Saint Stephen the Younger

Saint Stephen the Younger (Greek: Ἂγιος Στέφανος ὁ νέος, Hagios Stephanos ho neos; 713 or 715 – 28 November 764 or 765) was a Byzantine monk from Constantinople who became one of the leading opponents of the iconoclastic policies of Emperor Constantine V (r. 741–775). He was executed in 764 and became the most prominent iconodule martyr. His feast day is celebrated annually on 28 November. His hagiography, the Life of St. Stephen the Younger, is an important historical source. Stephen was born in Constantinople in 713 or, according to the Life, shortly after 11 August 715. His father, Gregory, was a craftsman. His mother was called Anna, and he had two older sisters, Theodote and an unnamed one. On Holy Saturday 716, he was baptised in the Hagia Sophia by Patriarch Germanus I. In his sixteenth year (circa 731), he was brought by his parents to Mt. Auxentius in Bithynia, where he became a monk. He visited Constantinople again for his father's funeral some years later and brought his mother and sisters to the convent of Mt. Auxentius. In his 31st year (743 or 746), his mentor, John, died, and Stephen succeeded him, founding a monastery. In his 42nd year (754 or 757), he retired as a hermit in a cave. He refused to accept the decisions of the iconoclast Council of Hieria (754), but it was not until circa 760 that he began suffering persecution: he was accused of sexual relations with his mother, and of illegally tonsuring George Synkletos, a favourite of the Emperor Constantine V. Some modern scholars, however, reject the conventional story whereby Constantine's persecution of monks was a result of the latter championing the cause of the iconophiles. Rather, it has been suggested that the emperor's drive against monasticism had military and financial reasons, since the monasteries paid no tax and the monks were exempt from military duty.