Aside from being the second day of Christmas, today is also a feast day in its own right. As you may have guessed from the title of this post, today is the the feast day of St. Stephen! (I told you December was rife with holidays).
St. Stephen is one of my favorite saints. Besides being my patron saint he is basically the embodiment of what I would like to be. He was not one of the disciples, so he was not a bishop, but he was one of the first priests. He was also the first Christian martyr (I’ve always liked to be the first to do anything). Even more than that, he was martyred because when the pharisees told him to stop preaching about Christ he refused and spoke out against them. Yep, he was martyred for being mouthy for Christ, is their anything more glorious?
How does one celebrate the feast of Stephen you ask? Well, actually I ask that too. Aside from singing the festive St. Stephen song, Good King Wenceslas, I don’t know of any St. Stephen’s day traditions…today is also known as boxing day somewhere , maybe Nathaniel and I should go out this evening and spar a round.