Stephanos

LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN, FOUNDER OF THE MONASTERY AT THE LAKE OF GEESE,

from the Menaea of the Greeks.

Eighth century.

Stephen, founder of the monastery at the Lake of Geese (S.)

Our holy Father Stephen, having come from the East, noble like the great Job, and having from boyhood emulated the religious life, visited the monasteries of men at the Jordan and in the desert, as well as those of St. Euthymius, St. Sabbas, and St. Theodosius. Having examined the way of life of each, St. Stephen visits the monasteries of Syria: he afterward came to Constantinople during the reign of Leo the Isaurian, and was received as a guest by the most holy Patriarch Germanus. Having remained with him for some time, he learned very many things from him and derived great benefit therefrom, He lives with St. Germanus: and he assisted him with salutary counsel in the management of affairs. Hence it is that the monastery which received its name from the Lake of Geese He establishes the monastery at the Lake of Geese: was founded by him, in which he himself lived and gathered a great number of monks, whom he cultivated in religious discipline and through pious exhortations in the Lord, that they might aspire to the perfection of the fullness of the age of Christ. When therefore he had spent his life admirably and from present experiences had received and demonstrated a foretaste of future happiness and fellowship, when he was now about to depart from here, having sent his soul forth with glory ahead of him (as those who possessed a purer vision of the mind beheld, and recounted to many others), he flew from his earthly dwelling to the heavenly court. He dies in holiness.

a Raderus on this day writes: "John Moschus speaks in the Limonarium of many holy men of this name. Who this Stephen is, however, the Abbot at the Lake of Geese, I have not yet read." But John Moschus could not have written anything about this St. Stephen, being more than a hundred years his senior; for we said above, on January 11, in the prolegomena, that the body of Moschus, who had died at Rome, was brought to the monastery of St. Theodosius the Cenobiarch in the year 619 or 620, Indiction 8; whereas Stephen came to Constantinople under the Isaurian.

b Most of these are described by John Moschus in the Limonarium, or Spiritual Meadow, which is book 10 of the Lives of the Fathers; some by Theodoret in his Philotheus.

c We shall give the life of St. Euthymius on January 20, that of St. Sabbas on December 5; we said much about them and the location of these monasteries in the life of St. Theodosius on January 11 and will say more in the life of St. Euthymius.

d He acceded to the empire on March 25, Indiction 15, year of Christ 717. He died on June 18, Indiction 9, year of Christ 741.

e We shall celebrate him with the Roman Martyrology on May 12.

f Indeed, he is said in the Greek Menologion cited by Baronius, volume 9, at the year of Christ 730, no. 7, to have been summoned from Palestine by Germanus to govern monks who had lapsed in discipline.

g Greek: Χηνολάκκου μονή. Raderus thinks it was not far from Constantinople. Baronius, from the Menologion, says he flourished in sanctity at Constantinople.

h The Menaea record him on this day; but the Menologion cited by Baronius observes his anniversary on January 13. That he was buried in the monastery he founded is suggested by this distich: Τῷ Χηνολάκκου τὴν μονὴν δειμαμένῳ Θείῳ Στεφάνῳ λάκκος ὠρύχθη τάφου. "For the divine Stephen, who built the monastery of the Lake of Geese, a pit of burial was dug."