ON ST. STEPHEN THE SABAITE, POET, IN PALESTINE,
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINTH CENTURY.
CRITICAL SYLLOGE
Stephen the Sabaite, poet, monk in Palestine. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ Sole. The characteristics by which St. Stephen the Poet is distinguished from St. Stephen the Younger, Martyr, and from St. Stephen the Sabaite, Wonderworker. His poetic and historical writings. The calamity of the laura of St. Sabas, at which he was present. His praises, cult, and office in the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Constantinople. The Canon of St. Theophanes Graptus. Of the Saints Stephen Trichinas.
How often our labor is occupied in this, that saints, [On the present day three Saints Stephen are confused in a wonderful way, the Martyr, the Wonderworker, and the Poet.] confused into one through what may be called the negligence of the centuries or the error of the unskilled, should be separated again, or that one saint, in some way divided into several, should be brought back to his original singleness, all those know who have spent any effort in turning over our Acts. Yet it rarely happens that we fall into so great a confusion of persons as we detect today in the ecclesiastical books of the Greeks and Slavs. There are, namely, three Saints Stephen, who were all nearly contemporaries: of whom the first, St. Stephen the Younger, Martyr, suffered death on the 28th day of November of the year 767 for the veneration of holy images; the second is St. Stephen the Sabaite, Wonderworker, who died on the 2nd day of April of the year 794, celebrated at that day in a certain codex of the Arabic Egyptian Menology of Michael, bishop of Atrib and Malig Acta SS. vol. I of April, p. 58, and vol. III of July, p. 525., but in the liturgical books of the Greeks at the 13th day of July, at which he has also been illustrated in our work; the third, finally, is St. Stephen the Sabaite, Poet, some years later, whose birthday is kept today, or at any rate should be kept. But in place of this St. Stephen the Sabaite, Poet, there is substituted now St. Stephen the Martyr, now St. Stephen the Wonderworker, or he is mingled to some extent with one or the other, or indeed all three are confused into one. The first two, however, whose life has been written and whose deeds are well ascertained, are easily distinguished; from the third, since his career is almost unknown, all the disorder has arisen: whose characteristics must therefore be diligently indicated.
[2] [In the Typicon of St. Sabas St. Stephen the Poet is distinguished by three characteristics;] These are, as it were, joined together in the Typicon of St. Sabas; in which at the 28th day of October is read (for I have no light but the version made by Papebroch): Stephen the Sabaite, Poet. This Typicon is a sort of Order of the divine office and of other offices as well, begun by St. Chariton, completed by St. Sabas, received by Saints Euthymius and Theoctistus, restored after its loss by St. Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem, and again by St. John Damascene, passed from the patriarchate of Jerusalem to that of Constantinople, and (since it can be carried out by one man alone and without chant) made common to nearly all monks, and even to laymen, but in this propagation expanded in many churches, especially monastic ones Compare Allatius, De libris ecclesiasticis Græcorum, p. 4 ff.. Since then that booklet has the patriarchate of Jerusalem for its homeland, its authority is certainly great concerning the holy Sabaite monks, whose cult and knowledge reached the other Greeks only through the ecclesiastical books of Jerusalem. These marks, then, by which he is to be discerned from the others, today's Stephen has: 1° he is venerated on the 28th day of October; 2° he is called Sabaite, or monk of the monastery of St. Sabas; 3° he was a poet.
[3] [namely that he is venerated on the 28th day of October, that he was a monk in the laura of St. Sabas,] First, then, by the distinguishing mark of his birthday he is distinguished from the other two, of whom the other Stephen the Sabaite is venerated on the 13th or 14th day of July, and Stephen the Younger or Martyr on the 28th day of November. For the Greeks are not accustomed to venerate the same saints twice, except for the sake of association, as we Latins, when we celebrate St. Peter, also make a commemoration of St. Paul. But between Saints Terentius and Neonilla and either St. Stephen the Sabaite there is no association. For which reason Giuseppe Simone Assemani, judging that the St. Stephen the Sabaite venerated on the 28th day of October is the same as the St. Stephen the Sabaite celebrated on the 13th day of July, cannot but express his wonder: But why, he says Kalendarium ecclesiæ universæ, vol. V, p. 323., the Menaia treat twice of the same Stephen, I find no reason. The second characteristic, namely that he is called Sabaite, is no less manifest, to distinguish today's Stephen from St. Stephen the Younger or Martyr. For in the Life or Passion of the latter, written by Stephen, deacon of Constantinople, and published in the Greek Analecta of the Maurists Pouget, Loppin and Montfaucon (which a new title falsely passes off in some copies as the fourth volume of the Analecta of Cotelier), one reads that he was made a monk on the mountain of our holy and God-bearing father Auxentius, which mountain is situated by the navigable gulf of Nicomedia, opposite the Bithynian parts of the province Greek Analecta, vol. I, p. 416.. And his biographer then pursues his deeds with such great diligence that it appears altogether that he never set foot in the patriarchate of Jerusalem.
