ST STEPHEN’S DAY; Boxing Day - 26th December
ST STEPHEN’S DAY; BOXING DAY- 26th DECEMBER
Rembrandt, "The Stoning of St Stephen", (1625).
St Stephen is venerated as the protomartyr, (the first martyr), of the Church. He was a deacon in the early Church at Jerusalem. He aroused the enmity of various synagogues by his teachings and was accused of blasphemy. He made a speech denouncing the Jewish authorities sitting in judgment on him and was sentenced to death by stoning. His martyrdom was witnessed by St Paul who later became Christian.
He is mentioned in Acts 6 as one of the Greek-speaking Hellenistic Jews who were selected by the bishops to assist the widows by welfare and other means.
Acts 6; 8 provides:
And Stephen, full of grace and fortitude, did great wonders and signs among the people.
He distributed food and funds to the widows and poorer members of the community, organising meals to feed the poor and motivating people to contribute money to help them. He organised the donations by placing clay terracotta boxes in each church, to be broken open on Christmas Eve.
This institution for charity is the source of two customs that prevail down to our own times- the piggy bank, and the name of his Feast Day, which is called “Boxing Day” after the breaking open of the charity boxes, which was kept on that day in his memory.
Blessing of Horses: Catholic Culture quotes from Father Weiser and provides as follows-
“From early times [St Stephen] was venerated as the patron of horses. A poem of the tenth century pictures him as the owner of a horse and dramatically relates how Christ Himself miraculously cured the animal for His beloved disciple. Although there is no historical basis for this association with horses in the life of St Stephen, various explanations have been attempted. Some are founded on the ancient Germanic ritual celebrations of horse sacrifice at Yuletide. Others use the fact that in medieval times ‘Twelfth Night’ (Christmas to Epiphany) was a time of rest for domestic animals and horses, as the most useful servants of man, were accorded at the beginning of this fortnight, something like a feast day of their own.
It was a general practice among the farmers in Europe to decorate their horses on Stephen’s Day and bring them to the House of God to be blessed by the priest and afterwards ridden three times round the church, a custom still observed in many rural sections. … [There are parades in Sweden, where riders parade through towns singing ancient carols in his honour].
In Poland, horses’ food, mainly hay and oats, is blessed on Stephen’s Day… In past centuries, water and salt were blessed on this day to be fed to the horses in times of sickness. Women also baked bread in the form of horseshoes (Podkovy).
The recipe here is from Ireland - The St Stephen’s Day Pie is a traditional Irish recipe – it makes delicious use of the Christmas leftovers.
St Stephen’s Pie
900 gms cold turkey meat
450 gms cold ham or bacon
28 gms butter
1 ½ chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
21/2 cups chicken stock
1/1/4 cups turkey gravy
200gms small button mushrooms
4 teaspoons chopped parsley
4 teaspoons chopped chives
2 teaspoons tarragon/marjoram
2 ½ cups of heavy cream
900 gms Duchesse potatoes, mashed for topping
Method:
1 Cut the turkey and ham into 1 inch pieces. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. Add the chopped onions, cover and sweat for about 10 minutes until they are soft, but not brown. Wash and slice the mushrooms.
2 When onions are soft, stir in the garlic and remove to a plate. Increase the heat and cook the sliced mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and add to the onion and garlic.
3 Toss the cold turkey and ham in the hot saucepan, using a little extra butter if necessary. Add the mushrooms and onions. De-glaze the saucepan. Add the cream and chopped herbs and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes.
4 Pour the filling into a pie plate and top with the mashed potato. Bake until the potato is golden, (approx.. 15-20 minutes).
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