About the Holy First Martyr Stephen

1. Let us crown Stephen with flowers of praise and shower him with roses of songs of praise. He himself had already crowned himself with the victorious rewards of faith. Despite the fact that it is written: “Do not be afraid of those who kill” (Matthew 10:28), attachment to the body is difficult to overcome. But when this young man decided to accept the crown of martyrdom, all difficulty disappeared; he completely destroyed timidity and fear. He was not afraid of the rage of the high priests, not afraid of the insolence of the priests, not horrified by the words of the elders, and not embarrassed by the threats of the scribes; The speeches of false witnesses did not deprive him of his courage: with some kind of noble determination he hurried to the fight for Christ. Which mortal will give worthy praise to the ascetic? Which person will weave a wreath corresponding to his feat? What language can explain the glory of the conqueror? What lips will open to praise the exploits of Stephen? Which ones will be able to express the valor of the first martyr? He labored on earth, but directed his gaze to the heavenly; turned in life, but was attached to heavenly things; talked with mortals, but was ranked among the immortals; fought with people, but rejoiced with angels. Let every age now be firm. Stefan won, and the leader of evil fell. Now, even in gray old age, let the ascetic have hope, since even in old age he who does the right thing receives crowns, and the youth who has withstood the struggle is crowned, and the youth who competed brings gifts with him, and small children who have undergone struggle bring crowns with them, and the women who took part in the struggle are crowned with glory, and the maidens who competed bring victories with them. Now that Stephen has opened the doors of martyrdom, let every age hasten to the feat of martyrdom. Stephen was the first to resist the tyrant, the first to defeat him, the first to lay the foundation for this victorious feat, the first to endure the passion of Christ for Christ, to show mortals how death is defeated, to show mortals how killing is considered a mockery, and to those who revolve in life, he showed the path of ascension to heaven. “Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). The grace of the Spirit attracted Stephen to greater and greater success, because the infinity of his faith aroused jealousy in him. Ordained a deacon, he revealed himself as a martyr; appointed for the needs of widows, he used grace for miracles; was appointed minister of the table, and became a performer of miracles. "Stephen, full of faith and strength". Let, he says, Stefan, by his name, be the wreath of victory, it is Stefan, who has explored with experience a struggle unknown to anyone, who has shown the world an unprecedented battle. This is not typical of human nature, and Stefan alone stood up to the disembodied army. Faith motivated him to such feats, hope gave him the strength to fight to the end. "Stephen, full of faith and strength". Stefan showed the leader of evil as a prisoner, with valiant determination he erected a trophy over him, prepared tears for demons, and joy for people, and appeared as the leader of those fighting for Christ. Whoever now undertakes the struggle for Christ, he has a teacher in Stephen; whoever undertakes the feats of martyrdom, He will imitate Stephen. Stephen is the leader of those who strive for Christ, Stephen is the foundation of those who die for Him. "Stephen, full of faith and strength". This warrior of Christ is fortified from everywhere, the pious military leader is protected from everywhere by armor. This is enough, they say, for victory, enough to raise trophies! Faith and strength and the leader of evil defeated, and the Jews were amazed. “Filled with faith and power, he performed great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). The chosen one showed many miracles, the warrior of Christ performed great signs. “He performed great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8); He gave the lame the ability to walk, he gave health to the paralytic in order to arouse the envy of the high priests: to such an extent did he passionately desire to taste death for Christ! Then the five-city of the most wicked people armed themselves against him. “Some,” it is said, “from the so-called synagogue of the Libertines and Cyreneans and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, entered into a dispute with Stephen” (Acts 6:9). Oh, what a multitude was gathered by malice! Oh, how many people were united by envy! Libertines, Cyreneans, Alexandrians, strangers from Cilicia and Asia. Countless, it is said, a multitude rebelled against one warrior, an immense crowd rushed against one hero, from five cities people attacked one young man. Oh, the incurable anger of the Jews! With their very appearance they wanted to frighten the fighter, to crush his spirit with excessive numbers. All the efforts of despised people are directed towards this goal, and first of all they weave words of temptation for Stephen: Cilicia and Asia entered into a dispute with Stephen.” Why, they say, do you recklessly insult the Divine? Why do you convince people with cunning speeches? The secret meaning of such questions was this: in your opinion, is the one born of Mary God? The carpenter's son - the Creator of the