STEFANO il GIOVANE, saint and martyr. — Born in Constantinople in 714–15; died there on 28 Nov. 764.
His wealthy parents, compelled to flee during the iconoclastic persecution, left S., then fifteen years old, in the monastery of S. Aussenzio near Chalcedon. After his father’s death, S. distributed his abundant inheritance among the poor. At the age of thirty he became igumen of the monastery, which he governed with holy austerity. Later he resigned his office and led an eremitical life.
S. was arrested by order of Costantino Copronimo, who vainly sought to obtain his adherence to the iconoclastic Council (754). Later he was also denounced for having received a new novice (a spy), contrary to the imperial decree. His monastery was set on fire, and S. was condemned by a tribunal of iconoclastic bishops and confined at Crisopoli near Constantinople. S. denied ecumenical authority to the Synod, from which Rome and the other patriarchates were absent. He was therefore exiled to the island of Proconneso, but two years later was transferred to the prisons of Constantinople. Tried again before the Emperor himself, he was dragged through the streets of the city and then killed with a stick.
The biography of S., written forty-two years later by Stefano Diacono (PG 100, 1069–1185), is the only reliable source and contains many details concerning the life of the monks, the most steadfast defenders of orthodoxy. At the Council of Florence, the Latins cited words of S. in support of the primacy of the Pope.