Saturday, December 26, 2009

Saint Stephen

Saint Stephen statue, church of San Sebastiano, LivornoToday is Saint Stephen's Day and it seems a good occasion to thank all the Stefanos (at least four of them) who helped us with access to places, news, facts and historical data.
The statue of the Protomartyr is on the facade of the church of “San Sebastiano” (Saint Sebastian), Saint Stephen is carrying the martyrs' palm and the stones of his martyrdom.

More about Saint Stephen on Jerusalem Hills daily photo.

21 comments:

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Lovely! Happy Holidays!!!

Hilda said...

I'd like to thank your four Stefanos too. We also benefited from their help. :)

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Clueless in Boston said...

I hope you had a very merry Christmas!

Dina said...

Thanks for this post. I have wanted to post about St. Stephan's Day but never knew how to illustrate it. You are lucky to have a statue.

Shalom from Jerusalem, where the poor martyr met his end.

Gunn said...

Today I will open our Italian cake, and than I will send some thoughts all the way down to Livorno, to you who celebrate Saint Stephen`s Day. And I will "google" and find out more about the Saint....
Have a nice day!:-)

joo said...

Hope you're having great Christmas!
I like this statue.
All the best to your friends Stefanos:)

Cezar and Léia said...

Beautiful sculpture and thanks so much for remember about his day! :)
Léia

stromsjo said...

A radiant statue.

lemon said...

Merry Christmas dear Vogon Poet :)

Kate said...

An excellent choice to celebrate the day!

cieldequimper said...

I need to look at a calendar more often!
Nice statue btw lots of martyrdom.

VP said...

Here the day after Christmas, a holiday, it's called “Santo Stefano”, so it's difficult to forget about it.
We say that something will last “da Natale a Santo Stefano” (from Christmas to Saint Stephen's Day) of something seen as short lived.

Andreea said...

We celebrate "Sfântul Ştefan" tomorrow, on the 27th. I wonder where the one day difference came from.

Ilse said...

Happy Holidays! Really love that Christmas tree. Really quite spectular & a tree did not die. The nativity scenes in the wine bottle were very cool as well. And, St. Stephen looks pretty good. Hope Santa was good to you & yours!

amatamari© said...

Spero tu abbia trascorso un periodo sereno (e digerito tutto se anche in quel di Livorno si mangia tanto come dalle mie parti...)
:-)

tapirgal said...

Beautiful photo in the arch, nice colors, and I loved hearing your comment about “da Natale a Santo Stefano." The idioms of cultures are so interesting.

Tash said...

clever way to thank friends and assistants! Very nice sculpture.

Dina said...

Ha, yes, I finally remembered our St. Stephen's church, duh. JHDP is honored by your link.

I learned about the martyr's palm symbol from you. So many Christian things are new to me.
And a nice saying, “da Natale a Santo Stefano.”

At dinner with my nun and hermit friends last night we had Pandora cake (my first) and I thought of you in Italy.

VP said...

@ Dina - Hermits eating pandoro? Things aren't what they used to be...

Anonymous said...

In Bulgaria we have name day - according to the orthodox saints calendar. It is celebrated with parties almost like birthdays. Lots of occasions to get drunk :)

Dina said...

But the hermit is Italian, he needs his Christmas pandoro! :D