Apostle Stephen the Protomartyr

Finding and Translation of the Relics of St. Stephen

When the Jews stoned St. Stephen, they left his body at the foothill of the city for two days to be eaten by dogs. But on the second night, Gamaliel --teacher of the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Barnabas-- came and moved the body to his own land in Capharganda. Nicodemus, who died while weeping at this grave, was also buried there along with Gamaliel's godson Abibus and Gamaliel himself upon his repose.

After many years the memory of St. Stephen's burial place had left the minds of men, until 415 when Gamaliel appeared three times to Father Lucian, priest at Capharganda. He revealed to Fr. Lucian the place of St. Stephen's burial and everything about it. Fr. Lucian received the blessing of the Patriarch to exhume the saints from their grave where a strong, sweet fragrance fillled the cave.

St. Stephen's relics were tranlated to Zion and honorably buried, and many of the sick were healed by his relics. The other three relics were placed inside a church atop the cave on a hill. Eventually, his relics were translated to Constantinople.

Commemoration

The Church remembers the translation of the relics of St. Stephen on August 2

Source

St. Nikolai Velimirovic, The Prologue of Ohrid