Page "Stephen of Ripon" Paragraph 1

Very little is known about his life.

The author of the Vita Sancti Wilfrithi identifies himself as “ Stephen, a priest ”.

Bede mentions that Wilfrid brought a singing master from Kent, Ædde Stephanus, to Ripon in 669 to teach chant, and he has traditionally been thought to be the same person as the “ Stephen ” mentioned.

However, there is no more solid evidence that the two names describe the same person.

If the two were in fact the same, Stephen would have been at least twenty years old when he came north, placing him in his sixties or older at Wilfrid ’ s death in 709.