Stephen of Piperi

Venerable Stephen of Piperi was an ascetic of what is now Montenegro, then the Herzegovina of Saint Sava, and he reposed on 20 May 1697. He founded the monastery of Celija Piperska, in Montenegro. The Serbian Church honours him among the venerable fathers and commemorates him on 20 May by the old calendar (2 June by the new).

He was born in the village of Kuti, in the Nikšić district, to the poor but devout parents Radoje and Jaćima Krulanović. As a young man he came to the Morača monastery, was tonsured a monk and ordained hierodeacon. Having won the respect of the brethren, he was chosen abbot. Fleeing the Turks, he left the monastery and lived for several years as a hermit in the cave at Rovaci, in Turmanj, in the place now called Ćelište.

Fleeing the Turks again, around 1660 he came to the lands of the Montenegrin tribe of the Piperi. With their permission he built himself a cell by a spring, on a plateau near Gornji Crnci, and then a church in honour of the Nativity of the Mother of God. Soon a community of monks gathered around him and the monastery of Celija Piperska arose. He is its founder and builder.

He reposed on 20 May 1697 and was buried beside the altar of the church he had built. After four years, according to tradition, lights began to be seen over the grave, and Stephen appeared in a dream to a priest. A commission was sent to the monastery from Podgorica to open the relics, which were found incorrupt and placed in the monastery church, where they remain to this day. A particle of the relics is kept in the altar of the Alexander Nevsky cathedral in Novosibirsk. It is said that his relics work miracles.