[4] and that he wrote poetic works, Finally, by the praise of poetry, or the third difference, he is easily distinguished from both, since neither Stephen the Younger or Martyr, nor Stephen the Sabaite, Wonderworker, was a poet. We have the Life of each, and in neither do we detect a trace of poetic faculty. The Acts of the latter, indeed, are not complete, but neither are they so cut down that judgment cannot be passed, especially since there is the distinguished passage in which the offices and virtues of the holy man are reviewed summarily and one by one Compare Acta SS. vol. III of July, p. 526.; then at the 13th or 14th day of July in the Typicon of St. Sabas his birthday is thus announced: Stephen the Sabaite, the title of Poet being omitted. But in the Menaia of the Greeks at the present day, the 28th of October, there is read of today's St. Stephen, as if he were St. Stephen the Martyr: This saint, who flourished toward the end of the eighth century, fought against heresies, and was the author of troparia of canticles, as Theophanes Graptus reports in the Canon that is sung of this saint. An altogether imprudent assertion. I have twice read, and one of my colleagues has likewise twice read, this entire Canon of Theophanes, which is printed in the same Menaia at the 28th day of November, and we have met with absolutely no word by which it is signified in the slightest that St. Stephen the Younger or Martyr was a poet or wrote troparia of canticles. But in the Greek Horologion, which approaches the form of the Latin Diurnal, altogether different things are recorded, namely that Stephen the Sabaite, Wonderworker, is the author of the canticles. For at the 28th day of October, to which there is a reference from the 13th day of July, these words are read as if of today's St. Stephen: This saint led the religious life in the monastery of St. Sabas; hence he was called Sabaite; in which he was also ordained archpriest and ended his life about the year 790, leaving to the church some troparia of canticles.
And so the menologists of Constantinople say conflicting things. Let it be established and defined, then, that neither St. Stephen the Sabaite, Wonderworker, nor St. Stephen the Younger or Martyr is to be reckoned among the ecclesiastical poets.
[5] namely the canons on the Circumcision and on the Sabaite martyrs, But why do we not know more of the genuine St. Stephen the Poet? Leo Allatius in the prospectus of his treatise on the Melodists of the Greeks had promised that he would speak of him individually Compare De libris ecclesiasticis Græcorum, p. 81.; but that book has perished, or at any rate never came to light, as Fabricius complains more than once. Fabricius himself too Bibliotheca græca, vol. X, pp. 319 and 328, Halle edition. did not altogether neglect St. Stephen the Poet; yet he spoke of him sparingly, nor did he take sufficient care not to confuse him with St. Stephen the Wonderworker. Our own Wagnereck Pietas Mariana Græcorum, proleg. no. 24. also attempted to speak of him; but, deceived by the community of name and profession, he struck upon the usual rock, confusing the Poet with the Wonderworker; to the latter he therefore attributed the Εἱρμον which is prescribed in the Menaia at the 1st day of January, during the celebration of the Circumcision of the Lord, to the praise of the Mother of God Ibid., century I, no. 8, p. 188.. But St. Stephen the Poet wrote not only this hirmos, or strophe that is the rule of modulation for the following troparia Compare Allatius, De libris eccl., pp. 98 and 99., but the canon of the feast, that is, the entire poem or series of troparia, in prose as is the custom, which is sung on the feast of the Circumcision, with the title prefixed: Ποιημα Στεφανου, except that strophes of St. John Damascene on St. Basil the Great are mingled with it. He wrote also a similar poem in honor of the holy martyrs of the laura of St. Sabas, whose Martyrdom too (as will shortly be seen) he wrote. This poem, inserted in the Menaion of March at the 20th day, is acrostic, and is fitted to this capital or acrostic line: Ὕμνοις γεραίρω μάρτυρας μονοτρόπους. Probably other troparia of St. Stephen the Poet are also scattered through the twelve volumes of the Menaia; but who would demand of me that I track them down? Certainly that labor must be left to him who at some time shall please to undertake a new treatise on the ecclesiastical melodists of the Greeks. Nevertheless in the Poem of Theophanes Graptus on St. Stephen the Poet he is praised because he wrote hymns on the incarnation of the divine Word and sang of the martyrs of Christ and the companies of the saints, with whom he himself dwelt in the laura of St. Sabas: for I cannot otherwise understand these words of Theophanes: Μάρτυρας Χριστοῦ, θεόφρον, ἀνυμνήσας καὶ τῶν Ἁγίων τὰ συστήματα, σὺν τούτοις ἐσκήνωσας. For by these it is not signified that a tragedy was written by him, but only ecclesiastical hymns on the Sabaite martyrs; of whom presently.
