The Finding Of The Body Of Saint Stephen. The First Martyr. Feast Day 3 August.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

The Finding of The Body of Saint Stephen.
The First Martyr.
Feast Day 3 August.

Semi-Double.

Red Vestments.

Stoning of Saint Stephen.

Artist: Jacopo & Domenico Tintoretto.

Altarpiece of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy.

Photo: 11 April 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: Smeat75.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Church Solemnises on 26 December The Feast of Saint Stephen, and on 2 January The Octave of this Saint. She holds The Station on Passion Friday in the Church Dedicated to Saint Stephen, on Mount Coelius, at Rome.

On 10 August, she will Celebrate The Feast of Saint Laurence, whose "Remains, more precious," say the writers of the first Centuries, "than Gold and Precious Stones" are with those of the Deacon, Stephen, which had been Translated from Palestine to The Capital of The Christian World.

Today's Mass Commemorates the miraculous finding by a Priest of these Relics at Kapher-Gamala, near Jerusalem, on 5 December 415 A.D., (Collect). Except The Collect, it is the same as that on 26 December, the date of The Translation of these Remains from Kapher-Gamala to Jerusalem.

For Gamaliel, the teacher of Saint Paul, so much esteemed among The Doctors of Israel, that, at his death, it was declared that "the glory of Israel had disappeared", had buried twenty miles from that Town, at his Country House, The Holy Martyr, Stephen, Nicodemus, and his own son, Abibas. He, himself, was buried there. These precious Relics, long ignored, were miraculously discovered and wrought numerous cures.

The Introit and the Epistle recall how Stephen, filled with The Holy Ghost, convicted the Jews of error, and how they, hating Christ as their fathers hated Him (Gospel), seized Stephen and stoned him to death.

Let us honour Saint Stephen, and, imitating his Prayers for his persecutors (Epistle, Communion), let us learn by his example to love our enemies (Collect).

Mass: As on The Feast of Saint Stephen, 26 December, except one word in The Collect: "inventionem", instead of "natalitia": We Celebrate "the finding of his body" instead of "his birthday to immortality".