When death is at the door, the flesh fears it, it takes the Spirit of God to overcome that fear. Stephen did not die peacefully on his own, the Spirit helped him overcome his fear and face that death with peace.
His proclamation at the end of his life came from the Spirit, not the natural man in the flesh.
Acts 7:54-60
54When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56"Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
57At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Christian martyrdom is very much different than Islamic martyrdom in that Christian's get martyred as a result of persecution, whereas Muslims get "martyred" in an act of vengence. I might suggest that that is not truely martyrdom, but stupidity.
I'm with you there. ;-)
Anyway, thanks for extrapolating.