Last weekend I spoke at the annual Defending the Faith Conference at lovely Franciscan University of Steubenville. My topic was martyrdom, specifically in the centuries before the accession of Constantine and the peace of the Church. During the Q&A afterward, someone asked how many of the popes of the first two centuries died as martyrs. I didn’t know the answer (and I still don’t), but I suggested that martyrdom was probably listed in the standard benefits package under the heading “pension plan.”

Today is the memorial of one of those early popes, Stephen I, who lived in a time of martyrs and was perhaps a martyr himself. In all events, he was a wise and just referee in the confusion that invariably attended persecution — judging among the contending voices of aggrieved confessors, repentant apostates, renegade theologians and strange bishops, not to mention slugs like me who were trying to get by.

May Pope St. Stephen intercede for us as we honor him today.

Wisdom! Be attentive to the old Catholic Encyclopedia:

It is generally believed that [Stephen] was consecrated 12 May, 254, and that he died 2 August, 257. According to the most ancient catalogues, he was a Roman by birth, and the son of Jovius, and there is no reason to doubt the assertion of the “Liber Pontificalis” that Lucius I, when about to be martyred, made over the care of the Church to his archdeacon Stephen. Most of what we know regarding Pope Stephen is connected directly or indirectly with the severe teachings of the heretic Novatus. Stephen’s most important work was his defense of the validity of heretical baptism against the mistaken opinion of St. Cyprian and other bishops of Africa and Asia. Stephen “triumphed, and in him the Church of Rome triumphed, as she deserved” [E.W. Benson, “Cyprian, His Life, His Times, His Works”, VIII (London), 1897, 3].

In the early part of his pontificate Stephen was frequently urged by Faustinus, Bishop of Lyons, to take action against Marcian, Bishop of Arles, who, attaching himself to doctrines of Novatus, denied communion to the penitent lapsi. For some reason unknown to us Stephen did not move. The bishops of Gaul accordingly turned to Cyprian, and begged him to write to the pope. This the saint did in a letter which is our sole source of information regarding this affair (Epp. lxix, lxviii). The Bishop of Carthage entreats Stephen to imitate his martyred predecessors, and to instruct the bishops of Gaul to condemn Marcian, and to elect another bishop in his stead. As no more is said by St. Cyprian on this affair, it is supposed that the pope acted in accordance with his wishes, and that Marcian was deposed. The case of the Spanish bishops Martial and Basilides also brought Stephen in connection with St. Cyprian. As libellatici they had been condemned by the bishops of their province for denying the Faith. At first they acknowledged their guilt, but afterwards appealed to Rome, and, deceived by their story, Stephen exerted himself to secure their restoration. Accordingly some of their fellow bishops took their part, but the others laid the case before St. Cyprian. An assembly of African bishops which he convoked renewed the condemnation of Basilides and Martial, and exhorted the people to enter into communion with their successors. At the same time they were at pains to point out that Stephen had acted as he had done because “situated at a distance, and ignorant of the true facts of the case” he had been deceived by Basilides. Anxious to preserve the tradition of his predecessors in matters of practical charity, as well as of faith, Stephen, we are told, relieved in their necessities “all the provinces of Syria and Arabia”. In his days the vestments worn by the clergy at Mass and other church services did not differ in shape or material from those ordinarily worn by the laity. Stephen, however, is said by the “Liber Pontificalis” to have ordained that the vestments which had been used for ecclesiastical purposes were not to be employed for daily wear. The same authority adds that he finished his pontificate by martyrdom, but the evidence for this is generally regarded as doubtful. He was buried in the cemetery of St. Calixtus, whence his body was transferred by Paul I to a monastery which he had founded in his honor.