Saint Stephen the New Light of Constantinople

Stephen the New Light, also known by the Greek epithet Neolampes, was a Byzantine monk and recluse who lived in Constantinople in the ninth and early tenth centuries. According to the synaxarion he was born in the imperial city in 838 and received a fine education before turning to the monastic life. He is commemorated on December 9.

The tradition relates that Stephen received monastic tonsure under the Patriarch Methodius and shut himself away in a cell attached to the church of Saint Peter in Constantinople. He was later ordained a priest and served in the church of Saint Antipas, where he lived in seclusion. Though he remained within the city his whole life, the sources describe him as living there as if in the desert, devoting himself to solitude, fasting, and prayer.

His asceticism was severe and prolonged. For most of his adult life he ate only a few vegetables without salt once or twice a week. When the church he served was destroyed in the earthquake of 879, he withdrew into a dank pit amid the ruins, where, by the account, the air was so unwholesome that he lost his hair and teeth and was nearly paralyzed; he is said to have remained in this confinement for twelve years. Afterward he served the Divine Liturgy only on the Feasts of the Lord, taking some water and fruit after the service and otherwise keeping silence.

The synaxarion relates that toward the end of his life Stephen acquired great grace, shining among the saints like the ancient ascetics, on account of which he was given the name 'New Light.' By his prayers, the tradition holds, many miracles were worked in the City. He died in 912 and was buried in the church of Saint Antipas.