By his mid-twenties, he felt so drawn to a life of seclusion and contemplation, he asked the abbot of the community for permission to live as a hermit.

Due to the great skill in giving spiritual direction he already showed at that young age, the abbot gave him limited permission.

[3] Towards the end of his life, Stephen reported that various cities, Gaza among them, were laid waste to and depopulated by the Saracens (another name for the Muslim Caliphate under the rule of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties, referenced in Acta martyrum Sabaitarum, AASS Mart.

The idiomela are "exceptionally rich in doctrinal content, summing up the whole theology of the Great Fast".

[2] The events of the time are recorded in the writings of Leontius of Damascus in his book The Life of St. Stephen the Sabaite.