Feast of St Stephen

 Happy Feast of St Stephen.

Many of our fellows know this day mainly from the old Carol Good King Wenceslaus, as this is the day the good king and his servant brought meat, wine, and pine logs to the poor man's house. But this was an important day for the early church, and it is no accident that the church moves immediately from the Birth to the first martyr- 'martyr' after all, means witness. After we celebrate the birth of God amongst us, we go immediately to the first Christian who died for bearing witness to that truth,

Below on the left is the window for the stoning of Steven in my church, St Cecilia's. The photo is of poor quality, you can see that there is a small red flower in the lower right corner of the window. Of all the windows in our church, it is the only one to show a flower growing on the ground. This is no mere artistic touch or add on, nor is the blood red colour of the flower an accident or coincidence. I believe this was done in reference to the old saying of Tertullian: The blood of martyrs is the seed of the faith.