Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Urged by the approach of Laurence’s triumph, Stephen rises to assist at his combat. It is a meeting full of beauty and strength, revealing the work of Eternal Wisdom in the arrangement of the sacred Cycle. But the present feast has other teachings also to offer us.
The first resurrection of which we spoke above continues for the Saints. After Nazarius and Celsus, and all the martyrs whom the victory of Christ has shown to be partakers of His glory according to the divine promise, the standard-bearer of the white robed army Himself rises glorious from His tomb to lead the way for new triumphs. The fierce auxiliaries of God’s anger against idolatrous Rome, after reducing the false gods to powder, must in their turn be subjugated. And this second victory will be the work of the martyrs aiding the Church by their miracles, as the first was that of their faith despising death and tortures. The received method of writing history in our days ignores such considerations. That is no reason why we should follow the fashion: the exactitude of its data, on which the science of this age plumes itself, is but one more proof that falsehood is as easily nurtured by omissions as by positive misstatements. Now the more profound the present silence on the question, the more certain it is that the very years which beheld the barbarians invading and overturning the empire were signalised by an effusion of virtue from on high, comparable in more than one respect to that which marked the times of the Apostolic preaching. Nothing less was required to reassure the faithful on the one hand, and on the other to inspire with respect for the Church these brutal invaders, who knew do right but might, and felt nothing but disdain for the race they had conquered.
The divine intention in surrounding the fall of Rome in 410 with discoveries of Saints’ bodies was clearly manifested in the most important of these inventions, the one we celebrate today. The year 415 had opened. Italy, Gaul and Spain were being invaded, Africa was about to share their fate. Amid the universal ruin, the Christians, in whom alone resided the hope of the world, put up their petitions at every sanctuary to obtain at least, according to the expression of the Spanish priest Avitus, “that the Lord would inspire with gentleness those whom he suffered to prevail.” It was then that took place that marvellous revelation which the severe critic Tillemont, convinced by the testimony of all the chronicles, histories, letters and discourses of the time, allows to be “one of the most celebrated events of the fifth century.” Through the intermediary of the priest Lucian, John, Bishop of Jerusalem, received from Saint Stephen the first Martyr and his companions in the tomb, a message couched in these terms: “Make haste to open our sepulchre, that by our means God may open to the world the door of His clemency, and may take pity on his people in the universal tribulation.” The discovery, accomplished in the midst of prodigies, was published to the whole world as the sign of salvation. Saint Stephen’s relics, scattered everywhere in token of security and peace, wrought astonishing conversions. Innumerable miracles, “like those of ancient times,” bore witness to the same faith of Christ which the martyr had confessed by his death four centuries earlier.
Such was the extraordinary character of this manifestation, so astonishing was the number of resurrections of the dead, that Saint Augustine, addressing his people, deemed it prudent to lift their thoughts from Stephen the servant to Christ His Master. “Though dead,” said he, “he raises the dead to life, because in reality he is not dead. But as heretofore in his mortal life, so now, too, he acts solely in the name of Christ. All that you see now done by the memory of Stephen, is done in that name alone, that Christ may be exalted, Christ may be adored, Christ may be expected as Judge of the living and the dead.”
Let us conclude with this praise addressed to Saint Stephen a few years later by Basil of Seleucia, which gives so well in a few words the reason of the feast: “There is no place, no territory, no nation, no far-off land, that has not obtained the help of your benefits. There is no one, stranger or citizen, barbarian or Scythian, that does not experience, through your intercession, the greatness of heavenly realities.”
What a precious addition to your history in the sacred Books is furnished us, O Protomartyr, by the story of your invention! We now know who were those “God fearing men who buried Stephen and made great mourning over him.” Gamaliel, the master of the Doctor of the Gentiles, had been before his disciple conquered by our Lord. Inspired by Jesus to whom in dying you commended your soul, He honoured after your death the humble soldier of Christ with the same cares which had been lavished by Joseph of Arimathea, the noble counsellor, on the Man-God, and laid your body in the new tomb prepared for himself. Soon Nicodemus, Joseph’s companion in the pious work of the great Friday, hunted by the Jews in that persecution in which you were the first victim, found refuge near your sacred relics, and dying a holy death was laid to rest beside you. The respected name of Gamaliel prevailed over the angry synagogue. While the family of Annas and Caiphas kept in its hands the priestly power through the precarious favour of Rome, the grandson of Hillel left to his descendants pre-eminence in knowledge, and his eldest line remained for four centuries the depositories of the only moral authority then recognised by the dispersed Israelites. But more fortunate was he in having, by hearing the Apostles and yourself, O Stephen, passed from the science of shadows to the light of the realities, from the Law to the Gospel, from Moses to Him whom Moses announced. More happy than the eldest born, was the beloved son Abibas, baptised with his father at the age of twenty, and who, passing away to God, filled the tomb next to yours with the sweet odour of heavenly purity. How touching was the last will of the illustrious father when, his hour being come, he ordered the grave of Abibas to be opened for himself, that father and son might be seen to be twin brothers born together to the only true light!
The munificence of our Lord had placed you in death, O Stephen, in worthy company. We give thanks to the noble person who showed you hospitality for your last rest, and we are grateful to him for having, at the appointed time, himself broken the silence kept concerning him by the delicate reserve of the Scriptures. Here again we see how the Man-God wills to share His own honours with His chosen ones. Your sepulchre, like His, was glorious. And when it was opened, the earth shook, the bystanders believed that Heaven had come down, the world was delivered from a desolating drought, and amid a thousand evils hope sprang up once more. Now that our West possesses your body and Gamaliel has yielded to Laurence the right of hospitality, rise up once more, O Stephen, and together with the great Roman deacon deliver us from the new barbarians, by converting them, or wiping them off the face of the Earth given by God to His Christ!Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Constantinople, the birthday of St. Hermellus, martyr.
In the East Indies near Persia, the martyrdom of holy monks and other Christians who were put to death after suffering various torments, during the persecution of the Church of God by king Abenner.
At Naples in Campania, St. Aspren, bishop, who was cured of a sickness by the blessed Apostle St. Peter, and after being baptised, was made bishop of that city.
At Autun, the demise of St. Euphronius, bishop and confessor.
At Anagni, St. Peter, bishop, who rested in the Lord after gaining great renown for monastical observance and pastoral vigilance.
At Philippi in Macedonia, St. Lydia, a dealer in purple, who was the first to believe in the Gospel when the blessed Apostle St. Paul preached in that city.
At Beroea in Syria, the holy women Marana and Cyra.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
