Stephen the Younger

feast day is celebrated annually on 28 November. His hagiography

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.^[2][3] On his 31st year (743/746), his mentor, John, died, and Stephen succeeded him, founding a monastery. In his 42nd year (754/757), 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.^[2][4] 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. Consequently, the persecution of Stephen may have had more to do with his popularity and strong advocacy of monasticism, rather than his active opposition to iconoclasm as reported in his Life.^[5]

Saint Panteleimon monastery at Mount Athos.^[9]

Triumph of Orthodoxy".^[2]