TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS OF THE PROTOMARTYR STEPHEN

On August 15 (2), the Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the translation of the relics of the first martyr and archdeacon Stephen. This event, which is now perceived as just one of the memories in the liturgical calendar, was of enormous significance for the entire Christian history.

The fact is that in the Ancient Church the episcopal sees of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch had primacy. They were considered the main ones because they were founded by the Apostles, and therefore were called “apostolic”. It was believed that the dogmatical and moral truth should remain intact in them.

The Church of Jerusalem was, of course, originally apostolic. But in the face of the impending destruction of the Holy City by the Romans in the year 70, the apostolic community left the city and began its long wanderings.

The new capital of the Roman Empire, the City of Constantinople was founded in 330. Therefore, he could not lay claim to apostolic status. Both bishops, Jerusalem and Constantinople, were formally subordinate to the hierarchs of neighboring metropolises.

In our time, the memory of St. Stephen is solemnly celebrated by the Church on the third day after Christmas, and his summer commemoration passes unnoticed. In the Ancient Church, the veneration of Stephen was much more obvious. Stephen’s suffering is described in detail in the Book of Acts. According to the conviction of the Church Fathers, in particular St Augustine (354–430), it was his prayer that led the Apostle Paul to faith. His suffering for the faith from his fellow tribesmen, in the image of the Lord Himself, became the normative norm for determining what Christian holiness was subsequently to become.

According to the Book of Acts, at the Sanhedrin Court the judges saw Stephen’s face as the Face of an Angel. This means that the Risen Christ revealed Himself in him (Acts 6:15). In fact, Stephen is the first Christian saint in history. He is the prototype in the entire subsequent history of Christian righteousness. Tradition refers to Stephen as the “Protomartyr”.

In 415, the relics of Stephen were found in Palestine and transferred to Jerusalem. In accordance with the perception of Christians of that time, such a discovery of relics was a significant testimony from above in favor of establishing the authority of the Jerusalem Church.

At that time, relics were not acquired or transferred “just like that.” This had to be preceded by an order from above, the event had to be accompanied by visible signs. Let us remember that a much later change in this practice and the actual profanation and even commercialization of handling the relics of saints later became one of the reasons for the Reformation and split Western Christianity into Catholicism and Protestantism.

In fact, and this is very important, in the perception of Christians of that time, it was not the transfer of the relics that took place, but the Translation of St Stephen. The saint entered Jerusalem, from which, like the Lord Jesus, he had previously been lawlessly expelled, to be stoned (cf. Acts 7:58).

After about twelve years, a very symbolic biblical number, the relics of Stephen were transferred to Constantinople in 428. For contemporaries, primarily bishops, and Emperor Theodosius II the Younger (408–450), this transfer served as a colossal argument in favor of the fact that from now on Jerusalem and Constantinople were to be equated with the Churches founded by the Apostles themselves. In 451 this happened at the IV Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon.

Let us remember that around the same time, in 448, the relics of the Apostle Barnabas were found in Cyprus. For the Universal Church, this served as important proof that the Church of Cyprus was of apostolic origin, and therefore its archbishop had to be supplied not from Antioch, but from the local Church itself.

Let us remember that around the same time, in 448, the relics of the Apostle Barnabas were found in Cyprus. For the Universal Church, this served as important proof that the Church of Cyprus was of apostolic origin, and therefore its archbishop had to be supplied not from Antioch, but from the local Church itself. This forgotten “summertime holiness” celebration in honor of St. Stephen recalls a time when the Wood of the Cross was visibly large in the Universe and the veneration of saints determined the course of history.

In the Orthodox Church, Saint Stephen is venerated primarily as the first deacon. However, the Church Fathers, among whom was John Chrysostom, believed that the deaconate of the first seven deacons in the Book of Acts, among whom was Stephen, was not a liturgical deaconate, which still exists in the hierarchical Churches. The August Feast of Stephen played a huge role in the subsequent canonization of the Byzantine Empress Eudoxia II as a saint and dramatically influenced the rise of the See of Constantinople.

