Our Patron Saint

Saint Stephen

Saint Stephen was the first and archdeacon of the seven deacons whom the holy apostles ordained and appointed to the service of assisting the poor in Jerusalem.  The account of Stephen’s ministry and martyrdom is outlined in detail in Acts of the Apostles (Acts 6–7).  Among the Proto-martyr’s persecutors was his kinsman Saul, later the Apostle Paul.  At that time, the Most-holy Theotokos, standing on a rock at a distance with John the Theologian, witnessed the martyrdom of this first martyr for the truth of her Son and God, and she prayed to God for Stephen.  This occurred one year after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles.  Gamaliel, a prince of the Jews and a secret Christian, clandestinely took Stephen's body and buried it on his own estate.  Thus, this first among the Christian martyrs gloriously reposed and took up his habitation in the Kingdom of Christ God.