Venerable Martyr Stephen the New

Venerable Martyr Stephen was born in 715 in Constantinople to devout parents who had dedicated him to God even before his birth; during the iconoclast persecution the family fled to Bithynia. At 16 he came under the guidance of the elder John on Mount St. Auxentius near Constantinople, later becoming abbot of that monastery.

He became the most prominent monastic opponent of the iconoclast policy of Emperor Constantine V Copronymus, refusing to sign the decrees of the iconoclast council of Hieria (754), which declared the veneration of icons idolatry. For this he was exiled to the island of Proconnesus, then brought back to Constantinople and imprisoned, his cell becoming a rallying point for other imprisoned icon-venerators.

After nearly 11 months of imprisonment, during which the saint fasted and prepared for death, a mob incited by the emperor's courtiers dragged him through the streets of Constantinople, beat him, and killed him with a blow from a heavy wooden log on November 28, 767. His Life, written by the deacon Stephen of Constantinople about 42 years later, is one of the principal sources on the first period of iconoclasm.

His feast is kept on November 28/December 11.