Saint Arsenius the Great

Saint Arsenius the Great was one of the best-known Desert Fathers. He left life at the imperial court in Constantinople and for more than half a century lived as a hermit in Egypt. The collection of apophthegms, the sayings of the Desert Fathers, preserves several dozen of his words and stories about him. The Church commemorates him on May 8.

He was born in Rome around 354 into a senatorial family and received a careful education, especially in Greek literature. The Roman Martyrology hands down that he was a deacon of the Roman Church. According to tradition, the emperor Theodosius the Great brought him to Constantinople around 383 as tutor to his son Arcadius, and later also to the younger Honorius. At court he was surrounded by honors and splendor.

Yet he longed more and more to leave the world. The apophthegms relate that when he asked God to show him the way of salvation, he heard a voice: “Arsenius, flee from men and you will be saved.” Around 394 he secretly sailed to Alexandria and went to the desert of Scetis, where he placed himself under the guidance of Abba John the Dwarf. According to the story, John put the former courtier’s humility to the test: during a meal he threw a piece of bread at his feet, and Arsenius silently picked it up and ate it, sitting on the ground.

According to the same collection, in the desert Arsenius heard the call again: to flee, to be silent and to pray always, for these are the sources of a life without sin. And so he lived. He wove mats from palm leaves and never changed the water in which he soaked them, only adding fresh water; he endured its stench as a penance for the perfumes he had used at court. He often wept at prayer. He avoided visitors, even distinguished ones, and left it to his disciples to receive them. He is credited with saying that he had often regretted speaking, but never keeping silent.

After raids by nomadic tribes had devastated Scetis several times, Arsenius left it around 434. He settled at Troe near Memphis and for a time also lived at Canopus near Alexandria. He died at Troe in the middle of the fifth century; the year is most often given as 449 or 450, but other dates are also found in the literature. According to tradition he lived to about 95.

Arsenius has been venerated as a saint since antiquity, without formal canonization, in the West and in the East. The Roman Martyrology says that he withdrew into the desert in the time of the emperor Theodosius and there, perfected in all virtues, gave up his spirit to God. The former edition of the Martyrology gave his memorial on July 19; the present one moves it to May 8, the day on which the Eastern Churches also keep it.