[Rank]
S. Stephen pope and martyr;;Simplex;;1.1;;vide C2

[Rule]
vide C2;

[Lectio93]
This Stephen was a Roman, and exercised the Popedom in the reign of the Emperors~
Valerian and Gallienus. It was his ordinance which forbade Priests and Deacons~
ever to use their hallowed garments except in the Church. He forbade a~
re-baptism of such as had been baptized by heretics, writing to St Cyprian in~
these words : Let us have no 'innovations, but only what hath been handed down~
unto us. He turned many to Christ, and, among them, the Tribune Olympius, with~
his wife Exuperia, and his son Theodulus, and the Tribune Nemesius, to whose~
blind daughter he had given sight, along with all his household. All these were~
martyrs for Jesus Christ. When the persecution of the Emperors was waxing~
dreader and more dread, Stephen gathered together the clergy, and exhorted them~
to be brave in lifting up their testimony, and himself celebrated Masses and~
Councils in the Catacombs. He was caught by some unbelievers, and haled to the~
temple of Mars, to do sacrifice to that idol, but he boldly said he would never~
pay to devils an honour which it behoved to give to God only. As he spake these~
words an earthquake made the image of Mars to fall down, and all the temple to~
tremble. All they that held Stephen fled, and the Pope went back to his own~
people in the cemetery of Lucina. He there delivered to them a discourse full of~
the Word of God, and gave them the Communion of the Sacrament of the Body of~
Christ. While he was finishing the Mass, the soldiers of the Emperor again brake~
in upon them, and his head was cut off as he sat in his chair. The reliques of~
the Martyr, along with the chair stained with his blood, were buried by the~
clergy in the cemetery of Callistus, upon the 2nd day of August, (in the year of~
our Lord 257.) He lived as Pope three years, three months, and twentytwo days.~
He held two ordinations in the month of December, and in them ordained six~
Priests, five Deacons, and three Bishops.
&teDeum
