Thomas Craughwell Other Articles by Thomas CraughwellPrinter Friendly Version A Patron Saint for Deacons December 25, 2006 Everything we know about St. Stephen, one of the first deacons and Christianity's first martyr, comes from chapters six and seven of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament. Stephen came from a family of Hellenists, Jews who had emigrated from Palestine to one of the Greek-speaking provinces of the Roman Empire. These Jews spoke Greek rather than Aramaic and in their synagogues heard Scriptures read in Greek rather than Hebrew. The sixth chapter of Acts tells us that...
