The Cult of Stephen in Jerusalem: Inventing a Patron Martyr (Oxford Early Christian Studies) by Hugo Méndez
English | October 6, 2022 | ISBN: 019284699X | True EPUB/PDF | 190 pages | 0.8/1.7 MB
As the site of only a small and obscure Christian population between 135 and 313 CE, Jerusalem witnessed few instances of anti-Christian persecution. This fact became a source of embarrassment to the city in late antiquity―a period when martyr traditions, relics, and shrines were closely intertwined with local prestige. At that time, the city had every incentive to stretch the fame of its few, apostolic martyrs as far as possible-especially the fame of the biblical St. Stephen, the figure traditionally regarded as the first Christian martyr (Acts 6-8). What the church lacked in the quantity of its martyrs, it believed it could compensate for in an exclusive, local claim to the figure widely hailed as the "Protomartyr", "firstborn of the martyrs", and "chief of confessors" in contemporary sources.