The life of St Stephen of Perm
Convinced that a people should hear the Gospel and pray the liturgy in their own tongue, he devised an alphabet for the Komi, also called the Zyrians, adapting it from marks already used in their embroidery and woodcarving, and used it to translate portions of Scripture and the service books. Around 1379 he set out alone into Komi territory north and east of Russia's settled lands, preaching, founding churches, and at times deliberately destroying the sacred groves and idols of the local religion to demonstrate their powerlessness. In 1383 he was consecrated the first bishop of Perm, building on the mission he had begun, raising churches and monasteries, and training a native clergy to carry the work forward after him. He died in Moscow in 1395 or 1396, sources vary, at the end of a journey to seek support for his see, having spent some seventeen years among the people he had come to serve. The Komi remembered him afterward as their apostle and enlightener.
