Stephen

Protomartyr, saint

Feast-day: 26th Dec. (observed since end of 4C, from 9C to 1955 festal week), 3rd Aug festival of discovery of his relics (observed from 9C to 1960).

Life: acc. to Acts 6, 1 to 8, 2, because of ar­guments between Jewish and Gentile Christians in Jerusalem, seven men were chosen to help the apostles with distributing alms, among them being S, who belonged among the Greek-speaking Jews. Missionary sermons by him in the libertine synagogue (the libertines were freed slaves and their offspring) and other synagogal communities (of which the Cyrenean, Alexandrian, Jewish Cilician and Asian are mentioned) caused uproar, which led to a charge of blasphemous speech against both temple and law at the Sanhedrin. In accordance with Mosaic law (Levit. 24,11), S. was thereupon stoned to de­ath.

Legends: selection from legends taken from Vita fabulosa of 10C/11C: shortly after his birth, S. is abducted by the Devil. - A chan­geling is found in the cradle instead. - S. is suckled by a hind, found by Bishop Julian and at the request of the hind adopted by Ju­lian. - As a young man, he returns to his pa­rents and exorcises the changeling, where­upon a demon with horns, bat's wings and a long tail escapes. - During a Passover meal at the house of his parents, the wine suddenly turns to blood as a sign of the martyrdom of the son. - After the stoning, wild beasts keep watch over the body. - Gamaliel and Nicodemus bury S. in one of Gamaliel's fields. -Selection of episodes from the 12C

English/Scandinavian Christmas Legends:

S. was a servant (variant: stable boy) at the court of King Herod. - S. sees the star of Bethlehem and interprets the event to Herod. - At a banquet, a roast cock gets up from the plate and crows "Christusnatus est".⁷⁷. - Enraged, Herod has S. stoned. - Selec­tion of posthumous legends from the Golden Legend: in the year 415, Gamaliel appears to Lucian the priest and reveals the lost grave of S. - A sick pagan in the town of Martialis, who has spent the night on flowers from the St S. altar, asks to be baptized next morning.

Patronage: the diocese of Vienna, patron saint of horses, stable boys, coopers, coachmen, masons, slings men, tailors, stone carvers, weavers, carpenters; against headaches, stitch, and stones.

Veneration and cult sites: Body allegedly found on 3rd Aug, 415 in Kafar Gamala, 15 km from Jerusalem (in 1916, the ruins of a small church with a rock tomb were discov­ered by the Salesians, which might well be the grave mentioned by Lucian). Translation of relics to the church on Mt Zion, Jerusalem, to Constantinople; 560 relics to San Lorenzo fuori le mura, Rome, Zwiefalten since 1141 (left hand). Since the 5C, a place 350m north of the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem is mentioned as the martyrdom spot; a church was erected there in 455/60 by the Empress Eudocia, later burnt down by the Persians in the 7C (excavated 1882 when the Ecole Bib-lique was constructed). Canon saints; vene­ration spread along two routes from the east:

a) Ancona, Naples, north Africa, Rhone estuary, Aries, Konstanz; b) north Italy, Chur, Passau, Vienna. In the late Middle Ages the cult of S. was promoted chiefly by royal houses, esp. by King Stephen of Hun­gary.

