Saint Stephen of Muret was the founder of the Abbey of Grandmont and the Order of Grandmont.
Background
Serious chronological difficulties are presented by the traditional story of his early life (printed in Patrologia Latina 204, coll 1005-1072), which runs as follows: Stephen in his twelfth year accompanied his father, the Viscount of Thiers, to Italy, where he was left to be educated by Milo, Archbishop of Benevento. After passing twelve years in this prelate"s household, he became acquainted with hermits in Calabria, but never joined their way of life.
Education
His patron Milo having also died, he established himself at Rome, where he studied the rules of the religious houses of the city.
Career
After a four years" sojourn he obtained a Bulletin from Gregory VII authorizing him to found an institute resembling that of the solitaries he had frequented in Calabria, and returned to France. He is said to have settled at Muret in 1076 and died at Muret on 8 February 1124. This story is impossible.
His father visited Italy in order to make a pilgrimage to Saint Nicholas at Bari.
But Saint Nicholas"s relics were not placed there till some years later. Milo was not Archbishop of Benevento for twelve years.
The Gregory VII"s bull is a forgery. The exact truth as to Saint Stephen"s life cannot now be established.
However, the connexions with Milo, whose short episcopate (1074-1075) would argue against any later invention by a biographer.
The connexion, too, with Benevento, which held particular interest for reforming popes. And the lack of miracles during his life, would all argue for at least some details being historically sound. The Life would seem to have been originally written in the mid-twelfth century and to have been revised in the last decade of that century.
His head is preserved in the parish Church of Saint Sylvestre, Canton of Laurière (in the Haute Vienne département).
He was canonized by Bishop Gerald II of Limoges in 1167 and by the pope in 1189. His liturgical feast occurs on 8 February.