Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/331

 STEPHEN

287

STEPHEN

iborned fiilse witnesses to testify that "they had ■ard him speak words of blasphemy against [oses and ajiainst God" (vi, 11). No charge could ents and the scribes had been already kindled from le first reiwrts of the preaching of the Apostles, iephen was arrested, not without some violence it leras (the Greek word awTipwaa-ai' implies so much), id dragged before the Sanhedrin, where he was ac- ised of saying that "Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy lis place [the temple), and .shall change the traditions hich Moses delivered unto us" (vi, 12-14). No
 * more apt to rouse tlie mob; the anger of the an-
 * )ubt Stephen had by his language given some

St. Stephen Pnt.^cHiNa, Beato Anoeuco, Vatican

[rounds for the accusation; his accusers apparently .wisted into the offensive utterance attributed to him t declaration that "the most High dwelleth not in louses made by hands" (vii, 48), some mention of lesus foretelling the destruction of the Temple and lome inveighing against the burthensorae traditions encing about the Law, or rather the asseveration so iften repeated by the Apostles that "there is no salva- tion in any other" (of. iv, 12) — the Law not excluded —but Jesus. However this may be, the accusation left him un|)erturbed and "all that sat in the coun- cil .. . saw his face as if it had been the face of an ingel" (vi, 15).

Stephen's answer (Acts, vii) was a long recital of the mercies of God towards Israel during its long history and of the ungratefulness by which, throughout, Israel repaid these mercies. This discourse contained many things unpleasant to Jewish ears; but the concluding indictment for having betrayed and murdered the Just One who.se coming the Prophets had foretold, pro- voked the rage of an audience made up not of judges, but of foes. When Stephen "looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God", and said: "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God" (vii, .55), they ran violently upon him (vii, 50) and cast him out of the city to stone him to death. Stephen's stoning does not appear in the narrative of the Acts as a deed of mob violence; it must have been looked upon by those who took part in it as the carrying out of the law. According to law

(Lev., xxiv, 14), or at least its usual interpretation, Stephen had been taken out of the city; custom re- quired that the per.son to be stoned be placed on an ele- vation from whence with his hands bound he was to be thrown down. It was most likely while these prepa- rations were going on that, "falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying : Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (vii, 59). Meanwhile the witnesses, whose hands must be first on the person condemned by their testimony (Deut., xvii, 7), were laying down their garments at the feet of Saul, that they might be more ready for the task devolved upon them (vii, 57). The praying martyr was thrown down ; and while the v/itnesses were thrusting upon him "a stone as much as two men could carry", he was heard to utter this supreme prayer: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (vii, 58). Little did all the people present, casting stonea upon him, realize that the blood they shed was the first seed of a harvest that was to cover the world.

The bodies of men stoned to death were to be buried in a place appointed by the Sanhedi-in. Whether in this instance the Sanhedrin insisted on its right cannot be affirmed; at any rate, "devout men" — whether Christians or Jews, we are not told — "took order for Stephen's funeral, and made great mourning over him" (viii, 2). For centuries the location of St. Ste- phen's tomb was lost sight of, until (415) a certain priest named Lucian learned by revelation that the sacred body was in Caphar Gamala, .some distance to the north of Jerusalem. The relics were then ex- humed and carried first to the church of Mount Sion, then, in 4('), to the basilica erected by Eudocia out- side the Damascus Gate, on the spot where, accord- ing to tradition, the stoning had taken place (the opinion that the scene of St. Stephen's martyrdom was east of Jerusalem, near the Gate called since St. Stephen's Gate, is unheard of until the twelfth cen- tury). The site of the Eudocian basilica was identi- fied some twenty years ago, and a new edifice has been erected on the old foundations by the Dominican Fathers.

The only fir.st-hand source of information on the life and death of St. Stephen is the Acts of the Apostles (vi, i-viii, 2). On the question of the place of St. Stephen's stoning, see Lagrange, S. Etienne et son sanrtimirf ri Jerusalem (Paris, 1894).

Charles L. Souvat.

Stephen, Saint, first King of Hungary, b. at Gran, 975; d. 15 August, 1038. He was a .son of the Hun- garian chief Geza and was baptized, together with his father, by Archbishop St. Adalbert of Prague in 985, on which occasion he changed his heathen name Vaik (Vojk) into Stephen. In 995 he married Gisela, a sister of Duke Henry of Bavaria, the future Emperor St. Henry II, and in 997 succeeded to the throne of Hungary. In order to make Hungary a Christian nation and to establish himself more firmly as ruler, he sent .\bbot .^stricus to Rome to petition Pope Sylvester II for the royal dignity and the power to establish episcopal sees. The pope acceded to his wishes and, in addition, presented him with a royal crown with which he was crowned at Gran on 17 Augu.st, 1001 (see Hungary. — History). He founded a moniistery in Jerusalem and hospices for pilgrims at Rome, Ravenna, and Constantinople. He was a personal friend of St. Bruno of Querfurt and corre- sponded with .\bbot St. Odilo of Cluny. The last years of his life were embittered by sickness and fam- ily troubles. When on 2 September, 10-31, his only son, St. Enieric, lost his life on a bear hunt, his cher- ished hope of transferring the reins of government into the hands of a pious Christian prinre were shattered. During his lifetime a quarrel arose among his various nephews concerning the right of succession, and some of them even took part in a consjiiracy against his life. He was buried beside his son at Stuhlweissen- burg, and both were canonized together in 108.3. His feast is on 2 September, but in Hungary his chief festival is observed on 20 August, the day on which his