Today – December 26th – is the Feast of Stephen. You know, the one sung of in the time-honored Christmas carol ~

 
If you always wondered – as I did – whose feast day the good king was celebrating, that would be the Stephen of biblical fame, the first Christian martyr…

… stoned to death in the years of persecution that followed the death of Jesus. In the Acts of the Apostles, Chapters Six to Eight, we learn that Stephen was “a man full of faith,” appointed to oversee the care of neglected widows. Stephen took on the established authorities, corrupt in deed and belief, and they could not refute his arguments.
 
So, in timeless human fashion, the powers-that-were bribed witnesses against him. At the climax of his trial, knowing he was doomed, Stephen declared, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.”
 
Out came the rocks.

Writing at Fox News, Ralph Peters calls to mind on this day, the tens of thousands of contemporary Christians slain at the hands of the Islamists in the Middle East ~

This is a new age of martyrs. It’s a time when those who believe in the transcendent generosity of Christ are driven from their homes to suffer exile. It’s an age of blood spilled at a ravaged cross.
 
Even Bethlehem, within living memory a majority-Christian city, has driven out the followers of Jesus until perhaps a dwindling eighth of the population is Christian.

And President Obama has been complicit in this bloodshed through his deliberate inaction ~

The 2,000-year-old Middle-Eastern Christian civilization that began in the days of St. Stephen lies in ruins, persecuted as never before. As the Obama administration averted its self-righteous gaze, a religious genocide already underway accelerated across the region. Stubborn and dogmatic, the administration refused to acknowledge the problem of Christian refugees—those who’d survived the kidnappings, tortures, rapes, massacres and broad religious cleansing—even to the extent of labeling those who wished to help Christians as bigots.
 
In Obama’s global village, there’s no room at the inn for Christian refugees. There’s not even a stable.

 
Peters closes with an appeal to re-purpose the Feast of Stephen ~

In this new age of martyrdom, a time when forces such as the Islamic State inflict torments on Christian captives to rival the tortures endured by the early saints, it’s time to revive St. Stephen’s Day to honor the countless martyrs our leaders ignore […]
 

Wenceslas, too, became a saint—more or less by popular demand. He spread the faith among his pagan subjects, only to be murdered by his brother. In the Victorian-era carol, he’s a king (the historical figure was a duke) who spies a poor man gathering twigs for a fire on the Feast of Stephen–a peasant who will have no feast that day. And the king sets off in the snow on a personal relief mission, followed by one page, the two of them bearing food and wine and pine logs. That particular event may not have occurred, but the symbolism of the gesture should stir us…

… Along with our compassion for today’s Middle Eastern Christian martyrs.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Updated: 12-27-16

Related:
Saint Stephen’s Day Is A Moment To Reflect On Our Witness And Immortality ~ Writing at The Federalist William Newton describes several beautiful artifacts in Barcelona’s Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya depicting the life and death of St. Stephen ~

These works show us that what united the people who commissioned and created this art was not a common government or tongue, but a common faith. Today that faith also unites more than 2.2 billion people on the planet, growing from the small seeds planted by the first followers of Christ, many of whom paid for their faith with their lives. “The blood of the martyrs,” as Tertullian wrote about 150 years after the death of St. Stephen, “is the seed of the Church.” Celebrating the lives of these martyrs in works of art is a way of reminding future generations that they, too, might be called upon to suffer greatly for their Christian faith.
 
Although St. Stephen may have been the first martyr to suffer and die for his belief in Christ, he was not nor will he be the last. Daily we are confronted with news stories of Christians all over the world being deprived of their rights, liberty, and their very lives, simply because they are Christians […]
 
St. Stephen’s life, then as now, is a wake-up call for those whose faith has become compromised or lukewarm, and a challenge to those who believe they can stamp out Christianity altogether, whether at the edge of a sword or by the stroke of a pen. His determination to persevere in his actions and to speak out in defense of his beliefs created a powerful example for others to follow.