This brand-new issue in the prestigious collection of the Oxford Early Christian Studies is devoted to one of the most popular saints of the history of Christianity, St Stephen, the first Christian martyr and protagonist of chapters vi–viii of the biblical Acts of the Apostles. Incorporating three previous articles published between 2014 and 2021 (see p. viii for references), and adding substantial new material, Hugo Méndez has produced a concise but very well-informed monograph on the origins and early development of the cult of Stephen in Jerusalem. Méndez's goal is to document and explain why and how this particular martyr became the patron saint of Jerusalem between 350 and 500. Handling a profuse and multilingual hagiographical dossier, Méndez manages to sketch, in a very accessible way, the main trends along which the cult of Stephen emerged and consolidated in the Holy City in the late antique period. This book opens fresh perspectives and suggests new theories on the subject, thus enriching previous research on Stephen, specifically in the light of my own book, published in 2021 (L'Invention du protomartyr Étienne, Turnhout 2021).
The first chapter investigates the issue of the earliest date for the feast of St Stephen (26 December). Basing his observations on ancient martyrologies, especially the Breviarium Syriacum (originally compiled in the fourth century), Méndez convincingly shows that Stephen holds a very special place in the early Christian liturgy, being commemorated at the beginning of the liturgical year, even before the Apostles John, James, Peter and Paul. Stephen's fame was then well-established before his cult started in Jerusalem.
The following chapter deals with the first locus sanctus where Stephen was venerated: the church of Holy Sion (Hagia Sion) in Jerusalem, where his relics were deposited in 415 after their discovery in a nearby village. Méndez offers a brief history of this sanctuary of paramount importance, suggesting a very cogent comparison between the Holy Sion of Jerusalem, the Church of the Apostles in Constantinople and the Basilica Apostolorum in Rome (see pp. 40–2), stating that the Holy Sion fully deserves the title of ‘apostoleion’, that is a shrine dedicated to the memory of Christ's Apostles. The remaining pages are devoted to the study of the earliest dates of Stephen's feast in Jerusalem, in which Méndez argues that Stephen was venerated in the Holy City before the discovery of his relics in 415; nevertheless, since we do not possess any source prior to 415 that bears witness to Stephen's cult in Jerusalem, the author's claim should be viewed with caution.
While chapter iii mainly hinges around Hesychius’ homily on the protomartyr (BHG 1657b), which promotes Stephen as a new civic patron – thus firmly rooting the protomartyr in the local identity of Jerusalem – chapter iv offers an overview of the circumstances under which Stephen's body was miraculously unearthed in 415. This event is reported in the Revelatio Stephani, a rather short text that tells how a priest named Lucian had a vision of rabbi Gamaliel (Acts of the Apostles v.34–9; xxii.3) revealing to him the secret place where Stephen had been buried after his stoning. As the bishop of Jerusalem, John ii, learned about this vision, he ordered Lucian to search for Stephen's tomb in the village of Kafar Gamala. After the tomb was located and opened, John and other bishops took the relics and deposited them in the diakonikon (‘sacristy’) of the Holy Sion on 26 December 415. The Revelatio Stephani, which was written shortly after the protomartyr's invention, is a major piece in Stephen's dossier that, as Méndez aptly demonstrates, casts John ii as the maître d’œuvre of this discovery (see especially p. 94).
The next chapter is by far the most penetrating contribution of Méndez's book, enlarging and supplementing my own remarks (Labadie, L'Invention, 293–314). The author here proves the full extent of his expertise in liturgical calendars, especially the Armenian lectionary (completed between 456 and 479). Apart from 26 December (or 27 according to manuscript J of the Armenian lectionary), two other feasts were introduced in Jerusalem after the discovery of Stephen's relics: the second day of the Epiphany (7 January) and the third day of the Paschal octave. The author also delves into the different hymns that were sung during these celebrations, showing that the martyrdom of Stephen was intricately modelled on Jesus’ death and that the protomartyr was seen as a zealous leader of the fight against Jews and Judaism.