Superstitions: invocations in numerous in­cantations and traditions. - In Silesia and Poland, after the service on St S.'s Day the priest is showered with oats as he leaves the church; in Beuthen, the congregation indul­ge in mutual throwing, probably in imitati­on of the stoning of S. - Early in the morning, girls⁷ backs are beaten by the boys with swit­ches or sometimes (e.g. in Bohemia) with plants. - Sometimes this happens the other way round or mutually, in the sense of a fer­tility rite. - The last person to get up in Viol/ Schleswig on St S/s Day has to ride round to the neighbors on a pitchfork in a nightshirt amid general mockery, and is rewarded with a tasty morsel or two. - On the first day of school, the prayer of St S. is read to boys to make them eloquent. - St Stephen's potion has been around since Carolingian times, and is thus the earliest demonstrable love potion. St S.'s wine, which is blessed in church, must be red wine, and there must be a stone at the bottom of the glass. - In Wurt-temberg, the poor used to get St S.'s bread for alms. - Flowers, which are put on the St S.’s altar, brought health to the sick. - Cloths from the St S's altar have curative effects. -Peasants on food, barns and fields against witches and evil spirits sprinkle water dedicated on St S.’s Day. - Salt consecrated on St S.'s Day is shaped into a block and hung in the stall. - Before the cattle are dri­ven up to the high pastures in the New Year, they are given the salt to lick. - Peasants are supposed to lick St S.'s salt if they go on a long journey. - Game that licks St S.'s salt is easily caught by hunters. - Oats are cons­ecrated on St S.'s day, and are given to horses as a protection against disease. - Bloodletting of horses on St S.'s day protects them from disease. - There is in addition a rich tra­dition of customs at Christmas and New Year not directly connected with S., such as the moving of objects or traditions of horse­shoes as harbingers of good luck in the New Year, etc.

Representations in Art: Apparel: as a young deacon on a white tunic (S Lorenzo fuori le mura, Rome, 6C mosaic); as a deacon in an amice/, alb, stole, maniple and dalmatic (cha­pel of Merton College, Oxford, stained glass c. 1300); in a richly patterned dalmatic (Ra-sini Collection, Milan, early 16C painting by V. Foppa); dalmatic with a stole worn over the robe (Stadtischer Kunstbesitz, Goslar, late 13C). Attributes: gospel book, palm (Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, mid- 13C painting); stones in a halo (S Ceci-lia in Trastevere, Rome, fresco by Cavallini c. 1293); stones on his head (book of hours by Rohan in Bibl. Nationale, Paris, lat. 947, illumination, 1st half of 15C); stones in his hands (Bamberg Cathedral, Adam door, 13C fig.); stones on the book (Breisach, Munster, fig. by H. L. Master 1526); in the folds of a puffed dalmatic (Ghent altar, St Bavo, Ghent, painting by H. and J. van Eyck 1432);

censer (Kansas Gallery of Art, early 16C painting by Carpaccio); incense boat (Museo Piersanti, Matelica, 15C painting by J. Bellini), elevated gospel (cloister of St-Trophime, Aries, relief fr. 2nd half of 12C). Special sce­nes: miracle of the wine in the house of S.'s parents (St-Etienne, Beauvais, stained glass 1526); tomb (Musee municipal, Arras, paint­ing by E. Delacroix 1862). Martyrdom: S. ly­ing beneath a pile of stones (fragment of book cover fr. Metz School, c. 850); kneeling S. being stoned (Louvre, Paris, painting by Carracci c. 1604); S. receives the martyr's crown and palm from angels (National Gal­lery of Scotland, Edinburgh, painting by A. Elsheimer c. 1602/5). Cycles: very nume­rous : a) story as per Acts of Apostles: Chart-res Cathedra, south transept, early 13C fig.; shrine at Gimel, late 12C reliefs; Nicholas V Chapel, Vatican City, frescoes by Fra Angelico c. 1449; Szt Istvan church, Papa, painting by F. A. Maulpertsch 1782; b) legends and biblical scenes: Sens Cathedral, reliefs post 1268; Musee de Cluny, Paris, tapestries 1502; c) finding of relics and translation Cy­cles: Vatican City museums, 14C painting by B. Daddi; S Lorenzo fuori le mura, Rome, mural, 2nd half of 13C; d) Vita fabulosa ver­sion : Lentate Oratory, frescoes fr. 2nd half of 14C with 43 scenes; e) English-Scandinavian version of Christmas Legends: ceiling paint­ing/ Dadesjo (Sweden), end 13C; St George's Chapel Windsor, painting end 15C.