Today is St. Stefanus Day or Martyr's Day. Stefanus, or Stephen as is his English name, is the first deacon in the Bible. You can read his story in The Acts 6 and 7. He told the truth about Christ clearly, and were stoned to death because of that. Is it unproper to celebrate this day just after all the joy of yesterday when Christ was born in Betlehem? No, of course it is not. God became human into OUR world, and our world is not free of sin, free of evil. And it was not free of sin and evil in Betlehem 2000 years ago. The stoning of Stefanus shows us that. Still, God is born into our world, that's what we all can depend on, and that's what Stefanus depended on when he died in the name of Jesus Christ.
The story of Jesus Christ is told by artists all over the world for 2000 years. I am looking at Rembrants painting from the life of Jesus these days, I have a book where the paintings are collected. But today I wanted to find paintings of St. Stefanus, and I found several in a book I have featuring the Italian/Venecian artist Carpaccio. I saw several of his paintings in Venice in September. He has made four panels of Stefanus, none of them hung in Venice now though. The Stoning of St. Stephen, which I have photographed from my book, hangs in Stuttgart. It is the last of the four canvases in the Stephen cycle, and was painted in 1520.
Art is essential for living, and art can be so many different things. I try to live my life as a painting painted by God, and it makes my life worth living that He, the greatest Master of all, mames new stroke son the painting every day.