world? Isn’t Bethlehem His homeland, but Nazareth the place of His upbringing? Your God was born on earth, your God, like a weak baby, was wrapped in swaddling clothes and lay in a manger, fled from the angry Herod, was baptized by John, suffered from hunger and thirst, felt tired and sleepy, was captured and could not run, was scourged and could not justify himself, was nailed to the cross and could not come down; His very death was a shame and a curse. He was buried in a coffin, but he dreamed of being in heaven? In everything he was like mortals, although he preached that there was an afterlife. So, in your opinion, God deigned to endure all this? God did not command to kill and did not himself kill those who laid hands on Him? Didn't he strike them with sudden death? Choose one of two: either leave all these delusions, or die the same death as Him. 2. Stephen's questioners said this and similar things. Then Stephen answered them: Are you not the keepers of the prophetic writings? Are you not resting on the books of the Old Testament? Have you not said to each other: “We know that God spoke to Moses; But we do not know where He comes from: ...we are Moses’ disciples” (John 9:29, 28). But didn’t Moses say: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from among your brothers; listen to Him” (Deut. 18:15)? Didn’t Micah write a long time ago: “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are in no way less than the provinces of Judah, for out of you will come a Leader” (Matthew 2:6; Micah 5:2). Didn’t Isaiah foretell His birth from a non-artificial woman: “Behold, a virgin will receive with child” (Matthew 1:23; Isaiah 7:14)? Didn’t the prophet Habakkuk predict that animals would lie in a manger: “...you will be known among two living creatures” (Hab. 3:2)? Didn’t Isaiah speak about the flight to Egypt from Herod: “Behold, the Lord will ride on a light cloud and come to Egypt” (Is. 19:1)? Didn’t David predict the flight of the waters of the Jordan: “We saw You, O God, the waters, the waters saw you and were afraid” (Ps. 76:17)? Didn’t Isaiah predict the end of sickness and labor: “He took upon Himself our infirmities and bore our diseases” (Matthew 8:17; Isaiah 53:4)? Didn’t the prophet David predict the power of nails: “they pierced my hands and my feet” (Ps. 21:17)? Was it not nailing to the tree that Moses foretold: “your life will hang before you” (Deut. 28:66)? Wasn’t Jacob destined for burial in a tomb: “he bowed down and lay down like a lion” (Gen. 49:9)? Was it not about resurrection that David once cried out: “Arise, O God, judge the earth” (Ps. 81:8)? Didn’t he also predict the ascension: “God ascended with shouts” (Ps. 46:6)? Show someone else the fulfillment of these prophecies, or worship the crucified one as God! Crazy! Unaware of the prophecies of Moses, you thought to crucify a common man. It is about you, or better yet, Paul, the chosen vessel, cries in your reproof: “If they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). The chief of the apostles accuses you of the same thing, saying: “You denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked to give you a murderer, but you killed the Author of life” (Acts 3:14–15). Isaiah said, foreseeing this cry of yours long ago: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20)! When Stephen spoke to them in this way, “they could not resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke” (Acts 6:10). And it is well said: “resist.” As it is said above: “some ... entered into a dispute” (Acts 6:9), so here “they could not resist.” This means that their tongues were forced into silence, their lips were blocked, the arrows of words were hidden, the bows of speech were weakened, the spear of malice was hidden under the tongue. “They could not resist the wisdom and the Spirit by whom he spoke” (Acts 6:10). Oh, wonderful thing! And how well all this is depicted by the glorious Luke, with what completeness the promises of Christ are realized here! After all, Christ said: “For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all who oppose you will not be able to withstand” (Luke 21:15). And here it just says: “they could not resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.” What wisdom? To Christ himself, who spoke in him. That Christ is wisdom is confirmed by Paul: “Christ is the mighty God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24). And what He himself says in those who give thanks to Him, the same apostle writes about this in another place: “You are looking for evidence as to whether Christ says in me: He is not powerless for you, but strong in you” (2 Cor. 13:3). And “they could not resist wisdom,” i.e. To Christ. And who could resist Him successfully? And “they could not resist the wisdom and the Spirit by whom he spoke.” Which Spirit? The Comforter, about whom the writer spoke before. “Stephen, full of faith and strength,” and in another place: “Stephen, being filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God” (Acts 7:55). “Then they taught some to say, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God” (Acts 6:11). Perjury replaced envy. "They taught some." They bought a lie with silver, saying: go, honorable men, serve us with your labor, let your tongue contribute to our plans, let your lips work for our advice. There some avenger rose up for the Galilean and appeared as His protector and