St. Stephen

On December 26, the day after Christmas, the Church honors St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. The Acts of the Apostles records that Stephen, "a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit," was one of the seven deacons appointed by the apostles to serve the Greek-speaking widows of the Jerusalem church (Acts 6:1-7). He "did great wonders and signs among the people," and was brought before the Sanhedrin on charges of blasphemy. His long speech before the council (Acts 7) — the first great Christian theological address — ended with the accusation that they had betrayed and murdered the Righteous One. The council dragged him out of the city and stoned him; as he died, he prayed, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (Acts 7:60), echoing Christ's own prayer from the Cross. Saul of Tarsus, the future Paul, stood by and watched.

The traditional site of the stoning is outside the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, where the 5th-century Church of St. Stephen was built by the Empress Eudocia. The church was destroyed in the 12th century, but the Dominican Church of St. Stephen, rebuilt in 1900 on the same site, still marks the place. Stephen's relics were discovered in 415 in the tomb at Kfar Gamala, near Jerusalem, in a vision shown to the priest Lucian; they were translated to Jerusalem and then to Rome, where they rest in the Basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura alongside those of Lawrence the deacon — the two deacon-martyrs, the first of Jerusalem and the first of Rome.

The St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom) at Vienna — the Gothic heart of the Austrian capital — is dedicated to the first martyr and is the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna. Its 137-metre spire and chevron-tiled roof define the city's skyline, and the cathedral holds relics of more than three hundred saints in its catacombs. Consecrated on the site of a 12th-century parish church, the Stephansdom has been the centre of Viennese Catholic life for eight centuries.

The placement of Stephen's feast on the day after Christmas is deliberate and ancient — the Church has always kept it there since at least the 5th century. The logic is that the birth of the Saviour is followed immediately by the shedding of the first blood for his name: the Word was made flesh, and the first witness laid down his life.