 During this time, he lived in Podmaine Monastery and operated as a self-styled doctor.During Christmas fasting in 1766, rumors spread that Russian Tsar Peter III, who was thought to have been murdered by the lovers of Catherine the Great in 1762, was "hiding" in Montenegro and was none other than Šćepan.Having affection for Russia, Montenegrins accepted the newcomer as their new tsar (1768) under the name of Stephen the Little (Šćepan Mali).