Venerable Stephen the New Shiner

Life

This favorite of God was born and raised in Constantinople in the home of his parents, Zacharias and Theophania. His father was a priest of the Great Church in the time of Patriarch Methodius. While carrying him conceived in her womb, his mother ate only bread and water. When the infant was born, there shone upon his breast a cross of light. Because of this, and because of his pure and God-pleasing life, he was called the New Shiner. In his eighteenth year Stephen secluded himself at the church of Saint Peter the Apostle, and there gave himself to the struggle of fasting and prayer. Once Saint Peter appeared to him and said to him: Peace be unto thee, child, thou hast begun well; may the Lord strengthen thee! Then he lived for many years at the church of the Holy Martyr Antipas. And this saint also appeared to him and strengthened him with the words: Know that I will not forsake thee. Stephen laid upon himself ever greater and greater labor. Food he took twice weekly, and only unsalted greens. This holy man struggled for the sake of Christ's Kingdom for 55 years, and reposed in the Lord in the year 829, in the 73rd year of his earthly life.