Saint Stephen, Bishop of Perm

Life

Russian by origin; from childhood devoted to prayer and meditation upon God; as a young man he went to Rostov, where he was tonsured a monk in the Monastery of Saint Gregory the Theologian. Having learned of the Permian Land, entirely overgrown with the weeds of paganism, Stephen desired to be a missionary in that land; he immediately applied himself to the study of the Permian language, and when he mastered the language, he composed an alphabet and translated the ecclesiastical books into that language. With the blessing of the Metropolitan of Moscow he set out, as a presbyter, on his apostolic work and with apostolic zeal began to preach the Gospel in the thick darkness of Permian paganism. Having baptized a number of souls, he labored to build in Perm the Church of the Holy Annunciation. And when the Church of God in Perm had grown, he was consecrated as bishop. Enduring every toil, suffering, malice, and humiliation, he succeeded in dispersing the darkness among the Permian pagans and illumining them with the light of Christ. In old age he traveled once more to Moscow, but there he ended his earthly life and departed unto the Lord, in the year 1396.