The Holy Martyr Stephen of Kazan

Commemorated on March 24

The Holy Martyr Stephen of Kazan was by birth a Tatar. For more than 20 years he suffered a weakness of the legs. After the taking of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible (1552), he believed in Christ and received healing. The saint was baptised by Archpriest Timofei of the Moscow cathedral, who had conveyed a missive of Metropolitan Makarii to the Russian army. After the withdrawal of the Russian army from Kazan, the Tatars – because of the firmness of his Christian faith, chopped up the martyr Stephen into parts, scattered about his body and plundered his house.