Stephen of Perm ( Russian: Стефан Пермский, also spelled Stephan, kv, Перымса Степан; 1340–1396) was a fourteenth-century painter and missionary credited with the conversion of the Komi to Christianity and the establishment of the Bishopric of Perm'. Stephen also created the Old Permic script, 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

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 man. Stephen took his monastic vows in Rostov, where he learned Greek and learned his trade as a copyist.''loc. cit.'' In 1376, he voyaged to lands along the Vychegda 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). Rather than imposing the Latin or

Church Slavonic Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzeg ...

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 birches) earned him the wrath of some Permians, Pimen, the Metropolitan of All Rus', created him as the first bishop 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 mostly ...

threatened the control that

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...

had been enjoying over the region's tribute. In 1385, the Archbishop of Novgorod 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 pelts passing from the control of Novgorod to Moscow. The historian

Serge A. Zenkovsky Serge Aleksandrovich Zenkovsky (russian: Сергей Александрович Зеньковский; 16 June 1907, Kiev, Russian Empire – 31 March 1990, Florida)Ralph T. Fisher: ''Obituary. Serge A. Zenkovsky (1907–1990)'', in: The Russian ...

wrote that St. Stephen of Perm, along with Epiphanius the Wise,

St. Sergius of Radonezh Sergius of Radonezh (russian: Се́ргий Ра́донежский, ''Sergii Radonezhsky''; 14 May 1314 – 25 September 1392), also known as Sergiy Radonezhsky, Serge of Radonezh and Sergius of Moscow, was a spiritual leader and monastic ref ...

, and the great painter

Andrei Rublev Andrei Rublev ( rus, Андре́й Рублёв, p=ɐnˈdrʲej rʊˈblʲɵf , also transliterated as ''Andrey Rublyov'') was a Muscovite icon painter born in the 1360s who died between 1427 and 1430 in Moscow. He is considered to be one of the ...

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, 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