When Saint Stephen Was At Jerusalem

Words: English Traditional, Before 1536

Source: Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), pp. 124-5.

Now sing we, both all and some:
Lapidaverunt Stephanum

1. When Saint Stephen was at Jerusalem,
Godes laws he loved to learn,
That made the Jews to cry so clear and clean,
    Lapidaverunt Stephanum.
        Now sing we, both all and some:
        Lapidaverunt Stephanum.

2. The Jews that were both false and fell,
Against Saint Stephen they were cruel,
Him to slay they made great yell,
    And lapidaverunt Stephanum.
        Now sing we, both all and some:
        Lapidaverunt Stephanum.

3. They pulled him without the town,
And then he meekly kneeled down,
While the Jews cracked his crown,
    Quia lapidaverunt Stephanum.
        Now sing we, both all and some:
        Lapidaverunt Stephanum.

4. Great stones and bones at him they cast,
Veins and bones of him they brast,¹
And they killed him at the last,
    Quia lapidaverunt Stephanum.
        Now sing we, both all and some:
        Lapidaverunt Stephanum.

Pray we all that now be here,
Unto Saint Stephen, that martyr clear,
To save us all from the fiendes fear.
    Lapidaverunt Stephanum.
        Now sing we, both all and some:
        Lapidaverunt Stephanum.

Note:

1. Burst. Return

For other hymns and carols dedicated to Saint Stephen, see: Hymns to St Stephen.

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