Stephen the Sabaite
Saint Stephen the Sabaite, also known as Stephen the Hymnographer, was a Christian monk from Julis, a district of Gaza. He was a nephew of St. John of Damascus and spent a half-century in the monastery of Mar Saba. He is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church.
Stephen lived the ascetic life at the Lavra of Saint Sabas in Palestine.
Stephen was introduced to the monastic life by his uncle, and, at the age of ten, entered the same monastic community as his uncle, St. John Damascene. By his mid-twenties, he felt so drawn to a life of seclusion and contemplation, he asked the abbot of the community for permission to live as a hermit. Due to the great skill in giving spiritual direction he already showed at that young age, the abbot gave him limited permission. The condition was that he make himself available to others on weekends.
Towards the end of his life, Stephen reported that various cities, Gaza among them, were laid waste to and depopulated by the Saracens. On this occasion many monks of St. Sabas met their deaths.
He and Andrew the Blind were among the first to compose hymns in the Triodion, chanted during the period between the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee and Palm Sunday. These idiomela are stichera of which two were written for each weekday of Great Lent. One is chanted at the aposticha of Vespers and one at the aposticha of Matins, each being chanted twice. The idiomela are "exceptionally rich in doctrinal content, summing up the whole theology of the Great Fast".
The events of the time are recorded in the writings of Leontius in his book The Life of St. Stephen the Sabaite.
His feast day is celebrated on October 28 on the Liturgical calendar of the Orthodox Church.