champion. He honors the one lying in the grave as God, preaches as the Creator about the One who is imprisoned in the grave. It is crazy that the one laid in the tomb is now in heaven. Spreads the rumor that he who received scourging from the soldiers is now among the armies of heaven; that He, Who could not justify Himself, will appear as the judge of all creation. Joseph laid His body in the tomb, but this one dreams that He is at the right hand of God. The disciples rejected Him as a deceiver, but this one says that every tongue will confess Him; The Galilean could not come down from the cross, but here a man boasts that He will come again from heaven. The evildoers blasphemed Jesus because He could not save either Himself or them, but he publicly proclaims that Jesus is the Savior of the world. Have you ever seen such insolence? Have you ever heard such crazy and blasphemous words? So, now assist in the investigation of the case, and you will gain brilliant fame among your contemporaries. To such and such proposals, the descendants of Naboth’s traitors answer them with these words: “we heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” They say he dared to speak against the legislator himself. This one commanded us, saying: “Listen, my people, to my law” (Ps. 77:1), and this one proclaims that Jesus will change the customs that Moses handed down to us. He blasphemed Moses, revered by all the people, who, in alliance with all creation, freed the people from heavy slavery, who with his rod divided the waters of the sea, who drowned the hordes of Egypt with his prayer, who with his prayer erected a heavenly pillar in the middle of the night, who fed the people with heavenly uncultivated bread, who with his rod made a stream from barren stone. "On Moses". What does it say about Moses? And "to God"! He has sharpened arrows to the very sky, raised his tongue against the Creator himself, and preaches the dead to the godlike Creator. “On Moses and on God! And they aroused the people and the elders and the scribes and, attacking, seized him and led him to the Sanhedrin" (Acts 6:11-12). They irritated the people and then captured Stephen; the beasts grabbed the sheep and brought them to the Sanhedrin, full of hypocrisy and envy, to a Sanhedrin alien to truth and devoid of righteousness. They brought him to the Sanhedrin, which Jeremiah had long cried out for: “I did not sit in the assembly of those who laugh” (Jer. 15:17). “And they presented false witnesses, who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and against the law” (Acts 6:13). The sanctuary, they say, he was not ashamed to dishonor, is a place where sacred words are read, where the Scriptures of the prophets are read into the vaults, where the tablets and heavenly manna are, where the belly and staff of Aaron are, where the gray hair of the bishops and the dignity of the priests, and the honor of the scribes. He talks about such and such a place frivolously, and makes the church look insignificant! And not only about the sanctuary did he dare to speak so, but also about the law. It is a mistake that the law was a shadow; he preaches with impudence about the Old Testament as a type; He places the Galilean above Moses; the son of Mary is revered more than the legislator. He was not ashamed of the dignity of the elders, nor was he ashamed of the multitude of scribes, but he spewed blasphemies against the holy place and the law. 3. What exactly is he saying? “For we heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy this place and change the customs which Moses handed down to us” (Acts 6:14). Threatens us with the dead as the Lord, in the dead he shows us the Lord. Jesus of Nazareth will rise again and “destroy this place.” They say this young man has gone mad. He does not know the value of this church; I forgot how much work went into its construction. The wisdom of Solomon recreated this church; the assistant in this matter for the wise Solomon was grace from above; Many difficulties had to be overcome in this work. Eighty thousand were breaking stones in the mountains; seventy thousand cut down trees; thirty thousand were engaged in carrying stone; there were three thousand six hundred overseers alone. The construction costs were poured in with a generous hand, and despite this, at barely forty-six years old, it was possible to complete this work. And this man claims that “Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place”; This is not enough: He allegedly “will change the customs that Moses handed down to us” (Acts 6:14). The Holy Saturday will be abolished by Him; circumcision according to the law will be abolished by the Nazarite; our new moons, as vain ones, are condemned by him to destruction; for the Son of Mary there seems to be nothing sacred on the Feast of Tabernacles; His preacher raves that our sacrifices are not accepted by God; he assures that sprinkling and legal cleansing were abolished by the crucified. But who does not know what the fate of the Nazarene was? When can the dead take revenge on the living? Isaiah was sawn to death, and who will avenge him? Jeremiah was strangled and could not take revenge; Naboth was stoned, and who came to avenge him? Zechariah was stabbed to death, and we still go unpunished. And suddenly a champion stands up for the crucified Nazarene! The dead man is our accuser, we are threatened as a judge lying