John Chrysostom

"And devout men," it says, "carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him." If they were "devout," why did they "make great lamentation over him?" They were not yet perfect. The man was gracious and amiable: this also shows that they were men - not their fear alone, but their grief and lamentation. Who would not have wept to see that mild, that lamb-like person stoned, and lying dead? Fit eulogy to be spoken over his grave has the Evangelist recorded, in this one speech, "Lay not this sin to their charge." "And made," he says, "great lamentation over him."