[6] and probably Lilio Gregorio Giraldi, who in the also a tragedy on the Passion of Christ. sixteenth century inquired with singular care into the Greek and Latin poets, attained some knowledge of St. Stephen the Poet. He thus wrote Historiæ poetarum tam græcorum quam latinorum, p. 865.: Since we are treating of poets by the name of Stephen, we shall add yet another Stephen, a man celebrated for holiness of life, among those Christians who were called Sabbaites, that is, followers of St. Sabbas; who was also a poet, as the Greeks write; whose day they keep on the fifth before the calends of November: and certain people hold that a Tragedy on the death of Christ the Lord is his. On which matter he had earlier written this other passage Ibid., p. 628.: Now besides his poems — it is St. Gregory Nazianzen who is in question — which were published in print a little while ago, there exists also a tragedy which he made in imitation of Euripides on the torment and punishments of Christ the Lord: on which theme I hear that a certain Stephen also wrote another, which however, though most diligently sought, has not reached my hands. Giraldi thus had received knowledge of two tragedies on the Passion of Christ, one attributed to St. Gregory Nazianzen (which, however, the learned deny to be his work, assuredly for very slight reasons) and the other to St. Stephen the Poet. He could see neither: but the former has long since been printed again and again; the latter has not yet seen the light, nor does Fabricius point out a codex in which it is contained Bibliotheca græca, vol. II, p. 323.. Yet for this reason one may not hold Giraldi's words of no account, since innumerable Greek writings have not yet been explored, and no fewer have perished.
[7] [In prose he wrote the Passion of the Sabaite martyrs by order of Basil the hegumen.] There can be no doubt at all that St. Stephen the Poet is the author of της Ἐξηγησεως ἠτοι του Μαρτυριου των ἁγιων πατερων των ἀναιρεθεντων ὑπο των βαρβαρων ἠγουν Σαρακηνων ἐν τῃ μεγιστῃ λαυρᾳ του ἁγιου πατρος ἡμων Σαβα; which writing our predecessors found in a parchment manuscript codex of Pierre Séguier, chancellor of France Compare Acta SS. vol. III of March, p. 167 ff.. In the codex the author's name was not added; but this became known by the testimony of Leontius, his companion, as we shall see in its place. And indeed it ends with a μακαρισμον or proclamation of the blessedness of the holy martyrs, a macarism which no one would readily compose unless he were practiced in composing hymns of that kind in prose. To which is added that in the published Menaia there is read an acrostic poem, likewise in prose, on the same saints, with the prefixed name of the author, Στεφανου του Σαββαιτου; which poem or canon, translated into Latin, our predecessors published after the Acts of those martyrs Ibid., p. 179.. But when St. Stephen set himself to narrate these misfortunes he could have declared that he would tell
… the most wretched things he himself saw And of which he was a great part.
And in fact, explaining in his prologue how he, a sinner and unlearned, approached the history of such great events, he speaks thus Ibid., p. 167.: I am pressed by the command of my holy superior, and as by a spiritual lash goading the mind within, I am compelled to fear the grave and inevitable danger of disobedience. Judging, therefore, the good of obedience better and more useful, I commit myself to the paternal order; and trusting in and strengthened by his reasons, and in the very opening of my mouth drawing to myself the supernal grace of the Spirit, I begin the memorial and brief narrative, such as this excellent shepherd Basil has willed to be worked out by our slenderness, of the incursion of the savage barbarians into this our laura of St. Sabas, and of the slaughter of the blessed fathers in it perpetrated by them in these our times, which I myself beheld with my own eyes, as being one of those who were found dwelling in this sacred laura at that deadly irruption of theirs: lest, namely, so great a virtue and Christian fortitude of such men contending for the truth should flow by with time and vanish, and, covered in silence, be delivered to inglorious oblivion, which could prepare many to the practice of virtue and arouse them to the desire and imitation of endurance.
