The relics of St. Stephen have been relocated (“translated”) twice since the miraculous finding: from Jerusalem to Constantinople in the fifth century and from Constantinople to Rome in the sixth. May seventh is the day on which the Roman Church commemorates this last translation, when the Protomartyr’s remains were placed in the Church of St. Laurence in Agro Verano. According to Saints to Remember, “The body of Saint Stephen was placed beside the body of Saint Laurence, in Rome. When it was put there, Saint Laurence’s body miraculously moved to one side, while he extended to Saint Stephen his hand. The Italian Catholics call Saint Laurence, because of this kindness, ‘the courteous Spaniard.’”
This website, in French, tells the relevant part of our two saintly deacons’ posthumous meeting thus: “The daughter of Emperor Theodosius, Euxodia, possessed by an evil spirit, is exorcised near the bodies of saints Stephen and Lawrence; the devil leaves the unfortunate girl, who exclaims that the two saints should be buried in the same tomb. Initially, none of the efforts to move the bodies succeed, but when Stephen is finally placed in Lawrence’s tomb, the latter moves on his own to Stephen’s tomb to leave the place of honor (on the right) to the Protomartyr. This earns the Spanish saint his nickname: il cortese Spagnolo (the courteous Spaniard).”
Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls, where the relics are enshrined
(photo by Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0)