The last chapter offers a stimulating discussion about the basilica which Eudocia – wife of emperor Theodosius ii – built in honour of St Stephen in the northern part of Jerusalem. In this final essay, the author tries to demonstrate that Eudocia's basilica became, from 439 onwards, the focal point of Stephen's veneration in the Holy City and the main church in which his annual feasts (or synaxeis) were conducted and celebrated.
Though Méndez's book deserves to be praised for its clarity and depth, a few critical remarks are in order. First, the author should have connected the actions of John ii with the crisis in which he was entangled at the time. Indeed, having hosted the famous arch-heretic Pelagius, John bore the brunt of the most acerbic criticisms from his fellow bishops in Palestine. As a council was convened in Diospolis-Lydda in December 415 with a view to deposing John, Stephen's body was unexpectedly recovered on the first day of the meeting. John, being credited with the identification of Stephen's tomb, was finally released from the charges that had been brought against him. The timely reappearance of such a prestigious martyr was no coincidence for John, who certainly played a decisive role in staging this ‘miraculous’ discovery. But John's case was not unique. As Estelle Cronnier showed in her magisterial work (Les Inventions de reliques dans l'Empire romain d'Orient, Turnhout 2015), most relic inventions took place during periods of contention for bishops, who seized the opportunity of such events to restore their faltering authority.
Second, Méndez's statement that Stephen in Jerusalem was ‘analogous to Peter and Paul in Rome and Gervasius and Protasius in Milan’ (p. 75) is clearly an overstatement. Although Stephen was one the most celebrated saints in late antique Jerusalem, pilgrims did not flock to the Holy City first and foremost to venerate Stephen, but to see the relics of the Passion (for a discussion on the topic see Cornelia B. Horn, Asceticism and Christological controversy in fifth-century Palestine, Oxford–New York 2006, 245–54). Thus, the holiest place of Jerusalem was decidedly not Eudocia's basilica but the Anastasis-Martyrium-Golgotha complex. One may even say that the real and most powerful patron of Jerusalem was not Stephen, but Jesus.
Third, the main objection of this reviewer regards the venue of Stephen's synaxeis according to the Armenian lectionary. Méndez argues that the ‘martyrion of St. Stephen’ is Eudocia's basilica and not the diakonikon of the Holy Sion. But as I demonstrated (Labadie, L'Invention, 216–25), furthering the remarks of the great liturgist Athanase Renoux, the diakonikon was most probably the main locus for Stephen's feast until the Persian invasion. First, if Eudocia's massive basilica was not yet finished in 460 (according to the Vita Euthymii) and the Lectionary was compiled in 456 at the earliest, how could we account for the mention of a ‘martyrion of St Stephen’ before the basilica was completed and dedicated with the martyr's relics? Furthermore, the Georgian lectionary (sixth century) mentions the diakonikon of Holy Sion as the place where the synaxeis of 27 December was held, while the deposition of the relics was commemorated in Eudocia's basilica on 15 June. According to Méndez's perplexing line of reasoning (pp. 146–7), the celebration was first held in the diakonikon, where the relics were deposited by John ii in 415, then it was transferred to Eudocia's basilica, and then it was transferred back again into the diakonikon during the mid-fifth century. Such a convoluted scenario is not necessary: the synaxeis of 27 December, Epiphany II and Bright Tuesday were held in the diakonikon from the start and continued there, while the commemoration of the depositio of 460 in the great basilica was held on 15 June. Finally, one crucial element lies in the Armenian word used in the Lectionary, to which the author should have paid closer attention. The rare Armenian term matouṙn designates a small shrine or chapel, and not a big church or basilica (Emmanuele Ciakciak, Dizionario Armeno-Italiano, 953: ‘chiesetta, capella, cappelletta’). Then, discarding the diakonikon of Holy Sion as the main place where Stephen was commemorated from the fifth to the seventh century is hardly tenable.
Apart from these caveats, Méndez's book is undeniably an engaging and stimulating journey into the late antique cult of saints, which saw the biblical hero Stephen rise to prominence as a local martyr and key figure of holiness in Christian Jerusalem.
