The presence of Greeks in the courts of Serbian despots who had been reared since their early infancy in the spirit of Romaic culture, had additionally intensified the need for liturgical services to be as magnificent as possible, like those in Constantinople.
However, evidence show that he spent most of his life at the court of Despot Lazar Branković in Smederevo, where he served as domestikos — choir conductor and dijak — clerk.
Some sources say he lived from 1360 to 1430, and that he became Hegumen, protopsaltos and domestikos of the monastery of Hilandar in his later life, the position he probably undertook to escape the Turkish occupation of Serbia.
His works reveal common melodic-rhythmical characteristics; these short, single voice liturgical songs of graduated steps (larger jumps between notes indicate important words) make up an inseparable whole with the text.
The two songs "Нинїa Сили" (Now the Celestial Powers) and "ВькȢсите и Видите" (Taste and see) have the original autograph by Stefan himself: "Творение доместика Кир Стефана Србина" (f. 287 V, f. 288), meaning that he was their author.
The letters of the Early Cyrillic alphabet had the values of melodic modes (азъ, боукы, вѣдѣ, глаголи, добро, єсть, живѣтє, ѕѣло).
Even though the existence of Psaltikia was known from the beginning of the 20th century, the most fundamental analysis of the remaining pages has been compiled only in 1961 by Serbian musicologist Dimitrije Stefanović, the director of the Musicological Institute SANU, who also transcribed Stefan's song to the contemporary notation.