Stephen of Perm (
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
: Стефан Пермский, also spelled Stephan, kv, Перымса Степан; 1340–1396) was a fourteenth-century painter and
missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
credited with the conversion of the
Komi to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
and the establishment of the Bishopric of Perm'. Stephen also created the
Old Permic script
The Old Permic script ( kv, Важ Перым гижӧм, ), sometimes known by its initial 2 characters as Abur or Anbur, is a "highly idiosyncratic adaptation" of the Cyrillic script once used to write medieval Komi (a member of the Permic bra ...
, which makes him the founding-father of Permian written tradition. "The Enlightener of Perm" or the "Apostle of the Permians", as he is sometimes called, is commemorated by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches on April 26.
Life
![Trinity Zuryanskaya](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Trinity_Zuryanskaya.jpg)
Stephen was probably from the town of
Ustiug. According to a church tradition, his mother was a
Komi woman and his father was a
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
man. Stephen took his monastic vows in
Rostov
Rostov ( rus, Росто́в, p=rɐˈstof) is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:
While ...
, where he learned
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and learned his trade as a copyist.
[''loc. cit.''] In 1376, he voyaged to lands along the
Vychegda
, image = VytchegdaRiver.jpg
, image_size =
, image_caption = The lower course of the Vychegda
, source1_location =
, mouth = Northern Dvina
, mouth_coordinates =
, progression =
, sub ...
and
Vym rivers, and it was then that he engaged in the conversion of the
Zyrian
The Komi language ( kv, коми кыв, ''komi kyv''), also known as Zyryan, Zyrian or Komi-Zyryan (Komi: коми-зырян кыв, komi-zyrjan kyv),[Komi peoples
The Komi ( kv, комияс, ' also ', also called Komi-Zyryans or Zyryans, are an indigenous Permian ethnic group whose homeland is in the northeast of European Russia around the basins of the Vychegda, Pechora and Kama rivers. They mos ...](_bla ...<br></span></div>e (<div class=)
).
Rather than imposing the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
or
Church Slavonic on the indigenous pagan populace, as all the contemporary missionaries did, Stephen learnt their language and traditions and worked out a distinct writing system for their use, creating the second oldest writing system for a Uralic language. Although his destruction of pagan idols (e.g., holy
birch
A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...
es) earned him the wrath of some Permians,
Pimen, the Metropolitan of All Rus', created him as the first
bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
of Perm'.
The effect of the new bishopric and the conversion of the
Vychegda Perm
The Komi ( kv, комияс, ' also ', also called Komi-Zyryans or Zyryans, are an indigenous Permian ethnic group whose homeland is in the northeast of European Russia around the basins of the Vychegda, Pechora and Kama rivers. They mostl ...
threatened the control that
Novgorod had been enjoying over the region's tribute.
In 1385, the
Archbishop of Novgorod
The Diocese of Novgorod (russian: Новгородская епархия) is one of the oldest offices in the Russian Orthodox Church. The medieval archbishops of Novgorod were among the most important figures in medieval Russian history and cul ...
Aleksei (r. 1359–1388) sent a Novgorodian army to oust the new establishment, but the new bishopric, with the help of the city of Ustiug, was able to defeat it.
In 1386, Stephan visited Novgorod, and the city and its archbishop formally acknowledged the new situation.
Subsequently, the region's tribute became the luxury of Moscow. These events had immense repercussions for the future of northern Russia, and formed but one part of a larger trend which saw more and more of the
Finnic North and its precious
pelt
Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket ...
s passing from the control of Novgorod to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
.
The historian
Serge A. Zenkovsky wrote that St. Stephen of Perm, along with
Epiphanius the Wise
Epiphanius the Wise (russian: Епифаний Премудрый) (died 1420) was a monk from Rostov, hagiographer and disciple of Saint Sergius of Radonezh. Historian Serge A. Zenkovsky wrote that Epiphanius, along with Stephen of Perm, Sergiu ...
,
St. Sergius of Radonezh, and the great painter
Andrei Rublev signified "the Russian spiritual and cultural revival of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century." Indeed, Stephen's life encapsulates both the political and religious expansion of "Muscovite" Russia. Stephen's life was in fact commemorated in the writings of the aforementioned Epiphanius, who famously wrote the ''
Panegyric to Saint Stephen of Perm'', a text that praises Stephen for his evangelical activities, and styles him the "creator of Permian letters".
[''op. cit.'', p. 261]
Notes
References
*Ferguson, Charles. 1971. St. Stefan of Perm and applied linguistics. (Originally published in 1967, in ''To Honor Roman Jakobson'', ed. by Morris Halle, pp. 643–653. The Hague: Mouton. Also reprinted in 1968 ''Language Problems of Developing Nations'', ed. by
Joshua Fishman
Joshua Fishman (Yiddish: שיקל פֿישמאַן — Shikl Fishman; July 18, 1926 – March 1, 2015) was an American linguist who specialized in the sociology of language, language planning, bilingual education, and language and ethnicity.
...
,
Charles Ferguson, and J. Das Gupta, pp. 27–35. New York Wiley and Sons.) ''Language Structure and Language Use: Essays by Charles Ferguson'', ed. by Answar S. Dil, pp. 197–218. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
*Martin, Janet, ''Medieval Russia, 980-1584'', (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 225–6
*Zenkovsky, Serge A. (ed.), ''Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales'', Revised Edition, (New York, 1974), pp. 259–62
External links
Medieval "Life" of Saint Stephen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephen Of Perm
1340 births
1396 deaths
People from Veliky Ustyug
Russian explorers
Russian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Catholic saints
Creators of writing systems
Eastern Orthodox missionaries
14th-century Christian saints
Russian inventors
Missionary linguists