STEPHEN THE SABBAITE

In the notes in the notes to medieval menologies, it is often written that Saint Stephen the Sabbaite was a great ascetic, elder and miracle worker. He was the nephew of Saint John of Damascus and a great author of liturgical canons. How can one person contain such different spiritual gifts and is there not some mystery in this, the solution to which is simple?

1 On July 26, the Church celebrates the commemoration of Saint Stephen the Sabbaite. The saint was a great ascetic who received from God the gift of performing signs and wonders. He lived in Palestine, was born in 715, and died in 794. By God’s gift, he foresaw his death. From the perspective of holiness theology, such knowledge is a special grace.

2 Orthodox calendars call Saint Stephen “Sabbaite.” According to ancient monastic tradition, the monks of the great monasteries and later of the holy monastic mountains, of which there were four in the Byzantine Empire, lost their secular titles, nicknames, or surnames upon entering the monasteries and were referred to only by the name of their monastic communities. The ascetics of Mount Sinai were called “Sinaites,” the monks of Mount Athos “Hagiorites,” the inhabitants of the Cypriot Kykkos Monastery “Kykkotis,” and the ascetics of the Lavra of Saint Sabbas in Palestine “Sabbaites.” In the Greek Orthodox Church, a similar practice of “monastic names” based on the name of the monastery has survived to this day. For example, the current Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Zimbabwe bears the name Seraphim Kykkotis after the name of the monastery he came from.

3 Such a practice seemed quite logical in the Byzantine Empire, since someone who entered a monastery voluntarily or even under duress was considered literally dead. Therefore, any attempt to return to secular life was severely punished and associated with imprisonment and return to the monastery. In the veneration of saints, such a naming practice often proved indispensable, as it made it possible to distinguish between saints with the same name. Another factor in distinguishing between saints was the designation of an older saint, a kind of prototype of all saints of a certain category of holiness, as “great” and a later one as “younger” or “new”.

4 “As a child, I believed—and this belief remained deep in my soul for many years—that in one of the streets of Istanbul there stands a house similar to ours, and in that house lives another Orhan, who resembles me in every way, like a twin, like a double,” writes Nobel Prize-winning contemporary Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk right at the beginning of his book *Istanbul: Memories of a City*. Istanbul is Constantinople, the glorious capital of the great Orthodox state, the city of God on earth, such as never has been and never will be. This is precisely “Your City” that Andrew of Crete prays for the preservation of when he, and the Great Canon he composed, addresses the Theotokos.

5 In the case of Stephen the Sabbaite, one cannot help but be surprised by the literal realization of the writer’s words. Indeed, almost at the same time as him, in the same Lavra or in one of the adjoining monasteries, lived another Stephen the Sabbaite, who is also venerated as a saint. He was the nephew of Saint John of Damascus, a theologian, editor of saints’ lives, and, above all, author of numerous liturgical canons. His memory is celebrated in churches that follow the Julian calendar on November 10, and his death is dated to the year 807. Just as spiritual gifts are the result of incredible self-control and asceticism, the ability to compose liturgical texts is undeniably a testament to great learning.

6 The main difference between the two Stephen Savvaites is that the first of them, whose memory is in July, was a strict ascetic and miracle worker, and the other was a poet and theologian. Stephen the Ascetic served the brethren with spiritual gifts, and Stephen the Hymnographer served them with liturgical works, for which the monastery was thanked by the benefactors.

7 “I believe in the Communion of Saints,” says the Apostles’ Creed. The holiness of God is absolute and infinite. The holiness of the saints is revealed as the unlimited infinity of the infinite God who reveals himself infinitely in limited human beings. Saint Stephen Savvaites, the Creator of Canons and Saint Stephen Savvaites - the Wonderworker - are a living icon of this amazing ability of people to be similar only in that there is nothing similar between them. Is this not the mysterious likeness of God spoken of in Scripture, which is distinct from the image of God, and whose mystery cannot be explained?