St. Stephen

Martyr

When talking about martyr’s the saint that comes to my mind is St. Stephen but not only because I have the same name. The name Stephen is a Greek name stemming from the name Stephanos. The name Stephen itself means “crown”. Stephen is said to be a Hellenist Jew meaning he was a Jew born in far land and native language was Greek.
Stephen is not only the first Christian martyr but one of the first deacons of the church. When talk of the appointment of the first deacons is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles Stephen is the first mentioned in the acts as well as the most common deacon talked about. The apostles decided to appoint seven deacons to help take care of the poor and widows. After St. Stephen was ordained a deacon he began to preach to the Hellenist converts because the apostles did not know much about these people. It is said by the church appointing Stephen a deacon they thought of him as a man of a great reputation and full of the Holy Spirit.
St. Stephen began preaching and became one of the best. He was said to speak with such grace and wisdom that the people who listened to Stephen preach immediately became followers if they were not already. However his influential preaching was soon to make him enemies. When a certain group of peoples challenged Stephen to a dispute he

agreed. The group of people could not put up an argument against Stephen. These people immediately began to hate Stephen and hired false witnesses to testify that Stephen spoke blasphemies of God and Moses. Stephen was soon arrested and taken before the Sanhedrin where they accused him of saying that Jesus will destroy this place and challenge all of what Moses has taught you. His answer to the accusations was a long speech of God’s mercies on Israel. During all of these accusations it is said that Stephen sat before the Sanhedrin with the look on his face as if he were an angel.
The Jewish people in the audience did not take what Stephen had said lightly. The...