Yesterday with exultation
Joined the world in celebration
Of her promised Saviour's birth;
Yesterday the angel-nation
Poured the strains of jubilation
O'er the Monarch born on earth:

But to-day, O deacon glorious,
By thy faith and deeds victorious,
Stephen, champion renowned,
Thee we hail who, triumph gaining,
Mid the faithless faith sustaining,
First of martyr saints wast found.

For the crown that fadeth never
Bear thy murderers' brief endeavour;
Victory waits to end the strife:
Death shall be thy life's beginning,
And life's losing be the winning
Of the true and better life.


Adam of St. Victor
tr. J. M. Neale and Compilers of Hymns Ancient and Modern