Square format view of first Christian martyr Saint Stephen, stoned to death after denouncing his judges. 1100s Romanesque pillar statue in north portal of Basilique Saint-Just, consecrated in the year 1200 at Valcabrère in Occitanie, southwest France.
Valcabrère, Occitanie, France: square format view of medieval statue of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in the north portal of the Romanesque Basilique Saint-Just-de-Valcabrère (Basilica of St Just). The austere late-12th century pillar statue, bearing remains of ancient paint, stands below a sculpted Romanesque capital showing a crowd gathering and piling up stones and rocks to hurl at him. According to the New Testament Acts of the Apostles, Stephen was a deacon in the early church at Jerusalem whose teaching angered members of various synagogues. He was accused of blasphemy and was sentenced to death by stoning after denouncing his Jewish judges. Saul of Tarsus, later known as St Paul the Apostle, was present at Stephen's martyrdom. The north portal also includes pillar statues and sculpted capitals of St Helena of Constantinople and of St Pastor and St Just or Justus, two schoolboy brothers, martyred by the Romans in Spain, who became the basilica’s joint patron saints. According to legend, St Pastor, 13, and St Just or Justus, seven, were arrested and beheaded after confessing to the Roman governor that they were Christians who would not sacrifice to idols. The basilica, a superb example of Romanesque architecture, stands apart from the village of Valcabrère in the Garonne Valley, below and about 1 km east of the village of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges with its Romanesque and Gothic former cathedral. The basilica was built on the burial ground of the ancient Roman settlement of Lugdunum Convenarum and many Gallo-Roman architectural fragments were re-used in its construction.
Size: 2861px × 2861px
Location: Valcabrère, Occitanie, France.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1100s, 12th, accused, apostle, architecture, art, basilica, basilique, blasphemy, century, christian, christianity, city, column, condemned, convenarum, , damaged, death, denounced, die, execution, eyes, face, faces, format, france, garonne, haute-garonne, heritage, image, jewish, judges, kerr, late, lugdunum, male, martyr, martyrdom, medieval, occitania, occitanie, painted, pastor, paul, pelted, pillar, pyrenean, roman, romanesque, romans, saint, saint--de-valcabrè, saints, saul, sculpture, sentenced, site, southwest, square, st, staring, statue, statues, stephen, stoned, stones, stoning, tarsus, terence, unesco, valcabrè, valley, world
