Sunday, February 4, 2018

Sahada Mar Esthapanose / St. Stephen the Martyr


Today is the 5th Sunday of the season of Denha. Denha is a syriac word which means manifestation or epiphany. In this Liturgical season, our church is meditating on manifestation of the Person of Isho M’shiha - his human and divine natures as revealed through his public life. On the Fridays of the season of Denha we commemorate saints and martyrs who revealed Isho to the world. We commemorate John the Baptist on the 1st Friday, Peter and Paul on the second Friday, Evangelists, St. Stephan, Greek Church fathers and Syriac Church fathers on the following Fridays.  And on the last Friday we remember all our beloved departed as we have received the faith from them and as Isho is revealed to us through them.

Today I am going to talk about Mar Esthapanose Sahada ( മാർ എസ്തപ്പാനോസ് സഹ്‌ദാ) St. Stephen the Martyr, who is the first martyr of the church. Our church commemorated him on last Friday, 2nd of February. Saint Stephen is first mentioned in Acts of the Apostles as one of seven deacons appointed by the Apostles to distribute food and charitable aid to poorer members of the community in the early church. Stephen is stated to have been full of faith and the Holy Spirit and to have performed miracles among the people. Jews suborned false testimony that Stephen had preached blasphemy against Moses and God. They dragged him to appear before the Sanhedrin, the supreme legal court of Jewish elders, accusing him of preaching against the Temple and the Mosaic Law. In a long speech to the Sanhedrin comprising almost the whole of Acts Chapter 7, Stephen presents his view of the history of Israel starting from Abraham to Jesus. The crowd could contain their anger no longer. They dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death.

As you all know Catholic Church is a communion of 24 churches. Different churches celebrates the feast of St. Stephen on different days as per their tradition. Our Church Syro Malabar Church celebrates the feast of St. Stephen, Sahda Mar Esthapanose on 4th Friday of Denha.
Thank You.

(Speech prepared for catechism students on 3/2/2018 )


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