Acts 6.8-7.5, 47-60 (Epistle)

8Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. 9But some of those who were of the synagogue called “The Libertines”, and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen. 10They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. 11Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and came against him and seized him, then brought him in to the council, 13and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. 14For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” 15All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face like it was the face of an angel.

1The high priest said, “Are these things so?”

2He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3and said to him, ‘Get out of your land and away from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.’ 4Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land where you are now living. 5He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when he still had no child. 47But Solomon built him a house. 48However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says, 49‘heaven is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me?’ says the Lord. ‘Or what is the place of my rest? 50Didn’t my hand make all these things?’

51“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. 52Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. 53You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!”

54Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

57But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, then rushed at him with one accord. 58They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60He kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

John 4.46-54 (Gospel)

46Jesus came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. 47When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”

49The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

50Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 51As he was going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!” 52So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.” 53So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house. 54This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.

Apostles Aristarchus, Pudens and Trophimus of the Seventy

All three are mentioned by name by the Apostle Paul.

Aristarchus is mentioned in Acts 19:29, Colossians 4:10 and Philemon 24. He was bishop of Apamea in Syria; St Paul calls him ‘my fellow-prisoner’ and ‘my fellow-laborer’.

Pudens is mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:21. He was a prominent Roman citizen who gave refuge to Christians; his house was first a place of refuge for the Apostles, then one of the first churches in Rome.

Trophimus is mentioned with Pudens in 2 Timothy 4:21, and in Acts 21:29, where we learn that he was from Ephesus. He accompanied the Apostle Paul on some of his missions.

All three, like St Paul, were beheaded during Nero’s persecutions.

Holy Martyr Ardalion the Actor (3rd c.)

He was a comic actor whose specialty was an act which mocked the Christian martyrs. But during an especially fierce persecution under the Emperor Maximian, his heart was changed in an unknown way, and during one of his performances he called out to the crowd that he was a Christian and that they must not laugh. For this, Ardalion was arrested and tried, and died by torture, as the Prologue says, “playing the role of martyr in very truth and with honour.”