The apostles, the first bishops of the Church, appoint deacons to assist them (6). Stephen, one of these deacons, is executed for his faith and so becomes the proto-martyr of the Church.

In time the terms "apostle" and "apostolic" (derived from ... The faith's first martyr, according to the Bible, was St. Stephen, a young Christian leader who enraged a Jewish community by ...

No person, apart from Jesus himself, shaped the history of Christianity like the apostle Paul. Even before he was a believer, ...