Because of his preaching, Stephen was accused of blasphemy against Moses. That’s why the Jewish religious leaders stoned him and turned him into the first martyr of Christianity. That’s why he’s known as proto-martyr.

Normally, Saint Stephen is represented with the features of a young man without a beard with a dalmatic deacon.  As a martyr saint he carried the palm, and amongst his most representative attributes is the book, an allusion to the defence he made of the word of God, and the stone or stones, the indisputable reference to his stoning.