[8] [The blessed man was a part and witness of this calamity. The site of the laura of St. Sabas; dissensions among the Saracens; the dangers and distress of St. Stephen and his companions.] But St. Stephen has omitted what he then individually suffered, or how he escaped the danger of death; so that he relates only what is common to himself and his surviving companions, from which it will be enough to excerpt a few things only. First of all it is necessary to know the condition and site of the laura of St. Sabas, which exists to this day. In the valley, namely, of the torrent Cedron, which lies between the Holy City and the Dead Sea, two leagues from Jerusalem and five from the Dead Sea, 1280 feet above its waters, rises the monastery of St. Sabas or Mar Saba, most difficult of access, consisting in great part of caves, lacking plants and greenery, showing nothing but rocks, yet abounding in the waters of a spring; so that all foodstuffs must be brought from the city Mislin, Les Saints Lieux, vol. III, p. 198 ff.. Nor was the condition any other at the end of the eighth century, when St. Stephen the Poet lived there and with his companions was brought into the extreme danger of death [Compare the Martyrdom of the Sabaite monks, Acta SS. vol. III of March, p. 167 ff.; Daniel, metropolitan of Ephesus, Journey to the Holy Places (in Greek), in Mingarelli, Græci codices Mss. Naniorum, p. 295.]. For at the close of the year Compare Pagi, Critice, at the year 796, no. 31. dire civil wars arose among the tribes of the Saracens, by which nearly all Palestine was laid waste. For some time, however, by divine favor the laura of St. Sabas stood unimpaired by any detriment, though enemies gnashed their teeth around it and twice had made everything ready to overthrow it. What the lot of St. Stephen and his companions was meanwhile, he himself explains in these words Acta SS. vol. III of March, p. 168.: While these things were being done in this way (for such confusion and disorder of affairs held for many months), when on the roads leading from every side to the holy city there was almost no traffic, and all things were most full of fear and despair; in what fear, dearest brethren, trembling, and anxiety do you suppose that we lived that whole time? With how much tribulation and expectation of dangers and most grievous evils were we beset? What was necessary was brought to us sparingly and narrowly from the Holy City, and was often plundered on the way: we spent our time for the most part together in some higher place, scorched by the heat of day and the cold of night, awaiting the sudden arrival and onslaught of the impious: and we had instructed certain lookouts, posted far off on the top of the mountain, to signify to us by some indication the presence of the barbarians, if they appeared anywhere: and thus for one natural death we died beforehand a thousand times, lifeless with dread of the tortures to be endured.
[9] [At the first irruption of the enemy St. Stephen cares for the wounded and remains in the open air with the rest;] At the approach of the Arabs a signal for retreat was often given, and it was deliberated whether it was better to quit the place. But as many monks as were present, placing their hope in God, resolved to remain, anxious lest, if they fled, the laura, which was an occasion of salvation for so many men, should be utterly destroyed. But on the 13th day of March of the year 796 more than sixty barbarians, equipped with bows, surrounded the monastery. At first the hermits were thrown into confusion; but soon some, recovering their spirits, went out to meet the enemy, offering food. But when they denied having money, which they did not have, a greater fierceness seized the barbarians; who wounded about thirty monks with missiles, some mortally, some lightly, and then invaded the cells. Meanwhile, St. Stephen goes on thus, while, careless of these things, we were tending our wounded brethren, carrying them, grievously pressed and afflicted, into the nearest cell and pulling out the javelins fixed in them, we bore our breasts pierced no less lightly by the dart of grief and compassion. In the meantime the enemy plundered the cells, and, setting them afire, withdrew, for fear of approaching help. On the morrow, again these are Bl. Stephen's words, — from early morning until late evening gathered in the same place, we passed the whole day in pouring out supplications and prayers to God, fearing the same things: likewise also through that whole week we did so without ceasing. Moreover into one
place we all gathered, both because we drew no small comfort from one another's presence (for all had one wish, that it might be granted them either to live together or to die), and because we believed that in this way the tortures could be avoided which they inflicted on those found alone; as they had done in the Old Laura, burning some with fire, devising for others other kinds of torments.
[10] [at the second irruption he sees his companions slaughtered and hears them questioned about the treasure of the temple and their superiors. But, as no one betrays them, nearly all are killed by smoke,] But on the next Sunday, 20 March, very early, at the second hour, they are warned by the monks of the Old Laura of the imminent return of the barbarians. Extreme stupefaction of all minds. Troubled therefore and dismayed in spirit, says St. Stephen, we sent some into the church to continue the psalmody, but most of us occupied the accustomed mound; and spending the night there until dawn, we were nearly stiffened with cold… Yet we did not forget prayer, although we were not within the church. But shortly afterward word was brought by the monks of St. Euthymius of the approach of another crowd. Then the Sabaites fled more urgently to God, being without resource. But the supreme Shepherd permitted the wolves to break through the folds, and with missile, sword, club, cudgel, and stone to rush upon the sheep and lambs. But, ah me! exclaims St. Stephen. How can I make memorial of that horrible and most wretched time without tears? In what manner shall I set forth in speech what we saw with our own eyes? He goes on then to declare in general what many, and in particular what a few, suffered from these incredibly savage men, and how seven were saved in a cave by the distinguished charity of one. But now the bloodthirsty ravagers had gathered the fathers from all sides, driven together partly within the church, partly in the hegumenium or guest-house for strangers. Then from the latter the barbarians, threatening them with death, demanded four thousand gold pieces. The monks answered that they had not this money, offering all their belongings, even their clothes. Then those men ordered the sacred vessels and the superiors to be pointed out to them. The monks denied that they had treasures, and affirmed, the hegumen Basil being absent, that they were all equals. Outside the hegumenium the same order was repeated; but the same answer was given. At once all were driven into the cavern which St. Sabas had once converted into a temple, and a fire was lit at the entrance, by which either all might be killed by the smoke or be forced to the betrayal of the treasures of the temple and of the superiors.
