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.
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.
Honest stub; OCA gives no detail. Flagged for review.