ABSTRACT
All that is known of Saint Stephen’s life and thought is derived from chapters 6 and 7 of Saint Luke’s Acts of the Apostles. The former chapter tells of Stephen’s rise to prominence in the early Christian Church, his election to the protodiaconate (the earliest board of deacons), his theological disputations with the Jews, and his arrest on trumpedup charges of heresy. The latter chapter relates his impassioned and provocative defense before the Sanhedrin, a group of Jewish leaders who became so enraged at his ideas that they stopped his defense short and dragged him away for execution. His death at their hands made Stephen the first in a long line of Christian martyrs.
