From 1230 he was very active for many years as a preacher and inquisitor in the districts of Lyonnais, Burgundy, Franche-Comté, Savoy, Champagne, Lorraine, Auvergne, Languedoc, and Roussillon.
[2] The work was written some time between 1250 and his death in 1261 as a "manual for his brethren presenting authorities, arguments and exempla from which to construct sermons on any given subject.
"[3] It sought to promote the Christian life amongst the "simple" among the faithful, using arguments reinforced by authority and illuminating them by means of exempla (moral examples and anecdotes).
A free use of Stephen's writings was made by a later medieval compiler to form a Speculum morale, for a long time falsely attributed to Vincent of Beauvais.
Stephen was the protagonist of a 1987 French film Le Moine et la Sorcière, by Suzanne Schiffman, in which he was played by Tchéky Karyo.