Acts 8:1–8

Verse 1. Were dispersed. During this great persecution of the Church, those who could not conceal themselves, were dispersed into different countries. Thus did the Almighty make use of the malice of his enemies, to the greater exaltation and glory of his own name. For those who fled, carried with them the light of the gospel, wherever they went. Tirinus.—They were burning torches, which communicated of their holy fire to every place, in which they were scattered. Saint Augustine Serm. cxvi.—Thus was the gospel disseminated from Jerusalem into all Judea and Samaria.—And Samaria. Though our Saviour in his life time had forbid them to preach to the Samaritans, (Matthew 10:5) they now knew that the time of that precept was past. Witham.

Verse 2. Took care. In an ancient work, which gives the history of the finding of S. Stephen’s body, generally considered authentic, and printed at the end of the 7th vol. of S. Augustin’s works, we find the following account. “Stephen having been stoned without the northern gate, lay there without burial one day and a night, according to the order of the Jewish rulers, that his body might become a prey to birds and beasts, but God did not suffer either to touch it.”—“Then I, Gamaliel, compassionating these servants of Jesus Christ, and desiring to have some share in the faith and religion of this holy man, sent among the Jews some Christians who feared God, dwelling at Jerusalem, to take away privately the body, and bring it in my chariot to my country house, where it was deposited in my tomb towards the east, and we mourned over it for forty days,” and so forth It is an injury to pray for a martyr, who ought to assist us by his prayers. Saint Augustine Serm. xvii.—We see great devotion used in burying his body, and four centuries afterwards, at the finding and translating thereof. Very many miracles were performed on that occasion, as S. Augustin witnesses in his work de Civitate Dei. l. xxii. chapter 8. and Serm. de S. Steph. Tirinus. viii.