1 Timothy 6.11-16 (Epistle, Saturday after Nativity)

11But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses. 13I command you before God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession, 14that you keep the commandment without spot, blameless until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15which at the right time he will show, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 16He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.

Ephesians 2.11-13 (Epistle)

11Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands), 12that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.

Acts 6.8-7.5, 47-60 (Epistle, St Stephen)

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.

Matthew 12.15-21 (Gospel, Saturday after Nativity)

15Jesus, perceiving that, withdrew from there. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all, 16and commanded them that they should not make him known, 17that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, 18“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit on him. He will proclaim justice to the nations. 19He will not strive, nor shout, neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets. 20He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a smoking flax, until he leads justice to victory. 21In his name, the nations will hope.”

Luke 16.10-15 (Gospel)

10He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You aren’t able to serve God and Mammon.”

14The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they scoffed at him. 15He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Matthew 21.33-42 (Gospel, St Stephen)

33“Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. 34When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his fruit. 35The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36Again, he sent other servants more than the first; and they treated them the same way. 37But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard, then killed him. 40When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”

41They told him, “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers who will give him the fruit in its season.”

42Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes’?

Holy First Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen

A kinsman of the Apostle Paul, the Holy Stephen was one of the seven deacons (with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas) first appointed by the Church to minister to the people; and it pleased God to receive him as the Church’s first Martyr for Christ. Read the long, beautiful and edifying account of his witness in the Acts of the Apostles, chapters 6-8. When Stephen, “full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people,” (Acts 6:8), some members of a synagogue in Jerusalem came to dispute with him and, enraged by his proclamation of Christ, stoned him to death. In his death St Stephen revealed Christ’s erasure of the boundary between heaven and earth, and the new communion between man and God: his face shone with the light of the Transfiguration, and he was granted a vision of Christ enthroned at the Father’s right hand. His dying words were “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:60).

According to holy tradition, the martyrdom of St Stephen occurred exactly a year after the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. His body was taken and secretly buried by Gamaliel, a member of the Sanhendrin and secretly a Christian.

Saint Stephen’s relics were discovered by the priest Lucian in 415 following a vision. They were translated to the church built for them in Jerusalem by the Empress Eudocia, and later taken to Constantinople.

The Saint’s missionary speech before his death (like that of the deacon St Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch) reminds us that those appointed to serve the Church materially are not barred, or even excused, from proclaiming the glorious Gospel of Christ.

Our Righteous Father Theodore the Branded, brother of St Theophanes the Hymnographer

See the account of his life on October 11, when his brother St Theophanes is Commemorated.