{"id":8440,"date":"2025-12-31T21:52:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T21:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/?p=8440"},"modified":"2026-01-01T17:45:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T17:45:32","slug":"saint-stephens-gate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/?p=8440","title":{"rendered":"FEAST OF STEPHEN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Saint Stephen was the protomartyr of the Christian faith. His festival is celebrated on what is called Boxing Day in the anglosphere.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <strong>He is perhaps best remembered in the Christmas carol, <em>Good King Wenceslas.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><em>&#8220;Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I had never heard of the signifigance of Stephen or his feast until my visit to Jerusalem several years ago now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Saint-Stephens-Gate-Jerusalem-1-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Saint-Stephens-Gate-Jerusalem-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Saint-Stephens-Gate-Jerusalem-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Saint-Stephens-Gate-Jerusalem-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Saint-Stephens-Gate-Jerusalem-1-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Saint-Stephens-Gate-Jerusalem-1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Saint-Stephens-Gate-Jerusalem-1-2048x1367.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>SAINT STEPHEN&#8217;S GATE, JERUSALEM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Formerly called the Lion&#8217;s Gate because of the relief carvings about the upper arch, the gate is one of seven open gates of Old City, Jerusalem.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I recall backing up, and backing up again, patiently waiting for tourists to exit the scene and get the picture framed correctly. To my amazement and complete ignorance, I must have been standing near the exact spot where<\/strong> <strong>Stephen was dragged out and stoned to death by the Pharisees! Full story<\/strong> <strong>Acts 6-7 of the New Testament.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saint Stephen was the protomartyr of the Christian faith. His festival is celebrated on what is called Boxing Day in the anglosphere. He is perhaps best remembered in the Christmas carol, Good King Wenceslas. &#8220;Good King Wenceslas looked out on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/?p=8440\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical","category-touring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8440"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8454,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8440\/revisions\/8454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}