Stephanos the Younger

Saint Stephanos the Younger ( Middle Greek Στέφανος ο Νεομάρτυρας ; * around 713; † November 20 or 28, 765 in Constantinople ), also Stephen the Younger or Stephan the New Martyr , was a monk from Mount Auxentios near Constantinople in Bithynia .

Stephanos was apparently an opponent of the Byzantine emperor Constantine V. To this day, it is controversial in research what this dispute was about. It is known that Stephanos was stoned by angry soldiers and people in Constantinople in 765 during the height of the crisis between the emperor and part of the monastic community.

Only later authors brought this conflict into connection with the iconoclasm . The first vita of Stephanos Diakonos 42 years after the events did not yet focus on the conflict over image veneration. Later authors weave later events into the biography , especially the conspiracy instigated by Constantine and Strategios Podopaguros against the emperor in 766 , and the date of death is even changed to 768/69. In these sources Stephanos is increasingly stylized as a champion in the iconoclast against the emperor. Recent research (John Haldon, Leslie Brubaker) emphasizes political and not religious motives for the conflict between Constantine and Stephanos.

literature

• Leslie Brubaker: Inventing Byzantine Iconoclasm. Bristol Classical Press, London 2012, especially pp. 47-49.
• Franz Tinnefeld : Stephanos the Younger . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 8, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-89659-908-9 , Sp. 125.
• Karl-Heinz Uthemann :  Stephan the Younger. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 10, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-062-X , Sp. 1378-1381.