Pope: The martyrs testify their trust in the love of Christ.

Pope Benedict said during his St. Stephen’s Day Angelus that the testimony of Stephen, like all the Christian martyrs, shows to our contemporaries, who are often distracted and disoriented, on whom we should place our trust in order to give meaning to life. The Pope said that the martyr in fact is the one who dies with the certainty that he is loved by God, and who, putting nothing before the love of Christ, knows that he chose the better side.

St. Stephen, like his Master, died forgiving his persecutors, making us understand that the entry of the Son of God into the world gives rise to a new civilization, a civilization of love that does not surrender to evil and violence, but breaks down barriers between men, making them brothers in the great family of the children of God.

Pope Benedict also said that the Church presents St. Stephen as a model deacon and servant of the poor, showing us, in welcoming and loving the poor, one of the privileged ways to live the Gospel.