STEPHEN II THE MELODIST. — He lived from the early part of the fourth decade to the end of the 11th century A.D. A native of southern Italy, perhaps from Calabria, he was a monk, apparently, of the monastery of Grottaferrata, the famous cenobium of St. Nilus.
He is to be distinguished from other namesakes in the Greek East, the one from Agiopoli, the Sabbaite, the Studite, as well as from another not yet identified but certainly from the East. The hymns that may be attributed to him on the basis of manuscript tradition, style, and geographical references are ten: two canons and eight *syntoma*; all, with the exception of two, acrostic, some perhaps interpolated in more recent times. They are dedicated to St. Gregory the Great, St. Nicholas of Bari, St. Eustace, SS. Cosmas and Damian, St. Gregory of Agrigento, St. John Chrysostom, St. Agatha, the Forty Martyrs, St. Stephen, and the Virgin (on the eve of the Purification).
St. often draws his inspiration from hagiographical sources, but he does not neglect oral traditions. As for his art, it must be said that, although he does not depart from the formalism of the inorganic Eastern tradition, he sometimes varies his compositions with dialogue (e.g., in the canon for St. Nicholas, perhaps his best hymn) or with the evocation of moral themes, and he does not lack sincere accents of piety; more monotonous and less original appear the *syntoma*, in which the overly rigid metrical scheme prevented the poet from adequately developing his thought.