[11] [and in fact eighteen are found dead, besides two others. It is not known how St. Stephen saved his life.] Although they were many times brought out and brought back in, not one proved faithless. When the Saracens and the Ethiopians mingled with them saw, then, that they could accomplish nothing, they broke open the doors and plundered the cells, the hegumenium, and other places, and, placing the booty on the camels of the monastery, withdrew. Then those who lay nearer the entrance of the temple, or were hidden in that other cave, arose and came out, and at sunset, when the smoke had settled, they searched the inmost parts of the temple, where they found eighteen monks killed by the smoke, and elsewhere two butchered. Since three leaves are missing from the writing of St. Stephen, nowhere (as we have noted) is it read in it how he himself escaped death: for he neither counts himself among those who lay hidden in the cave and were saved by the magnanimity of a companion, nor among those who suffered less from the smoke in the temple; yet elsewhere he speaks in the first person plural, when he explains his own deeds and those of his companions. He seems, however, to have been among the latter.
[12] [Praise of St. Stephen and the authority of his writing. He lived until the year 807.] Now St. Stephen was held to be the great glory and ornament of the laura of St. Sabas and a witness beyond all exception. For Leontius the deacon, who wrote the Life of St. Stephen the Wonderworker (of whom above), after he has narrated that St. Stephen the Wonderworker knew in a certain vision that Leontius of Gaza, his disciple, would one day share in heavenly felicity, then continues thus Acta SS. vol. III of July, p. 607.: You are all witnesses that this vision was true, not only on account of the evident holiness of the life of Leontius of Gaza, but also because he was thoroughly cleansed by the supreme baptism of martyrdom, which admits no second stains: for he is of the number of the fathers slain by the barbarians in the very great laura of our holy father Sabas; whose history was composed by a man outstanding in every virtue, father Stephen, the great glory and ornament of our laura. And this Leontius the deacon wrote at the beginning of the ninth century, about the year 807 Ibid., pp. 529 and 530.; whence we know that he was then still alive.
[13] [Soon after his death St. Stephen the Poet began to be venerated in the laura of St. Sabas, as is clear from the canon of St. Theophanes Graptus, perhaps mingled with another canon.] St. Stephen the Poet began to be venerated in the laura of St. Sabas not long after his death, since St. Theophanes Graptus wrote an acrostic poem on him. That Theophanes, namely, whose name is read ascribed in the Menaia of the Greeks to several poems, is the same as the brother of St. Theodore Graptus, who, brought up from adolescence with his brother in the laura of St. Sabas, about the year 814, when Leo the Armenian, after the example of Copronymus, had declared war on holy images, was sent as legate to the emperor at Constantinople by Thomas, patriarch of Jerusalem, to entreat peace for the church; but with his brother he was very badly treated: both of whom under the rule of Michael the Stammerer and of his son and successor Theophilus suffered many injuries, and at last, by the latter's order, twelve iambics having been cut in their faces (whence both were called Grapti), they were banished to Apamea in Syria: where Theodore shortly expired; but Theophanes during the guardianship of the Empress Theodora was permitted to return home, and afterward was created bishop of Nicaea: but of all this more fully at the 28th day of December, at which both brothers are inscribed in the Roman Martyrology. This St. Theophanes, then, wrote a poem for the use of the Sabaites on St. Stephen the Poet; but he also composed another on St. Stephen the Wonderworker. Only one canon still exists in the Menaia published in the year 1843, at the days 13 July and 28 October: and its acrostic is this: Σοὶ, Στέφανε, στέφανόν σοι ὁμώνυμον οἵσομεν ὕμνον. Of the other, however, only the acrostic is preserved, in the annotation at this day: Ὁμότροπον, Στέφανε, σὸν ὁμώνυμον τίθει. But it must be noted that in the Menaion of October, published at Venice in the year 1592, neither canon is read at the 28th day of October; and Bartholomew of Koutloumousi, who saw to the edition of the year 1813, notes that the latter canon was found by him only in manuscript books. Which of the two pertains to St. Stephen the Poet and which to St. Stephen the Wonderworker is very difficult to define, since the latter