Ηegumen / Abbot
Saint Stephen, a confessor of Christ, lived during the reign of the Armenian Emperor Leo. From childhood, he loved the ascetic life and became the abbot of the Monastery of Trigleia, where he taught many to lead a life in purity. The wicked Emperor Leo the Armenian raised a persecution against Christians, calling upon Saint Stephen and forcing him to renounce the Orthodox faith and the veneration of holy icons.
Saint Stephen refused to do this and reproached the emperor for his impiety. For his firmness in Orthodoxy, he endured many torments and prison chains, and then was exiled to confinement, where, having reached the utmost exhaustion from suffering and illness, he departed to Christ God, for Whom he endured many torments and accepted death.
