Arsenius the Great

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Arsenius the Deacon, sometimes known as Arsenius of Scetis and Turah, Arsenius the Roman or Arsenius the Great, was a Roman imperial tutor who became an anchorite in Egypt, one of the most highly regarded of the Desert Fathers, whose teachings were greatly influential on the development of asceticism and the contemplative life.

His contemporaries so admired him as to surname him "the Great". His feast day is celebrated on May 8 in the

He was born in 350 AD, in Rome to a Christian, Roman senatorial family. He received a fine education, studying rhetoric and philosophy, and mastered the Latin and Greek languages.[3] After his parents died, his sister Afrositty was admitted to a community of virgins, and he gave all their riches to the poor, and lived an ascetic life. Arsenius became famous for his righteousness and wisdom.

Arsenius is said to have been made a

In 434 he was forced to leave due to raids on the monasteries and hermitages there by the Mazices (tribesmen from Libya). He relocated to Troe (near Memphis), and also spent some time on the island of Canopus (off Alexandria). He spent the next fifteen years wandering the desert wilderness before returning to Troe to die c. 445 at the age of around 95.

During the fifty-five years of his solitary life he was always the most meanly clad of all, thus punishing himself for his former seeming vanity in the world. In like manner, to atone for having used

Arsenius was a man who was very quiet and often silent, as evidenced by an adage of his: "Many times have I repented of having spoken, but never have I repented of having remained silent."[5]

Works

Two of his writings are still extant: a guideline for monastic life titled διδασκαλία και παραινεσις (Instruction and Advice), and a commentary on the

See also

• Desert Fathers
• Saint Arsenius the Great, patron saint archive
• Or (monk)
• Scetes
• Daniel of Scetis, disciple and biographer of Arsenius

References

Sources

• Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.
  ISBN 0-14-051312-4
  .
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Arsenius". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Saint Arsenius in Catholic Forum

External links

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