On 26 December, the Church celebrated the feast-day of the proto-martyr St. Stephen. It is the only day in the year when the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land are allowed access to the grotto where, according to tradition, the deacon was stoned to death. The site is currently in the care of the Greek Orthodox Church.

The place of the martyrdom

The death of Stephen is narrated in the Acts of the Apostles: “They threw him out of the city and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.” According to medieval pilgrims, it was outside the Gate of Lions (also called “St Stephen’s Gate”) that there was a flight of stone steps, part of the ancient way of access to the Temple.

Today a Greek Orthodox Church stands over the small grotto, where the steps dug out of the rock are preserved. The grotto is decorated with wall paintings which illustrate the life of the Saint: his consecration as deacon, his stoning and self-defence and the discovery of his relics in  415.

The Vespers of St Stephen

The vespers of St. Stephen were presided over by Fra Zacheusz Drazek, of the community of Gethsemane. The homily was delivered by Fra Siniša Srebrenović, the guardian of the community.

If the accent is usually on Stephen, today Fra Siniša reflected on the figure of Saul, the young Pharisee of Tarsus who held the cloaks of those who threw stones against Stephen and who then became the “Apostle to the Gentiles.”

“‘Follow me,” the Child in the manger says.  He also said ‘Follow me’ to Saul. Let us lay down the cloak on the rock, leaving our sins and everything that weighs us down to go forward free.  This Christmas, let us leave at the feet of the Child of Bethlehem the cloak of our sins and go forward towards a new life.”

At the end of Vespers, the friars and the faithful stopped to worship, in the shrine, the place that recalls the extreme sacrifice of Stephen, leaving lit candles on the stone steps.