has not yet been published, but only the acrostic. Nor do the difficulties and doubts cease here. In the Venetian Menaia of the year 1843, at the 13th day of July and at the 28th of October the same acrostic is read; but the odes corresponding to the same letters of the acrostic are not everywhere the same, but partly different. Whence the question arises which of the two is the entire canon; or whether on the contrary both are gapped and filled out by odes taken from each other; or whether something has been inserted from the office of St. Stephen the Younger. To these questions I have hardly anything to reply; for since it is manifest that the three Saints Stephen were confused with one another in the calendars, it could easily happen that they were confused also in the offices. Yet if one canon is still entire, it is the canon of St. Stephen the Poet. On the other hand into the canon of St. Stephen the Wonderworker a certain part (for example the ode beginning with the word Μυριζουσιν) has been transferred from the office of St. Stephen the Poet. Yet for that reason I should not dare to affirm that the canon of St. Stephen the Poet is everywhere pure, nor to admit on the sole authority of the Καθισματος and Οἰκου that he fought against heretics in words and writings and shed his blood, although he lived in the age of the iconomachs, was strong in learning and in the art of writing, and although in the occupation of the laura of St. Sabas he was exposed to the highest danger from the Saracens. For this reason only those things which are recorded individually of St. Stephen the Poet in his canon, and which are most certainly to be understood of him, have seemed fit to be translated from the Greek.
[14] [The surviving parts of that canon which are certainly about St. Stephen are reported.] O most celebrated father, you made your soul a shining temple of the Holy Spirit; within you ineffably had Christ, king and lord; you found the riches of wonders, and you distribute to the world abundant grace. Wherefore save all of us who sing of you from dangers and destruction.
You desired with all the movements of your heart the infinite and eternal good, leaving the pleasure of the world; you found, most blessed one, the felicity fitting for so great a desire.
O you, most glorious one, who, having obtained the tree of life, planted your garden with virtues and watered it with fountains of tears, save your flock from destruction by your supplications; save from misfortune those who fervently honor you: for in you, most wise man, by faith and prayers we have obtained a very great advocate.
To you, most wise man, as victor over the passions, pattern of the right life, teacher of the celibate, rule of monks and form of virtues, we all cry out, gathering in your commemoration. Glory to God who worthily glorifies you with continual miracles, not only in life but also after death. Wherefore do not cease to move Christ with prayers and ever to procure for your clients absolution from many and great crimes: for in you, most wise man, by faith and prayers we have obtained a very great advocate.
Full of ointment are the words of your doctrine, shining with the grace of the Holy Spirit. For venerating the one Deity in three persons and singing of the incarnation of the Word, you have filled us with good odor, most blessed one.
Your life, agreeing with your word, most blessed father, procured a double crown for you. For you became an organ of wisdom, much-honored father, for your Creator, crying: "Blessed and supremely glorious."
Your word seasoned with salt and your life, most blessed one, appeared illustrated with grace, divine seer: wherefore you inhabit the supernal dwellings, joyful in Christ and standing before him with confidence.
Christ the life-giver set on your head a fitting crown, Stephen, whose name you bear. For you excelled in your acts and were conspicuous in doctrine, crying: "Supremely exalt the Lord, all you works of the Lord."
Transcending all sense, most blessed one, you conversed with the first intellect by purity of soul and dignity of conduct, crowned Stephen, crying: "Supremely exalt the Lord, all you works of the Lord."
The martyrs of Christ, religious man, whom you sang, and their companies, with them you dwelt, carried away by gladness and divine enjoyment, crying: "Supremely exalt the Lord, all you works of the Lord."
Crowned Stephen, having received the fervor of the Holy Spirit, you were torn from the world, taking up your cross, father. Strengthened with Christ by diligent exercise and chaste virginity, you were held worthy, blessed one, of charisms that exceed understanding.
