The first Christian to be killed for the name of Christ, and the first to be asked to forgive it. Acts makes him one of seven men set over a quarrel about food, and never once calls him a deacon; the Church gave him that title later, and has kept his day since at least 411, the morning after Christmas. He died praying for the men throwing the stones, and one of the coats at that execution belonged to Saul of Tarsus.