Good King Wenceslas looked out,
On the feast of Stephen.
Thus the famous Christmas carol records the feast day of the first deacon of the Christian Church and the first martyr. All that we know of his life is in the Acts of the Apostles (6-7). He was almost certainly a Greek-speaking Jew, appointed as one of ‘the seven’ by the apostles ‘to serve tables’ and look after the distribution of alms to the faithful. His duties included looking after the needs of the Greek-speaking Christian widows in Jerusalem. Evidently, he was learned in the Scriptures and the history of Judaism, and eloquent and forceful in his preaching. This incurred the hostility of the Jews who denounced him to the Sanhedrin. Being brought before the council he delivered the great discourse reported in Acts 7. 2-53. He stated that Christianity had superseded the Temple and that like the Mosaic Law it was a temporary institution. Christ, he said, was the prophet designated by Moses and the Messiah who the Jews had long awaited. Finally, he attacked his hearers for resisting the spirit and for killing the Christ as their fathers had killed the prophets. He called them “stiffnecked men who resisted the Holy Spirit as their fathers had done. Incensed at his denunciations, his accusers, apparently without formal trial, had him stoned according to the Law of Moses. The witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man from Tarsus named Saul who was standing by approving the execution. In his final moments Stephen had a vision of Christ at the right hand of God and died confessing Christ, and, like the Master Himself, forgiving his executioners. Saul, much affected by what he had witnessed was soon to become Saint Paul the great apostle to the gentiles, missionary and author of numerous letters that form a large part of the New Testament.
Stephen’s body was buried by ‘devout men’ (Acts 8.2) and his tomb was lost until 415 when Lucian, a priest, discovered it. The Empress Eudocia had a church built in his honour outside the Damascus Gate.455-60. Saint Stephen was one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages especially on the continent where his statue was given a place of honour in numerous churches. In the East his Icon is often to be seen in a prominent place on the Iconostasis. He is usually depicted tonsured, robed in the vestments of a deacon, holding a censer in one hand and a miniature church in the other.
‘Good King Wenceslas’ c907-929 was a Bohemian prince who received a Christian education from his grandmother. He worked for the religious and cultural improvement of his people. He was murdered by his brother and was soon venerated as a martyr. J.M.Neale’s famous carol Good King Wenceslas made him a household word, but its contents are entirely fictitious. Its really a re-use of a 13th-century spring carol Tempus adest floridum..
Christopher Jobson
You can listen to “Good King Wenceslas” below. Please note that YouTube carries advertisements over which we have no control.
Feature Image: Carracci,Annibale-The_Stoning_of_St_Stephen-_1603-04 (Wikicommons, PD)