[15] [How it came about that St. Stephen the Poet was confused with two others in the Menaia of the Greeks;] It remains for us to explain briefly how (as we noted at the beginning) St. Stephen the Sabaite, Poet, came to be confused with Saints Stephen the Younger or Martyr and the Sabaite Wonderworker. We have already said that the cult of St. Stephen the Poet penetrated by means of the Typicon of St. Sabas from the patriarchate of Jerusalem into the patriarchate of Constantinople. In that Typicon, as also in the calendar of the Greeks which Génébrard published Before his Commentary on the Psalms, Paris, 1607., and which seems to approach that Typicon, the three Saints Stephen are properly distinguished: for in them at the 14th of July is announced Stephen the Sabaite, without other indication, as being the more ancient; at the 28th of October Stephen the Sabaite, Poet; at the 28th of November Stephen the Younger. The Constantinopolitans mixed up all these indications, yet so that traces of the original distinction survive. For in the published Menaia at the 28th of October the feast of Stephen the Sabaite is announced, and the troparia are at least partly about Stephen the Poet; the στιχηρα or verses at Vespers pertain to St. Stephen the Martyr, whose praises too, in the synaxarion or encomium which is read in the edition of the year 1843 but was omitted in the edition of the year 1592, are mingled with the praises of St. Stephen the Poet. For that he is said to have fought against heresies belongs rather to St. Stephen the Martyr; but that he is reported ποιητης γενεσθαι ἀσματικων τροπαριων pertains to St. Stephen the Poet alone. In the Horologion, however, at the same day Stephen the Sabaite is said καταλιπειν εἰς την ἐκκλησιαν και τινα τροπαρια ᾀσματικα; by which Stephen the Poet is designated; but he is said to have died about the year 790, which would rather indicate the age of the Wonderworker. But that in the monastery of St. Sabas he is said to have been ordained ἀρχιερευς is an error, whether it be understood of St. Stephen the Poet or of St. Stephen the Wonderworker. Yet this is manifest from these places, that the Constantinopolitans at the start were guided by a book in which St. Stephen the Sabaite, Poet, was celebrated at the 28th of October.
[16] [to whom, namely the Byzantines, the cult of St. Stephen the Poet did not come before the middle of the eleventh century:] This, however, did not happen before the eleventh century was well advanced, since his name occurs neither in the Menology of Basil, nor in the Slavic Ostromir Calendar, which was written about the year 1056 according to a Byzantine exemplar, nor in the Eclogadion of Grottaferrata of the eleventh century, nor in the Menaia, likewise of Grottaferrata. But when the Slavs augmented their old fasti with new names from the more recent books of Constantinople, they found in these at the 28th of October St. Stephen the Sabaite; which memorial they have kept to this day at the same date, as is clear from the Typicon of the monastery of Chilandar, written in the year 1331, from the Capponi Tablets, painted in the seventeenth century, from the Horologion of Pochaiv of the year 1802, from the calendars of Ostrog of the year 1581, of Lviv of the years 1648 and 1839, of Moscow of the year 1818, and from the fourth added at the end of the Glossed Psalter Compare Martinov, Annus ecclesiasticus græco-slavicus, pp. 262 and 348.; but nowhere is the Poet distinguished from the Wonderworker, except that the latter in most of them has his festival at the 13th day of July, yet there wrongly said to have been condemned to the fire: which suits none of the three Stephens. In the Greek Menaia of Sirmond, and in others of unknown origin, for the most part approaching the Menology of Basil, of which we have a copy, there comes also at the 28th day of October St. Stephen the Sabaite, but plainly the Wonderworker, since he is called the nephew of St. John Damascene; who occurs again in Sirmond's at the 28th of December, on which day also he is inscribed in the codex of the Typicon of Grottaferrata, written out about the year 1300.
[17] [but earlier in some Greek and even Jerusalem calendars he was already confused with St. Stephen the Younger.] Now what I have said, that the name of St. Stephen the Sabaite, Poet, was not known to the Constantinopolitan menologists before the eleventh century was well advanced, must not be taken as if no one in the patriarchate of Constantinople had been guided by some Jerusalem calendar which contained his name at the 28th of October: it is not so. At the head of books of Sacred Scripture there were written in the Holy City synaxaria or calendars having the name of Stephen, but the bare name. This man the western Greeks, as yet ignorant of either St. Stephen the Sabaite, believed to be Stephen the Younger, Martyr, by far the most celebrated among them; and since there was continual traffic between the inhabitants of Greece and Thrace and the Greeks of Palestine, books were brought from Greece to Jerusalem in which St. Stephen the Poet had been changed into the Martyr or the Younger, and which imprudent Jerusalem copyists transcribed: whence it comes about that very ancient Greek and Jerusalem synaxaria are found in which St. Stephen the Younger is most plainly read today. Thus in the one of