ures— that of Saul of Tarsus, already noticed, and that of Stephen himself.
As the first volley of stones burst upon him, he called upon the Master whose human form he had just seen ill the heavens, and repeated almost the words with which he himself liad given up his life on the cross, •' O Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Another crash of stones brought him on his knees. (_)iie loud piercing cry {>KP(i^t fityn\y (pujvy) — answer- ing to the loud shriek or yell with which his enemies had flown upon him — cscajied his dying lips. Again clinging to the spirit of his Master's words, he cried, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," and instantly sank upon the ground; and, in the touching language of the narrator, wlio then uses for the first time the word afterwards ajiplied to the departure of all Chris- tians, but here the more remarkable from the bloody scenes in the midst of which the death took place — tKoijii]^!], " fell asleep."
7. llis Remains. — Stephen's mangled body was bur- ied by the class of Hellenists and proselytes to which he belonged (ol tliail^tio), vvith an amount of funeral state and lamentation expressed in two words used here only in the New Test. {rrvviKo^aaav and KoirtToq).
This simjile expression is enlarged by writers of the 5th century into an elaborate legend. The high-priest, it is said, had intended to leave the corpse to be de- voured by beasts of prey. It was rescued by Gamaliel, carried ofi' in his own chariot by night, and buried in a new tomb on his property at Caphar Gamala (village of the Camel), eight leagues from Jerusalem. The fu- neral lamentations lasted for forty days. All the apos- tles attended. Gamaliel undertook the expense, and, on his death, was interred in an adjacent cave. This story was probably first drawn up on the occasion of the remarkable event which occurred in A.D. 415, under the name of the Invfution and Translation if the Relics of St. Stephen. Successive visions of (Jamaliel to Lu- cian, the parish priest of Cajjhar (iamala, on Dec. 3 and 18 in that year, revealed tiie spot where the martyr's remains would be found. They were identified by a tablet bearing his name, Cheliel, and were carried in state to Jerusalem, amid various portents, and buried in the church on !Muuiit Zion, the scene of so maiiv
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early Christian trailiiioiis. The pvont of the Transla- tion" is cekbrai<<l ill the Latin Cliiircli on Aiii,'. 3. prob- ably from the tradition of tliat day bcinfi the amiiver- sary of the dedication of a ehapel of 8t. Stephen at An- cona. The story itself is encompassed with lefjend, but the event is mentioned in all the eliief writers of the time. I'art.s of his remains were afterwards trans- ported to different parts of the coast of the West — Mi- norca. I'ortuirai, North Afrii'a, Ancona, Constantinople —and in 4t)tt what were still left at Jerusalem were translated l>y the emjiress Kndocia to a splendid church called bv his name on the supposed scene of his mar- tyrdom (^ Tillemoiit, S/.-Etifiiiie, art. 5-9, where all the authorities are ipioted). Kvodius, bishop of Myala, wrote a small treatise concerning the iniracles performed bv them : and Severus. a bishop of the island (»f Minor- ca, wrote a circular letter of the conversion of the Jews in that i>land and of the miracles wrought in that i)lace by the relics which Orosius left there. These writings are contained in the works of Augustine, who gives the sanction of his authority to the incredible follies they record (I)e Cir. J)ei, xxii, 8).
The exact date of .Stephen's death is not given in the Scriptural history. I5ut ecclesiastical tradition fixes it in the same year as the crucilixion. on Dec. 2(), the day after Christmas-day. It is beautifully said by Au- gustine (in allusion to the juxtaposition of the two fes- tivals) that men would not have had the courage to die for God, if God had not become man to die for them (Tillemont, St.-Elicnne, art. 4).
II. Si. Stephens Typiciil Character.— The importance of his career may be briefly sutnmed up under three heads : —
1. He was the first great Christian ecclesiastic. The appointment of " the Seven," commonly (though not in the Hible) called deacons, formed the first direct insti- tution of the nature of an organized Christian ministry, and of these Stephen was the head — "the archdeacon," as he is called in the Kastern Church — and in this ca- pacity represented as the com]ianion or precursor of Lau- rence, archdeacon of Itome in the Western Church. In this sense allusion is made to him in the Anglican Or- dination of Deacons.
2. He is the first martyr — the protomartyr. To him the name " martyr" is first applied (Acts xxii, 20). He, first of the Christian Church, bore witness to the truth of his convictions by a violent and dreadful death. The veneration which has accrued to his name in conse- quence is a testimony of the Hible to the sacredness of truth, to the nobleness of sincerity, to the wickedness and the folly of persecution. It also contains the first germs of the reverence for the character and for the rel- ics of martyrs, which afterwards grew to a height now regarded by all Christians as excessive. A beautiful hymn, by Reginald Heber, commemorates this side of Stephen's chara<'t(T.