Invention of St. Stephen

The resting place of the Protomartyr was revealed to a priest named Lucian and brought to the attention of the patriarch of Jerusalem, who promptly organised the sacred body's recovery and burial. Later Empress Eudoxia had it taken to Constantinople before Pope Pelagius I brought it to Rome, where it was laid in the church of St. Lawrence-outside-the-Walls.

Concerning the translation of the body to Rome, the Empress Eudoxia was being tormented by a demon and her father bid her come to Constantinople to be cured by the relics of St. Stephen but the demon would not come forth unless the relics be taken to Rome. The Emperor consented and wrote to Pope Pelagius, who sent his cardinals to receive the body. Upon arrival in Rome it was to be placed in the church of St. Peter's Chains but the demon prevented entry, saying it must be the church of St. Lawrence. The clergy obeyed and the Empress was cured but not before some Greeks tried to remove the body of St. Lawrence. They were struck dead but restored to life by the prayers of the pope, priests and people, giving occasion to much rejoicing on the part of the Romans.

Cardinal Newman in his lectures on the Present Position of Catholics writes:

"I firmly believe that the relics of the saints are doing innumerable miracles and graces daily, and that it needs only for a Catholic to show devotion to any saint in order to receive special benefits from his intercession. I firmly believe that saints in their life-time have before now raised the dead to life, crossed the sea without vessels, multiplied grain and bread, cured incurable diseases, and superseded the operation of the laws of the universe in a multitude of ways. Many men, when they hear an educated man so speak, will at once impute the avowal to insanity, or to an idiosyncrasy, or to imbecility of mind, or to decrepitude of powers, or to fanaticism, or to hypocrisy. They have a right to say so, if they will; and we have a right to ask them why they do not say it of those who bow down before the Mystery of mysteries, the Divine Incarnation. If they do not believe this, they are not yet Protestants; if they do, let them grant that He who has done the greater may do the less."

Patefactae sunt januae caeli Christi Martyri beato Stephano, qui in numero Martyrum inventus est primus : Et ideo triumphat in caelis coronatus. Mortem enim, quam Salvator noster dignatus est pro nobis pati, hanc ille primus reddidit Salvatori.