Gallipoli, written in the tenth century and published by Scholz De Menologiis duorum codicum Græcorum Bibl. Paris., p. 8., you have at the present day: Του ὁσιου μαρτυρος Στεφανου του Νεου; in the Jerusalem one of the same age, also published by Scholz Ibid., loc. cit.: Των ἁγιων μαρτυρων Στεφανου, Πετρου και Ἀνδρεα; who were chief among the martyrs for the defense of holy images; and in a very ancient codex which is preserved at Florence in the Laurentian Library Bandini, Catalogus Bibl. Med., vol. I, p. 130.: Του ἁγιου Στεφανου και των συν αὐτῳ. Since then such things were read in some synaxaria or calendars of the Gospels before the Byzantine church had received the cult of St. Stephen the Sabaite, Poet, it is easily understood how, when it began to keep his office or commemoration, the Byzantine menologists mixed everything up. Moreover, just as, once St. Stephen the Younger was admitted, it was natural to make a commemoration of Saints Peter and Andrew, new martyrs, on account of their common confession, so it is no wonder that St. Anna the Younger, the disciple of St. Stephen the Younger and his companion in upholding the veneration of holy images [Life of St. Stephen the Younger, Greek Analecta of the Maurists, vol. I, pp. 402, 424, and 494.], is commemorated on this day in the Menaia of Sirmond. From which it appears how far from the truth those have wandered who affirmed that today no mention is made anywhere in the Greek fasti of St. Stephen the Younger. In the Menology of the Greeks, which Sirleto collected from many codices In Canisius, Lectiones antiquæ, vol. III, p. 482, Basnage edition., often with a light and imprudent hand, today once our holy father Stephen the Sabaite is joined to the martyrdom of Saints Terentia and Neonilla, once he comes forward separately as our holy father Stephen the Sabaite, disciple of Blessed Sabas; but St. Stephen the Poet is more recent by many centuries than that either could suit him. But the praise of martyrdom arose from confusion with St. Stephen the Younger; the mastership of St. Sabas from the surname Sabaite. But I should not wish to pursue the errors of those who have attempted to speak of today's St. Stephen; content to come out of this labyrinth of Stephens with foot unhurt.
[18] [St. Stephen the Poet is distinct from the three Saints Stephen Trichinas, or clothed in a hair cilice.] It pleases me best, then, by way of a capstone, to note something about the Stephens Trichinas, or clothed in a hair cilice; since St. Stephen the Poet is nowhere found called by this surname, it is also a distinguishing mark by which those men may be distinguished from him. John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapters LIII and LVIII In Migne, Greek Patrology, vol. LXXXVII, col. 2907 and 2912., twice introduces τον ἀββαν Στεφανον τον τριχιναν, a dweller in the laura of St. Sabas, and in one Latin version of the Meadow In Migne, Greek Patrology, vol. LXXXVII, col. 2911. he is called superior of the same laura, in the other In Rosweyde, Vitæ Patrum, book X, ch. 53 and 58, pp. 871 and 872. its leader. He is easily separated from the others because he was a contemporary of John Moschus, who died in the seventh century. To St. Stephen the Sabaite, Wonderworker, although our predecessors thought otherwise Acta SS. vol. III of July, p. 525., the surname Trichinas has also been given by some; and not undeservedly. For since he spent fifteen years and three Lents clothed in a cilice of hair, that surname certainly suits him, although afterward, lest he should be seen by visiting fathers in so singular a habit of penance, he laid aside this garment Ibid., p. 610.. But, what is chief, Michael, bishop of Atrib and Malig, must altogether be understood of him, when at the 2nd day of April he praises in his Martyrology St. Stephen clothed in hair, or Trichinas, who lived in the laura of Sabas, since on this day (as we have already shown) St. Stephen the Wonderworker met his death. Lastly St. Stephen the Younger or Martyr was also called Trichinas, at least by the more recent Armenians. Certainly Aucher Lives of the Saints (in Armenian), vol. X, p. 355. calls him charaznazqeazz, which is clothed in a hair cilice, doubtless because on the mountain of Auxentius he was a disciple of John the abbot, who wished even the nuns to be clothed in thorny, hard, and very rough garments; whence his monastery of girls also was called τριχιναρεας Analecta of the Maurists, vol. I, p. 421.. But St. Stephen enjoyed an even much severer dress: Besides his garment, says his biographer Ibid., p. 435., he had his body bound in the form of a cross, from the shoulders to the loins, with a girdle round about fixed to the other iron by nails on each side, and with another iron girdle covered under the armpits, in which the middle parts of the iron that came down from the shoulders were fixed. He wore only a tunic of skins. He bore also the holy cowl, the cross-bearing analabos, and the sacred epomis of the monastic habit. St. Stephen the Younger deserves, then, to be called the Mailed rather than Trichinas. The Armenians also err in associating with him St. Athanasius in place of St. Andrew In Assemani, Bibl. Orient., vol. III, p. 654., a confusion arising from the nearness of the words Athanas and Andreas Compare Aucher, Lives of the Saints, vol. XII, p. 356..