Saint Stephen of Perm

Stephen of Perm (Russian: Стефан Пермский, romanized: Stefan Permsky; Komi: Перымса Степан, romanized: Perymsa Stepan; c. 1340 – 26 April 1396) was a Russian Orthodox bishop, painter and missionary. He is known as being one of the most successful missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church. Stephen is credited with the conversion of the Komi peoples to Christianity. He settled in Ust-Vym and became the first bishop of Perm in 1383. Stephen also created the Old Permic script, which makes him the founding father of Permian written tradition. "The Enlightener of Perm" or the "Apostle of the Permians", as he is sometimes called, is commemorated by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches on 26 April. Epiphanius the Wise wrote about his life in The Life of Stephen of Perm. Stephen was born around 1340 in the town of Ustyug in northern Russia. The region was populated by the native Komi, also known as Zyrians or western Permians, with a minority of Russians. His father was a cathedral cleric in the town. Early on, Stephen mastered the reading and writing of the Russian language and became a lector. Stephen took his monastic vows in Rostov, where he learned Greek and learned his trade as a copyist. He befriended Epihanius, who became the biographer of Sergius of Radonezh (c. 1314–1392) and later Stephen as well. He also befriended Sergius, though he would not become a disciple of his. Around 1370, Stephen began creating an alphabet for the Zyrians, without the influence of Russian on it, despite the prevalence of the trilingual heresy in some Byzantine and Russian circles. In 1376, he voyaged to lands along the Vychegda and Vym rivers, and it was then that he engaged in the conversion of the Zyrians (Komi peoples).