St. Stephen

One of the seven deacons appointed by the apostles to serve the Greek-speaking widows of the Jerusalem Church. A man "full of grace and power," he was dragged before the Sanhedrin, gave a long sermon recounting Israel's history, and was stoned to death just outside the city — gazing into heaven and praying for his executioners. Saul of Tarsus stood by, holding the cloaks of those who killed him.

Stephen's speech before the council, the longest recorded discourse in the Acts of the Apostles, is a masterful retelling of salvation history from Abraham to Solomon. He accused the leaders of Israel of resisting the Holy Spirit as their fathers had done, and when he looked up and declared that he saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, they rushed upon him in fury.

His death, the first martyrdom of the Christian era, set a pattern that would be repeated for centuries: witness sealed in blood, forgiveness offered to the killers, and the seed of the Church planted deeper by the very act meant to destroy it. Augustine later wrote that the Church owed Paul to the prayer of Stephen, for the young Pharisee who approved of his death would one day carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth.