The St. Stephen's Basilica () or simply the Church of St. Stephen, also known by its French name, Saint-Étienne, is the name given to a Catholic church located outside the walls of the

Old City of Jerusalem The Old City of Jerusalem (; ) is a walled area in Jerusalem. In a tradition that may have begun with an 1840s British map of the city, the Old City is divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Arm ...

, on the road leading north to Nablus. It is next to the convent of St. Stephen, home to the French Bible and Archaeology School ( École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem), and the convent church. An old tradition sees this place as the place where the martyrdom of

Saint Stephen Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity."St ...

took place, the martyr deacon mentioned in the

book of Acts The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...

(). A rival site connected to a later, post-Byzantine tradition is located in the Kidron Valley.

History

The first time a sanctuary was built to commemorate the martyrdom was in the fifth century, when Empress Eudocia initiated the building of a structure on the site of the current basilica, a chapel dedicated to St. Stephen, where she was eventually buried. With the arrival of the

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

in 614 and the siege of Jerusalem that followed, the chapel was destroyed. In 638, a small church was built by St. Sophronius, then restored and enlarged by the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

, but later destroyed by themselves, lest they fall into the hands of Sultan

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

. In the nineteenth century the French

Dominicans Dominicans () also known as Quisqueyans () are an ethnic group, ethno-nationality, national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusio ...

acquired the site of the ancient ruins of the Crusaders, and after archaeological excavations built the convent and the current basilica, which was consecrated in 1900. Italian architect and engineer,

Ermete Pierotti Ermete Pierotti (born July 10, 1820, in Pieve Fosciana, † 1888) was an Italian engineer and archaeologist from Modena in Italy who lived in the mid-19th century. He served as a captain in the Corps of Royal Piedmontese army engineers, in the ar ...

, who served under the Jerusalem governor, Surraya

Pasha Pasha (; ; ) was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignitary, dignitaries, and others. ''Pasha'' was also one of the highest titles in the 20th-century Kingdom of ...

(1857–1863), thought that St. Stephen's Basilica marked the site of the tomb of Queen Helena, described by

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

as being "three stadia outside of Jerusalem." Pierotti, Ermete (1864), ''Jerusalem explored: being a description of the ancient and modern city, with numerous illustrations consisting of views, ground plans, and sections'', translated by T.G. Bonney, London: Bell and Daldy; Cambridge: Deighton, Bell and Co., pp
36–37
This view is today largely rejected, in favor of the Tombs of the Kings.

References

External links

Photos of St Stephen's Basilica
at the

Manar al-Athar Manar al-Athar is a photo archive based at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford which aims to provide high-quality open-access images of archaeological sites and buildings. The archive's collection focuses on areas of the Roman Em ...

photo archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Stephen's Basilica, Church Roman Catholic churches in Jerusalem Buildings and structures in Jerusalem Roman Catholic churches completed in 1900 Basilica churches in Jerusalem École Biblique 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings

History

See also

References

External links