08 — Veneration and Iconography
The protomartyr is commemorated on December 27, on the third day of the Nativity feast, his witness placed deliberately beside the birth of the Christ for whom he died; the uncovering of his relics is kept on August 2. In the Eastern and Western calendars alike his feast stands among the Comites Christi, the “companions of Christ” who attend the manger. In iconography he is the youthful deacon-martyr, beardless, vested in the deacon’s sticharion, bearing a censer and often a model church, crowned with the martyr’s crown his name foretells. These files set out the feast and the image.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Protomartyr)
The liturgical placement of Stephen’s feast within the Nativity octave is itself a theological statement: the first to be born into heaven by martyrdom is honored at the feast of the Lord’s birth on earth. This section examines that placement — the December 27 feast (December 26 in the West), the company of the Comites Christi, and the August 2 translation — and the developed iconography of the deacon-martyr, the youthful figure in his sticharion with censer and crown who became the visual archetype of the holy deacon.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Feast and the Nativity Octave | The December 27 commemoration (December 26 in the West) within the Nativity octave; the Comites Christi — Stephen, John, the Holy Innocents — clustered around Christmas; the August 2 uncovering of the relics; the hymnography and the play on Stephanos, “crown.” |
| The Iconography of the Deacon-Martyr | The visual type of Stephen: the youthful, beardless face; the deacon’s sticharion and orarion; the censer and incense-box; the model church he often holds; the martyr’s crown and palm; his place on the sanctuary doors and walls as the archetype of the holy deacon. |
See Also
- The Cult and the Miracles — the relics the August 2 feast commemorates
- The Protomartyr — the crown his name and feast proclaim
- The Great Feasts — the Nativity within whose octave the feast falls
- Icons and Iconoclasm — the theology of the holy image
References
- The Festal Menaion and The Menaion for December 27 and August 2. (The services of the protomartyr.)
- Ouspensky, Leonid, and Vladimir Lossky. The Meaning of Icons. Crestwood: SVS Press, 1982.
- Augustine of Hippo. Sermons 314–319. Trans. in The Works of Saint Augustine III/9. (Preached on the feast.)