Saint Stephen - St Stephen at Bet Gemal

St Stephen At Bet Gemal

In 1916, the Salesians of Don Bosco at Beit Jimal Monastery (Bet Gemal) discovered a mosaic floor during excavations for a small construction. Fr Maurizio Gisler, a Swiss Benedictine monk of the Dormition Abbey on Mount Sion, Jerusalem, gave his opinion that the mosaics belonged to a Byzantine Church of the 5th century. The Salesians and Fr Gisler knew of the letter of the priest Lucian of Kfargamla, who in 415 wrote to the churches of East and West announcing the discovery of the tomb of St Stephen, together with that of Nicodemus (see John 3) and the Rabbi Gamaliel, member of the Sanhedrin and uncle of Nicodemus (Acts 5:34-39), and of one of his two sons, Abibos. The letter begins thus: "Lucian... priest of the church of God in Kfargamla, in the territory of Jerusalem, to the holy church and to all the saints who are in Christ Jesus in the whole world, greetings in the Lord." Lucian continues: on 3 December 415, while he was sleeping in the baptistery of his church, he had a vision of a man, tall, dressed in priestly vestments and a mantle covered with jewels and with the sign of the cross, who said to him: 'Go to the city of Elia (i.e. Jerusalem) and say to the bishop John: "How long are we to remain closed up? When are you going to open us up?" It is absolutely necessary that during your service as bishop you bring to light our mortal remains, which lie abandoned and forgotten. I am not so much worried about myself, as about those who are buried with me, who are saints and worthy of honour.' Upon being asked who he was, the personage replied: 'I am Gamaliel, teacher of Paul, Apostle of Christ, and I used to teach the Law at Jerusalem. Next to me lies Stephen, who for his faith in Christ was stoned to death by the Jews and by the priests of Jerusalem, outside the Northern Gate from which a path leads to the valley of Kedron. There the body of Stephen, by order of the wicked leaders of the city, was left exposed day and night without being buried, that it might be devoured by animals. Nevertheless, by the will of God, no animal touched it, no ferocious animal, no bird, no dog. I, Gamaliel, who admired Stephen greatly and wanted to join him in his faith, sent my servants in secret to carry the body of Stephen on my cart to my property at Kfargamla, which means "property of Gamaliel", 20 miles from the city. I told them that he should be buried in my tomb and that they should buy whatever was necessary for the burial, at my expense.' Gamaliel went on to explain that the one buried next to Stephen was his nephew Nicodemus who was baptized by Peter and John (whom he later defended) and who had therefore to suffer persecutions by the Jews. Finally he spoke of his son Abibos who together with him had embraced Christianity, while the other son and his wife remained Hebrews and were buried in the native place of his wife.

Gamaliel appeared twice more to Lucian, because Lucian wanted to be sure that the vision had come from God and that he was not being deceived. In the third apparition, Lucian was severely rebuked for his incredulity. He then decided to search for the tomb, and found it not far from the church near which he was living. The remains of the four persons, Stephen, Nicodemus, Gamaliel and his son Abibos, were carried to Jerusalem on orders of Bishop John and deposited in the Mother Church of Hagia Maria Sion Abbey (or Dormition Abbey on Mount Sion), the church of the Cenacle. Lucian had to be satisfied with some relics, conserved in a monument of mausoleum, which Bishop John constructed to console him for his loss.

In 614 the Persians under Khosrau II destroyed all the churches of Palestine, except the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, because of the representations of the three Magi, dressed as Persians, on the facade. The church at Kfargamla was also destroyed and, as happened to many other historical or biblical sites of the Old and New Testaments, it was soon forgotten, its memory vanished.

The Salesians and Fr Gisler, in 1916, knowing the letter of Lucian, immediately made the connection between Kfargamla and Bet Gemal, with the word 'Bet' (house) in place of 'Kfar' (village, settlement). The distance, 30 km, corresponded to that indicated by Lucian. Convinced of having found the tombo of St Stephen, the Salesians built a church over the mosaics in 1930, of the same dimensions as the Byzantine church, and called it the "Church of St Stephen." Not all, however, accepted this identification of Kfar Gamla with Bet Gemal. The greatest opposition came from the Dominicans (Fr Lagrange, Fr Abel, etc.) of the École Biblique of Jerusalem, who were supporting another locality, Jammal, 30 km north of Jerusalem.

In 1999, Fr Andrzej Strus, a Salesian from Poland, professor at the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS), Rome, began archaeological excavations at a site called Jiljil, also itself on the Salesian property at Bet Gemal, about 300 metres from the new Church of Stephen. He found the remains of a circular structure, which had last served as a winepress. However, its original use appeared to be different, because the structure was very well built, with precise Byzantine measures. Fr Strus proposed that it was a funeral monument, a mausoleum, built in honour of an important person or a saint. He believed that this circular structure (Stephen means 'crown' in Greek) was the monument that John, Bishop of Jerusalem, had constructed at Kfargamla, to house the relics of St Stephen, when the body was carried back to Jerusalem. Strus supplies arguments for the transformation of Kfar gamla into Bet Gemal. Strus concludes: "If the identification of Bet Gemal with Kaphar Gamla is correct, Kh. El-Jiljil could be the most probable place where one needs to search for the tomb of St Stephen and for the remnants of his first memorial."

In 2003, near this circular structure was found a stone architrave or lintel with a tabula ansata. A tabula ansata on a lintel indicates that there was something written or carved on this. The writing was, however, indecipherable. However, Fr Puech, expert in ancient writing from the Ecole Biblique, identified the writing and published an article in Revue Biblique. The writing ran: "DIAKONIKON STEPHANOU PROTOMARTYROS." Diakonikon means a place for conserving relics. This is therefore solid evidence for identifying Bet Gemal with the ancient Kfar Gamla, where St Stephen was buried.