Generally the artists stay very close to this iconography. One very early image presents the saint tonsured with the dalmatic and book, but does not use the stones. Other rare exceptions include this 15th-century fresco with Stephen in a cassock and surplice rather than a dalmatic and this high medieval Madonna, in which he holds an odd yardstick-like length of wood. In Lucas Cranach's woodcut the saint holds the stones for his execution in the folded-up skirt of his dalmatic.
In Orthodox churches it is the deacon who censes the people and the icons during the sacred liturgy, so Orthodox images normally show St. Stephen with a censer (example). The censer is much less common in Catholic images, though we see one in the picture at right.
In a few images Stephen holds a red-cross banner (example) similar to the one in images of the Resurrection of Christ (example). The source for this attribute may be St. Augustine's explanation that the many miracles in which the dead were revived after someone's prayer to St. Stephen were possible because of this martyr's faith in the Resurrection (City of God, XXII:8-9).
NARRATIVE IMAGES
In Acts 6, Stephen was one of seven men called to help the Apostles "to serve" (diakonein) the Christian community (image). The text does not actually call them deacons; the noun derives from the verb. The first part of Acts 6 contemplates their duties as support staff, freeing up the Apostles' time for preaching. But in the second part Stephen is working "signs and wonders" and engaging in debate with the Jews (image). He is then brought before the Sanhedrin, makes his speech, and is stoned to death (image).
Many images of the stoning include Stephen's vision, in which he sees the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (example). A Romanesque fresco in Camps y Camps y Monserrat Pagès (34) pictures only that hand as it directs rays of light onto Stephen, whose arms are raised in parallel to the rays and the hand. Behind him, the arms of the men throwing stones are also raised in parallel with Stephen's, suggesting God's power to put even evil deeds to good purpose.
In addition to Stephen's chapter, the Golden Legend has a separate one for the "Invention of St. Stephen" – the discovery of his relics in Jerusalem and their transmission first to Constantinople then to Rome, where Stephen is at last laid to rest alongside St. Lawrence. The whole sequence of events is presented in a predella by Bernardo Daddi.
Prepared in 2015 by Richard Stracke, Emeritus Professor of English, Augusta University. Revised 2017-01-26.
Portrait by Lorenzo Veneziano, 14th century (See description page)
MORE IMAGES
- 1050-1150: A fresco of the stoning of St. Stephen.
- 1390s: Stephen holds the red-cross banner in his portrait among the saints pictured on the left wing of Cenni di Francesco's Coronation Altarpiece.
- 1453-54: St. Stephen holds the red-cross banner in his portrait in Mantegna's St. Luke Altarpiece.
- Circa 1489-1515: Curiously, Stephen's portrait is included among the fifty Old Testament prophets and patriarchs in the coffered ceiling of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Venice.
- Late 16th or early 17th century: Santo Peranda's Martyrdom of St. Stephen.
- Circa 1600: A statue of St. Stephen adoring the Immaculate Conception.
- 1640-47: Pock's Martyrdom of St. Stephen in Vienna.
DATES
- Feast of St. Stephen: December 26
- Feast of the Invention of St. Stephen: August 3.
BIOGRAPHY
- Golden Legend #8 (Life of St. Stephen): html or pdf
- Golden Legend #112 (Invention of St. Stephen): html or pdf
ALSO SEE