in a grave! After all these false accusations, “all who sat in the Sanhedrin looked at him” (Acts. 6:15): they cast menacing glances at him, frowned at him with anger, wanting to strike the enemy with their very appearance and thereby, in their malice, justifying the prophetic word: “The wicked spies on the righteous and seeks to kill him” (Ps. 37:32). “All who sat in the Sanhedrin, looking at him, saw his face like the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15). The joy of martyrdom, appearing on his face, illuminated the young man with angelic grace. But why “like the face of an Angel”? So that the word of Christ is fulfilled, which He said: “in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but remain as the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). So Moses and Elijah beamed on the mountain when they talked with Jesus, so that the disciples, when they saw them, fell on their faces; Thus will all the righteous shine in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 17:6, 13:43). “They saw his face like the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15). Then the bishop said: “Is this so?” ( Acts 7:1 ) Oh, words full of hypocrisy! Oh, speeches inspired by envy and lies! "Is this so?" Do you dare - oh man - to humiliate the lawgiver Moses? Maybe you are opposing some kind of opponent to God? Have you dishonored and defamed this holy place? Do you imagine that the law given by God is not durable? Do you think that the Nazarite will replace everything that originates from Moses? You are preparing great disasters for yourself. To this the first martyr answered: “Men, brothers and fathers! listen” (Acts 7:2)! Let, he says, now every age receive the honor due to it. “Men, brothers and fathers! listen"! “Listen,” I don’t say: make sure, because I don’t expect you to be convinced. “Listen” just. “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham in Mesopotamia” (Acts 7:2). Not in Jerusalem, not in this famous church, but “in Mesopotamia,” where idolatry flourished, where the land was trampled by atheists; “in Mesopotamia,” where idols were worshiped, where divine honor was assigned to stone and wood, there God appeared to our forefather. For He knew that among the thorns the rose is born, and among the thistles the noble grain appears. Thus, precisely, the long-suffering Job appeared as a rose among the thorns, a lily among the weeds, in the dissolute country of Austidia; like a lamp he shone in the darkness of ignorance with his virtues, like a tower in battle he was visible to all the heavenly powers, rising from earth to sky with his exploits, from depth to height he increased the fruits of truth. And God, having smelled them [as was the case with Noah after the flood: “And the Lord smelt a sweet aroma” (Gen. 8:21)], testified about His servant: here is a righteous, true, godly man, moving away from all evil, fulfilling the requirements of the law before the law, having a natural law, he does not need the written law; and all his works have been known to God from eternity. So, he says to Abraham: “Get out of your land, from your kindred and from your father’s house, ... to the land that I will show you” (Gen. 12:1). "Get out of your land." Why, he says, does the polytheistic land hold back the father of nations? Why does the idolatrous fatherland bind the forefather of My people to itself? “Get out of your land, from your kindred.” Judging from a human perspective, these commands to the patriarch are difficult. Leave, he says, your fatherland, leave all your people, leave the land where you were born, abandon your father and mother. But nothing like this shook the patriarch, he did not think to himself like an ordinary mortal: it is unknown what the one who has appeared promises me; Are His promises reliable? What then? Perhaps I will leave what is in my hands and rush after the invisible; will I leave the ground on which I stand and seek the unknown? The father of the nations did not think about anything like this, but received an order - and immediately set off; He heard the commandment and rushed in search of the unknown. Such love was kindled in him by faith. Imagining that what was promised had already been accomplished, he was all the more in a hurry to leave his fatherland. “Get out,” he says, “from your land.” From your thighs, from you according to the flesh, I want to be born. I promise you nothing, it is enough for you that you will be called My father: “Genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). Then, having depicted how Abraham obeyed the one voice of the divine calling, how God foretold to him the enslavement of his descendants, condemned to four hundred years of hard labor in Egypt, and how by the right hand of God they would be freed from the yoke, and how God made a covenant of circumcision with him, (v. Stephen) finally speaks of the extraordinary birth of Isaac, and that on the eighth day his father circumcised him, as he was commanded ( Acts 7:8). He said the same thing about the birth of Jacob from Isaac and that Jacob became the father of twelve patriarchs. He even spoke about the envy of his brothers towards Joseph and about his brothers selling him to Egypt and about how he found favor with the king of Egypt for his wisdom and how after slavery he became a master and a wise man. He also told about how there was a famine almost throughout the world and how the inhabitants of Canaan, due to lack of food, sold everything that was most dear to themselves, and how Joseph revealed himself to his brothers in glory, and how he moved the patriarch Jacob to Egypt, how Jacob moved there among eighty-five souls, and how Israel multiplied immensely in Egypt, and how another king who did not know Joseph arose, and with what tricks he embittered the people of Israel, and threw male babies into the Nile River as newborns. He then spoke about the birth of the lawgiver Moses and how he was abandoned by his parents in a basket, and how the daughter of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, took him to her, and how he was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and how he seemed strong in words and deeds, and how, upon reaching the age of forty, he went to see his people and saw an Israeli who was offended and, interceding for him, killed the Egyptian, and how he began to reconcile the fighting Israelites and a fellow tribesman reproached him for the murder he had committed, and how because of this reproach he fled to the land of Midian and there became the father of two sons, and how an angel appeared to him in the mountains of Sinai and he saw the peaceful union of fire and thorns and heard a divine voice from heaven, and how he trembled, not daring to contemplate the miracle, and how he received the order to take off his boots from his feet and heard that the place on which he stood, there is a holy land, and how, with the help of miracles, he brought the people out of the land of Egypt and brought Israel across the Red Sea, as if on dry land. He also spoke about the idolatry of the wicked under the mountain and how, immediately after crossing the sea, they exchanged God for a calf and attributed their victory over the Egyptians to the idol. Let us remind them of the captivity of the people in Babylon and how David was pleased with God, finding grace before God and being awarded the title of father of Christ. Finally, he spoke about the church created by Solomon, and about the fact that God is not contained in places made by hands. Having thus gone through the entire history of the fathers, Stephen, with the help of the Holy Spirit, finally moves on to their misdeeds and says: stiff-necked (Acts 7:51), unyielding, unbridled! What force, what test could break your perseverance? Were you not slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt for four hundred years? Were they not enslaved for eighteen years? Were they not enslaved for eighteen years by Husarsaph king of Syria? Did you not suffer under the dominion of the Moabites for eighteen years? Were they not enslaved again for twenty years by the Canaanites? Did they not languish for another eighty years under the yoke of the Midianites? Were not the Ammonites possessed for eighteen other years? Didn't they then fall under the rule of the Philistines for forty years? Didn't the slavery of the Babylonians last seventy years? Didn’t Shalmaneser resettle you into the Chaldean mountains? And no amount of coercion changed your disposition! Fierce-necked! The making of baskets in Egypt did not curb you, the gathering of straw did not soften you, the labor of making bricks did not break you. Until now they listened to Stephen's speech, and then, “taking him out of the city, they began to stone him.” Where the king was crucified, the warrior is also stoned. “And they brought him out of the city, and began to stone him” (Acts 7:58). But even under the blows of stones, the fighter triumphed in victory, turning to the Creator with such an exclamation: “Lord Jesus! receive my spirit" (Acts 7:59)! “Lord Jesus,” who, by the will of the Father, accepted passion, who, by the decision of the One who gave birth, suffered death, “receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59)! Take my soul from my body, take it out of here, disembodied, “receive my spirit,” crowned with all sorts of virtues, “receive my spirit!” “I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7), and now I ask: “receive my spirit”! Because I am clothed with a perishable body, I am afraid; Since I wear earthly flesh, I am afraid that I might lose my labors after all my labors. I tremble - I would not remain uncrowned after the struggle, I would not lose the rewards after the exploits. "Receive my spirit"! The devil will be upset that he lost his victory, the leader of evil will cry that he did not defeat a mortal. Those who are incorporeal will grieve because those who are in the flesh laugh at their suffering. "Receive my spirit"! “Kneeling down, he exclaimed in a loud voice: Lord! Do not count this sin against them” (Acts 7:60)! And so that you can see that he prays with zeal, not just prays, standing and bowing, but “kneeling,” he said with deep feeling, with great compassion: “Lord! Do not impute this sin to them! And having said this, he rested” (Acts 7:60)! For the righteous, death is sleep; for the wise, death is rest. And therefore death is a dream, that, as if from some stupor, having awakened from death to resurrection, they will then enjoy eternal blessings. But may we all be participants (of these benefits), through the grace and intercession of Christ, through Whom and with Whom be glory to the Father in the Holy Spirit the Comforter, from the beginning, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria.