Saint Stephen

About Saint Stephen

Saint Stephen, ranked #533 in historical importance by MIT's Pantheon project, holds a pivotal place in early religious history. Living from approximately 1 to 36 AD, he is traditionally recognized as the first Christian martyr, or protomartyr. His significant contribution stems from his role as one of the first deacons ordained by the Apostles to serve the early church, culminating in his death by stoning for alleged blasphemy, an event detailed in the biblical Book of Acts.

Despite this foundational religious significance, Saint Stephen's modern internet attention in 2025 is relatively modest, registering 450K annualized Wikipedia views. This places him in a state of near-perfect alignment with his historical weight, as indicated by his 1x Attention Gap score, meaning his attention is proportional to his HPI rank. For contrast, Saint Valentine (#693 importance) garners more than double his views at 911K, highlighting a slight, though not dramatic, disparity in modern religious figure visibility.

Interestingly, his modest attention shows a positive trend, evidenced by a +0.5% year-over-year increase and a notable +27% momentum spike between Q1 and Q3 of 2025, suggesting sustained or slightly growing engagement with his story online.