This post was originally published on this site
For 14-year-old Stephen Mueller, the 2026 junior division champion of the St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival, taking gold means much.
A rising high school freshman from Greeley, Colorado, Stephen is this year’s junior winner of the national St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival, held in June at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Northridge, California. Prior to his victory, Stephen had participated in the Oratorical Festival only once before in 2025. He attends St. Spyridon Church in Loveland, Colorado with his parents and eight siblings.
The young orator’s speech centered on the Festival’s second topic for the junior division: “Choose a Saint who was a child or young person. How did their faith influence their life, and what can we learn from them?” Stephen opted to speak about St. Hope, a second-century child-martyr who was the daughter of St. Sophia and sister of Sts. Faith and Love. St. Hope is also the patron saint of Stephen’s older sister, Zhanna.
Because of the connection to his sister, Stephen said this topic “spoke to him.” His family adopted Zhanna from Ukraine when she was nine, with Stephen noting that “she’d been through a lot. She doesn’t talk. She needs help with pretty much everything she does.”
He noticed parallels between the story of St. Hope and the story of his sister. “It was something powerful that I could talk to, that really spoke to my heart, something that I could see through my own eyes.”
In his speech, Stephen discussed the hardships his sister had faced in her life and connected them to St. Hope’s martyrdom, encouraging his audience to emulate the forbearance, humility, and child-like faith of the two.
His speech was a long-running labor of love. Each year, the Oratorical Festival begins before Lent and continues as late as June—a marathon for the middle and high school students who reach nationals.
But Stephen did not run the marathon alone: in addition to Zhanna’s influence, he credits other members of his family as sources of inspiration.
“This was my second year doing [the Oratorical Festival], following in my older sister Evangeline’s footsteps. She’s been doing it for years; she reached the national level twice. She definitely does a lot of writing, and my mom writes, my grandma writes, so they loved helping me out with my speech. I give all the thanks to them.”
“My mom reminded me to practice, she would always listen and be there, she would time me, she would do everything. She definitely helped me.”
Stephen also hopes to become a priest one day— a dream ignited by his father’s path to the presbyterate. He said this dream is now possible because of the scholarship prize he received for his first-place win.
“Before we became Orthodox, my dad was a Lutheran pastor. Now he’s pursuing becoming an Orthodox priest,” Stephen said, noting that his father attended Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and now awaits a potential ordination to the diaconate. “I know [the Oratorical Festival] changed my life because I have a full scholarship to Hellenic College now, and my plan is to become a priest. I look up to my dad a lot, so I wanted to follow in his footsteps. The prize I won is going to be big for the future.”
The words of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America— who attended the Festival in June— particularly inspired the young orator. While in Northridge, His Eminence charged the young men of the competition to consider the priesthood. Stephen recalled the Archbishop saying, “If you’re a young man and you’ve made it this far [in the Oratorical Festival], you have the skill set to maybe be a priest,” words which Stephen said were encouraging.
When asked how the Festival has impacted him, Stephen remarked that it has “built his confidence.” He admitted that he felt nervous before delivering his speech, “but I got through it,” he said. “It showed me that there’s a lot of things that are in my power. If I put my mind to it, I can get it done.”
“So many kids my age think, ‘Oh, I have my whole life ahead of me, I can save worship for later,’ but that’s not the case. You never know which day is going to be your last. You have to devote your entire life to Christ, no matter what.”
The post 14-year-old National Oratorical Festival winner brings familial love to the podium appeared first on Orthodox Observer.
