Good King Wenceslas looked out,
On the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
Deep, and crisp, and even.J. Neale
Today is the Feast of Stephen, the first person to give up his life for the sake of the then-new faith of Christianity. Here’s everything we know about him:
At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the holy Spirit….
Now Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people. Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and people from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and debated with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke. Then they instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.” They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, accosted him, seized him, and brought him before the Sanhedrin.
They presented false witnesses who testified, “This man never stops saying things against (this) holy place and the law. For we have heard him claim that this Jesus the Nazorean will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”
All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Stephen preaches to the Sanhedrin, concluding: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it.”
When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”; and when he said this, he fell asleep.
Acts 6:1-15, 7:51-60
In England and the Commonwealth today is known and celebrated as Boxing Day. No one really knows why it’s called that. It has nothing to do with pugilism. It’s not because people throw out their old boxes today. Many people believe it’s called that because the churches opened their alms boxes to the poor on this day, the day after Christmas. Has anyone found a pre-17th century attestation of this practice?
I have an alternative theory on the name. Here’s an old English rhyme:
Holly and ivy,
box and bay,
put in the church
on Christmas day.
And Robert Herrick, the 17th century Cavalier poet wrote this:
Down with the rosemary and bays,
Down with the mistletoe,
Instead of holly, now upraise
The greener box, for showThe holly hitherto did sway:
Let box now domineer
Until the dancing Easter Day,
Or Easter’s Eve appear.
There’s a simple reason that box also known as boxwood was used in the depths of winter for decoration: Buxus sempervirens (like holly) is always green. So I suspect that the reason that today is called Boxing Day has something to do with an old customary seasonal changing of household decorations as attested for Candlemas (February 1) in Herrick’s poem above. Just a thought.
And it’s also known as Wren’s Day from the old druidic practice of sacrificing wrens at the winter solstice.
