Introduction

Abstract

AbstractThrough the numerous disruptions affecting Jerusalem in the first and second centuries, the burial sites of those apostolic-era figures killed in or around the city were lost. There is also no evidence that the city’s Christians experienced episodes of local persecution in later centuries. Thus, although Aelia/Jerusalem boasted numerous pilgrimage sites associated with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, it lacked even a single tomb or shrine for a Christian martyr up to the mid-fourth century. In a period in which cities articulated their prestige around local martyr cults, the absence of any such cult in Jerusalem was embarrassing. In this context, the city’s local church had every incentive to stretch the fame of its few early martyrs as far as possible. In time, the community opted to stress its unique connections to the biblical St. Stephen, the figure traditionally regarded as the first and chief Christian martyr (Acts 6–8).