1 The transfer of the relics of Saint Stephen, called the “Protomartyr” in the Orthodox tradition, is the second most important feast in honor of this saint. As is well known, the first feast is celebrated in the Orthodox Church two days after the birth of Christ. In the Latin tradition, the feast of St. Stephen is celebrated the day after Christmas. Thus, in both traditions, Eastern and Western, the particularly solemn character of his veneration in the early Church is emphasized, as well as the connection that the ancient Christians, especially the Church Fathers, saw between Stephen and Christ himself. In Christ Jesus, God entered history and suffered for the salvation of those who, through the power of grace, choose to remain faithful to him in life and in death. Stephen, as he is described in the Acts of the Apostles, is the prototype of Christian holiness as martyr theology. For the greatest Church Father, Saint Augustine, whom tradition calls the “Doctor of Grace,” Stephen is the prototype of the absolute, inexplicable, anarchic, and omnipotent grace of divine predestination. It is no coincidence that Stephen’s trial, his condemnation, and even his prayer for his own murderers is described in the Gospels in the same semantic categories as the trial of Jesus himself. Stephen not only prays for his murderers, like Jesus on the cross, but he also sees heaven opened and Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father, just as Jesus saw God and heard His approving voice.

2 The Feast of the Translation is historically connected with the figure of Eudoxia, the Byzantine empress and wife of Theodosius the Younger, venerated as a saint in Orthodoxy. Eudoxia was born in Athens in 398. Her father, Leontius, was a professor of rhetoric, which undoubtedly contributed to her exceptional education. Her birth name was Athenais. Her father suddenly disinherited her, and she fled to Constantinople. There, she was noticed by another holy empress of the time, Pulcheria. The latter, the elder sister of Theodosius II, cared for her brother as best she could and later, after his death, became empress herself, marrying the future emperor Marcian. Theodosius officially became emperor in 408. In 421, Patriarch Atticus baptized Athenais with the name Eudoxia and celebrated her wedding to Theodosius on June 7. In 423, she gave birth to a daughter, the future wife of Valentinian III, and received the title of Augusta. After her daughter’s wedding in 437, Eudoxia made her first pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she proved herself a valuable helper to the poor and a generous benefactor to churches and monasteries. From this journey, Eudoxia’s pilgrimage led to the transfer of the relics of Stephen to Constantinople.

3 In 441, Eudoxia fell victim to intrigues at the imperial court and was forced to leave the capital. With the emperor’s permission, she settled in Jerusalem, where she remained until her death around 460. Eudoxia entered the history of Palestine as the founder of monasteries and churches, some of which were dedicated to Saint Stephen. It was a time of complex Christological debates. Apparently, the Monophysites—the derogatory name for the adversaries of Chalcedon given by the Orthodox —took advantage of the stay of Eudoxia in the East, which was particularly affected by the fierce resistance of monastic circles in Egypt, Syria, and partly also Palestine to the Christology of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451), and attempted to gain her support. The personal intervention of Pope Leo the First and Euthymius the Great, a very popular Palestinian ascetic of the time, contributed to her ultimate support for the Orthodox. Apart from her personal piety and the transfer of the holy relics to Constantinople, the Empress was a prolific writer, yet little of her works, both sacred and secular, has survived. For her resemblance to the mother of Constantine the Great in her charity to Palestinian shrines, Eudoxia was called the “second Saint Helen. Her memory was formerly celebrated on August 13 (26), exactly eleven days after the date of the celebration of the transfer of the relics of Saint Stephen.

4 In the Middle Ages, it was forbidden to sell or buy the relics of saints. However, they could be transferred. If this was not possible for some reason, it was believed that God himself prevented it. If the transfer took place, it meant that God himself and his saints favored those who handed over the relics and, above all, their new location. The transfer of Stephen’s relics contributed significantly to the rise of the authority of the Church of Constantinople, which opposed the Bishop of Alexandria. The latter was of apostolic origin, but supported the future Monophysites, i.e., the opponents of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. Before the Council, the bishop of the Byzantine capital was called the Bishop of New Rome and was subordinate to the metropolitan of the neighboring church. But at Chalcedon, he was proclaimed Patriarch of Constantinople and placed above the Patriarch of Alexandria. Such is the fate of Stephen in the Communion of Saints and the role of the protomartyr in history.