medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Stephen the Younger (d. 764) is traditionally the most prominent victim of Byzantine first iconoclasm. He has a Bios of ca. 809 by a deacon of Constantinople who also was named Stephen (BHG 1666). A native of that city, he had been an hermit before entering the monastery of St. Auxentius on the homonymous mountain in Bithynia (now Kaish Dagh near Kadiköy in the Asiatic portion of Istanbul). Stephen was hegumen there when in 762 the emperor Constantine V requested that he observe the anti-iconophile canons of the council of Hieria of 753. Stephen's refusal brought him exile on Proconnesus but in 763 he was brought back to Constantinople, imprisoned, and later executed. Today is his _dies natalis_.
Some period pertinent images of St. Stephen the Younger:
a) Stephen the Younger (at right; at left, St. Martinianus the Righteous) as depicted in the earlier eleventh-century mosaics (restored between 1953 and 1962) in the transept of the katholikon in the monastery of Hosios Loukas near Distomo in Phokis:
http://tinyurl.com/zjg9z3z
b) Stephen the Younger as depicted in the mid-eleventh-century mosaics of the katholikon of the Nea Moni on Chios:
http://tinyurl.com/24fzwtv
c) Stephen the Younger (at far right) as depicted in a late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century fresco in the Palaia Enkleistra ('Old Hermitage') in the St. Neophytus monastery at Tala (Paphos prefecture) in the Republic of Cyprus (for a clearer view, click on the image):
http://tinyurl.com/c4bzm6k
Another view (the saint at left is Paisius the Great):
http://tinyurl.com/d7r5f6k
Detail view (Stephen; grayscale):
http://tinyurl.com/j99mqjt
d) Stephen the Younger as depicted in an early thirteenth-century fresco (1208 or 1209), carefully repainted in 1569, in the church of the Theotokos in the Studenica monastery near Kraljevo (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/25zvj8g
e) Stephen the Younger (at left; at right, St. Cosmas the Melode) as depicted in the earlier thirteenth-century frescoes (1230s) in the narthex of the church of the Ascension in the Mileševa monastery near Prijepolje (Zlatibor dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/2arb8f4
Detail view (Stephen the Younger):
http://tinyurl.com/2f2p3q4
f) Stephen the Younger as depicted (at left) in the later thirteenth-century frescoes (ca. 1263-1270) in the proskomede area of the monastery church of the Holy Trinity at Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/339w2fw
g) Stephen the Younger as depicted in the late thirteenth-century frescoes (ca. 1295) by Eutychios and Michael Astrapas in the church of the Peribleptos (now Sv. Kliment Ohridski) in Ohrid:
http://tinyurl.com/jehy8uc
h) Stephen the Younger as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1308 and ca. 1320) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. Nicetas the Goth (Sv. Nikita) at Čučer in today's Čučer-Sandevo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/nbfnz74
i) Stephen the Younger (at right; at left, St. Theodore the Stoudite) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (ca. 1312-1321) in the parecclesion of St. Nicholas in the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/ygactox
Detail view (Stephen the Younger):
http://tinyurl.com/c3o7v6a
j) Stephen the Younger (lower register at center; at left, St. Ephraem the Syrian; at right, St. Theodore the Stoudite) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. George at Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/o2lms4w
Detail view (Stephen the Younger):
http://tinyurl.com/pu2hkta
k) Stephen the Younger (at right; at left, St. Sabas of Jerusalem) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1317 and 1324) in the nave of the church of St. Demetrius in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/23k2734
Detail views (Stephen the Younger):
http://tinyurl.com/yhgvgrg
http://tinyurl.com/3xyt9pt
l) as depicted (upper register, panel at lower right) in an earlier fourteenth-century pictorial menologion from Thessaloniki (betw. 1322 and 1340; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Gr. th. f. 1, fol. 18v):
http://image.ox.ac.uk/images/bodleian/msgrthf1/18v.jpg
m) Stephen the Younger as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century fresco (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the south choir of the church of the Holy Ascension in the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/3clrwby
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/3nnj2y4
n) Stephen the Younger (lower register; martyrdom) as depicted in a November calendar composition in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) frescoes in the narthex of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/yaz9c64
The saints in the upper register (Peter, Andrew, John, _et al._) are probably an admixture of martyrs of the same persecution (represented by Peter the Stylite and Andrew the Calybite) and later opponents of iconoclasm (represented by John of Damascus; compare Stephen's association with Theodore the Stoudite in the frescoes at Gračanica noted above and at Matka noted below). Prior to its revision of 2001 the Roman Martyrology included in this commemoration Basil, Peter, Andrew, and three hundred and thirty-nine monks described as Stephen's companions in martyrdom under Constantine Whose-Name-Is-Dung. The revised Roman Martyrology of 2001 continues to differentiate this Constantine from others by means of the scurrilous epithet _Copronymus_. Shaun Tougher's account of the same emperor in the online encyclopedia _De Imperatoribus Romanis_ offers a nuanced consideration of possible reasons for his persecution (whose victims were not all iconophile):
http://www.roman-emperors.org/constanv.htm
o) Stephen the Younger as depicted in the later fourteenth-century frescoes (1365-1371) of the monastery church of St. Nicholas at Psaca (Kriva Palanka dist.) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (for clearer views, click on the images):
http://tinyurl.com/d2k8jal
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/2ejvgxq
p) Stephen the Younger (at left; at right, St. Theodore the Stoudite) as depicted in the late fourteenth-century frescoes (1389; restored in 1971 and 1972) in the monastery church of St. Andrew at Matka (near Skopje) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/gm552or
Best,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
|