "stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon Saint Stephen, "and caught him, and brought him" to the High Priest and the council of Jewish teachers. They "they set up the false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered to us."
As the holy Stefanos (Stephen) stood in the midst of the murderers, his face shone with Divine Grace, like Moses' in days of old. His flesh was gloriously transfigured, "and all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as if it had been the face of an angel." The High Priest asked whether the things said by the accusers were true, and Stephen replied by recounting the history of the Hebrew people from the time of Abraham (who was first among them to receive the promise of the Messiah) till Moses. He denied the Jews' charge that he had uttered sacrilegious words against the Holy Place, saying, "Solomon built" the Lord "a house". By this, he meant, "I revere the holy Temple built most wisely by King Solomon with God's permission and sanctified by the glory of the Lord, which appeared in the form of a cloud. I respect the house erected by men to exalt God; nonetheless, I confess that the Lord dwells chiefly in immaterial temples not constructed by human craft, that is, He abides in the hearts of the pure.
With that, divine zeal filled Stephen's heart as it had Elijah's in ancient times, and the Saint began to censure the entire assembly. "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears," he said, "ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the" Messiah's coming (Acts, Ch. 7).
When they heard the Saint say this, the High Priest, Scribes, and the entire crowd of Jews were filled with hatred. "They were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth," but he was not afraid in the least, for he was full of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which emboldened him and enabled him to speak the word of God without hesitation. Looking up "into heaven, he saw the glory of God", which he had long hoped to behold. As his end drew near, he transcended the flesh and received the first-fruits of his reward: he gazed upon Christ Jesus the Lord beckoning him and reminding him that where the Master is, there shall the servant be" (John, Ch. 12). With a loud voice, Stephen proclaimed: "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts, Ch. 7). Declaring boldly what he saw, the holy Protomartyr summoned others to win the crown of suffering.
The malicious Jews, however, who slew the Prophets and rose up against the Lord Himself, the Fulfiller of the Law and the sayings of the Prophets, could not endure hearing Saint Stefanos speak the truth. "They cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord", laying murderous hands on him. Then Saint Stefanos was led out of the city, like his Lord, Who deigned to suffer outside of Jerusalem. The bloodthirsty hypocrites, preparing to stone Christ's good and faithful servant, removed their outer garments so that they could move more freely, and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul (Paul), it is written, "was consenting unto" Stephen's death (Acts, Ch. 8), being more infuriated with him than any of the others, on account of his fanatical devotion to the ancient Law. "He was sorry," Saint Chrysostom tells us, "that he did not have innumerable hands with which to stone Stephen, but consoled himself with the thought that many false witnesses were found to kill the martyr, and that he was able to guard their clothing.
While the Saint was being murdered in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Most Pure Virgin Mary, with Saint John the Theologian and Evangelist, was standing on a hill some distance away, praying fervently to her Son and Lord that He strengthens Stephen and enable him to endure, and that He receives the Archdeacon's soul into His hands. Bloody, weak, and dying, but still standing, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts, Ch. 7). He prayed more fervently for his slayers than for himself: his heart ached with compassion for the murderers, and he cried "with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep." Thus the valiant struggler and Protomartyr finished his course, lying amid blood-stained rocks. His soul flew up through the heavens to reign forever with the King and Lord of glory, Whom he had been deemed worthy to behold before his death.
The holy Archdeacon was ordained by the Apostles soon after Pentecost. He suffered on the 27th day of December during the year following Christ's Ascension. He was just over 30 years old and was a handsome man, but the beauty of his soul far surpassed that of his countenance.
Saint Stephen's corpse was thrown out to become food for beasts and birds and lay a day and a night without burial. On the second night Gamaliel, the renowned teacher of the Jews of Jerusalem (who later, with his son Abib, believed in Christ), sent honorable and trustworthy men to remove the holy relics secretly. Shedding bitter tears, they reverently buried the holy remains on Gamaliel's property in the village called Kaphargamala, which was two miles from Jerusalem. And who would not have wept, asks Saint John Chrysostom, seeing the gentle lamb's dead body, battered by stones?
Many years later the pious Empress Evdokia, wife of Theodosius the Lesser, went to Jerusalem. At the place where the holy Protomartyr Stephen was killed and his blood stained the ground, the Empress, wishing to honor Christ, built a magnificent church dedicated to the Saint. Unto our God be glory forever. Amen. (Source: The Great Collection of the Lives of the Saints)
______________________
DIVINE SERVICES ON FRIDAY DECEMBER 27TH FOR SAINT STEFANOS:
Orthros at 9:00 a.m.
Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.
______________________________
"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos
+++
With sincere agape in His Divine Nativity,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George