d. 1697
A Serbian monastic of Piperi; few details of his life are preserved.
Our Venerable Father Stephen of Piperi
Stephen of Piperi was a Serbian Orthodox monastic who reposed in 1697 and is venerated in the Serbian Orthodox tradition with a feast on May 20. Born into a clan of the Niksic region in the village of Kuti, he entered monastic life at the Moraca monastery and later withdrew to the highland district of Piperi, where he gathered a small brotherhood and lived in ascetic labor until his death.
His career unfolded amid the Ottoman pressures of the 17th-century Montenegrin highlands. Driven from a settled monastic community into remote refuge, he eventually established a cell and church in the Piperi region. His relics, reported uncorrupted, became a focus of local veneration and remain at the monastery associated with him.
Imitating the ancient Holy Fathers,
you loved the ascetical life, fortifying yourself by prayer, fasting, and tears;
therefore, after your repose your body appeared incorrupt and spiritually fragrant.
As we venerate it with love, O Father Stephen, pray to Christ God to save our souls.
Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).
Come to the well of grace, Christ our God, all who are nurtured in Orthodoxy,
for in these latter times, the light of faith has been revealed because of the Venerable Father Stephen;
therefore, we praise Christ God, crying out:
“Deliver us from evil, by our faith, that we may sing to You: Alleluia.”
Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).
His relics are associated with the Piperi monastery (the Celija Piperska, the Piperi cell) and are reported to remain there. According to the traditional accounts gathered around the site, his grave was opened some years after his death and his remains were found incorrupt, after which they were enshrined for veneration.
Traditional accounts associated with the monastery relate luminous phenomena at his tomb after his death, the discovery of his incorrupt and fragrant remains, and the gathering of pilgrims of various peoples to seek healing and intercession. These belong to the body of local pious tradition rather than to independently documented record, and the saint's own synaxarion entry preserves little biographical detail.
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