More than 500,000 Romanians are celebrating their name day on Friday, December 27, coinciding with the feast of Saint Stephen.
Roman Catholics commemorate him on December 26, while Eastern Catholics honor him one day later on the 27th.
Known as the first Christian martyr, he was executed for speaking out
Before he was stoned to death, Saint Stephen had a vision of Christ. “Look,” he told the court, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
His presence was given away by a chattering wren, leading to the Irish tradition of Wren Day — in a gesture of symbolic justice, male figures killed a wren, placing on a beribboned staff, and paraded around the neighbourhood by naked carollers. In our contemporary times, stuffed wrens are used, and not freshly killed ones.
Pope Francis gave a recitation of the Angelus prayer with the occasion of Saint Stephen’s Feast, after opening a Holy Door at a prison in Rome and celebrated Mass there.
Saint Stephen is the patron saint of Hungary, thanks to its first king, Stephen. The day went on to gain a revisionist significance in the 20th century, symbolizing Hungary’s lost territories. In the United Kingdom, Boxing Day has become an entirely secular holiday.
The war rages on despite Christmas, Romania says avoid Russia
