The same is to be held concerning this sermon, transcribed from another Cassinese codex 106, page 16, and attributed to Saint Maximus. Among the most splendid ranks of martyrs and the purple choirs of martyrs whom the Nazarene blood dyed, Saint Stephen shone with such brilliance that, while he even now sustains the divine reward, the assembly below also lies open to view. This illustrious athlete of God, then, anointed with the Spirit of God, went forth first to the arena of the contest, and obtained so great a glory of victory that he was the first to receive the crown. A faithful soldier of Christ, a brave standard-bearer of the martyrs, straightway after Christ he passed through the battle-line of the devil, and, renowned in martyr's white, he triumphed.
For following the Lord Christ, he merited the primacy of martyrdom, and when he came to the standards of the cross, the palm was sent to him first from heaven, and while he hastened to die, he was the first to desire to be crowned. Finally he thus answered them: 'You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so also do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of Christ' (Acts 7). Behold, the hands of the impious are made ready for the killing, already the weapons of fury are brought forth, already the martyr is walled about with a rampart of stones, and over his innocent head the weighed-out destruction hangs poised. But he: 'Stiff-necked,' he says, 'and uncircumcised in heart and ears.'
Here he does not flatter, but assails; he does not caress, but provokes; he does not tremble, but incites: 'stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears.' Look, O martyr, upon the neighboring hailstorm; behold the twisting air; gaze upon the heaps of seething crags. Now let us see the panting faces. Now behold, contemplate the dripping eyes. And lo, the deadly battle-line draws near, approaches, already the stones are hurled: 'Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers also did.' When he said these things, they raged in their hearts and gnashed their teeth against him.
But the twisted pillar of God, though seized among the stone-bearing hands and held in the tyrant's pincers, founded in faith, governed by hope, established in charity, was set aflame and hung up, was struck and led on, was broken and increased, was cut down and not conquered. O blessed workshop of faith, which forged so great a martyr, that in his bonds he might thus behold the rights of the Majesty! 'Behold,' he says, 'I see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God' (Acts 7). The seat of God lay open, and, the air of the heavens being cloven, its sides hung apart. The luminous vault and expanse gaped wide. At last, when the twisting whirlwinds of stones barked around him, and the whirled mounds were hurled, for his savage foes he prayed thus: 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.'
The roaring lion wished to devour, but the sheep of Christ did not lose its meekness. To him indeed it opened its jaws, but it could not swallow the martyr. For the Jew exercised the butchery of his fury, but our David plucked his sheep from the mouth of the raging one. For so it is sung in the psalm: 'Unless the Lord had been with us, when men rose up against us, perhaps they would have swallowed us up alive' (Psalm 123). O Judea, drunk with the blood of the prophets, art thou not yet sated, from the blood of Abel even to the blood of Zechariah? The rivers of thy wickedness foam, and do they not satisfy thee? For thus does the Lord rebuke the Jews:
'That there may come upon you,' He says, 'all the innocent blood which you have shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel even to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachiah, whom you slew between the temple and the altar' (Matthew 23). Even in the raw and early age you bloodied yourself in Abel; there you poured out your fountain; and in the vein of this blood it bubbles up, and are you still athirst? Do you burn for the death of the martyr? And do you pant even now for the blood of the confessor? Has the flood of your fury not yet dried up? Does the channel of your wickedness still drag on? Put an end at last to your crime, spare at least the martyr. But they stoned Stephen, as he called upon the Lord and said: 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit' (Acts 7); 'for I pour out my blood for you.'
But Saul was consenting to his death (ibid.), as the Scripture says, and kept the garments of those who slew him. He was not only consenting, but an instigator; not only an accomplice, but a patron. And you, Saul, ravening wolf, drinking another's blood, wait a little while and you shall see your own blood. You are a thief, and you too, together with the Jews, you also shall suffer what you inflict upon another. You keep the garments of those who stone; you shall feel the fury of those who rage. You shall see these hands, laid upon the martyr, not sparing you. You envy Christ; you shall yet die for Him in the world; you inflict punishment on the martyr; you shall feel, by requital, the vengeance. And truly he felt it, for he too poured out his blood for Christ.
And we now have as the Apostle Paul a preacher of Christ, who beforehand persecuted the members of Christ. Let us therefore now, brethren, venerate with festive devotion Stephen, the first martyr and the pattern of truth. Standing upright, let us pour out our prayer to Him who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.