Saint of the Day – 8 February – Saint Stephen of Muret (c1046-1124) Abbot, Founder of the Abbey of Grandmont (the Mother House) and the Order of Grandmont. Born in c1046 at Thiers, Auvergne, France and died on 8 February 1124 at his Monastery in Muret, France of natural causes. St Stephen was Canonised in 1189 by Pope Clement III. Also known as – Stephen of Grandmont, Stephen of Thiers, Étienne de…
The Roman Martyrology reads: “At Muret, near Limoges, the birthday of the Abbot, St Stephen, Founder of the Order of Grandmont, celebrated for his virtues and miracles.”
The early life of Stephen, a native of Thiers, France, is uncertain due to historical inaccuracies in the medieval biography of the Saint. We do know that he was born of a noble family, being the son of the the Viscount of Thiers and that he was educated in Italy possibly by Milo, the Archbishop of Benevento for a certain time.
After returning to France and finding his parents had died, Stephen undertook the consecrated life as a Hermit. Having built a small Hermitage in the forests of Muret, Stephen vowed himself to God thus:
“I, Stephen, renounce the devil and all his pomps
and offer myself to God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
the one true God in three Persons.”
He also prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, declaring:
“Holy Mary, Mother of God,
I commend my body, soul,and senses to thou Son and to thee.”
Thereafter, Stephen spent the next forty-eight years of his life in this wilderness, devoting himself to prayer and penitential self-denial. When on one occasion two Papal Legates visited him, they inquired as to whether he was a Monk, a Hermit, or a Canon. He replied, “I am a sinner.”
Other men intending to imitate Stephen came to join him, so that the Hermitage of Muret grew into a monastic community and a new Religious Congregation which would later be known as the Order of Grandmont.
Although Stephen certainly established the Order of Grandmont, a religious order of “extreme austerity and poverty,” he did little for his disciples except offer them the example of his holy life and it was not until after his death that the Order was firmly established.
St Stephen’s Relics are preserved in the Parish Church of St Sylvestre, Canton of Laurière. below we see the Reliquary housing St Stephen’s head. In 1167, he was initially honoured by Bishop Gerald II of Limoges and formally Canonised by Pope Clement III in 1189.
AnaStpaul 