Vatican City, Dec 26, 2018 / 04:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The feast of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, falls the day after Christmas —  timing that contains an important spiritual lesson, Pope Francis said Wednesday.

“It might seem strange to approach the memory of St. Stephen at the birth of Jesus because the contrast between the joy of Bethlehem and the drama of Stephen, stoned in Jerusalem in the first persecution against the nascent Church, emerges,” Pope Francis said Dec. 26.