St. Arsenius

Although there may be some query about his youth, evidently St. Arsenius was born in Rome across the 12 months 354, grew to become a deacon, and later tutor to the sons of the Emperor Theodosius I of Constantinople. He lived at court docket amid nice wealth and pomp, had splendid residences, wealthy garments, and a bunch of servants. After ten years of this sort of life, Arsenius started to really feel the necessity to resign the world and flee to the desert. It is claimed that he heard a voice saying, “Arsenius, flee the corporate of males, and thou shalt be saved.”

Around the 12 months 400, Arsenius joined the desert monks at Skete; later he went to Canopus and Troe. He lived probably the most austere of lives, carried out penances, and prayed unceasingly. When informed that he had been left a legacy by a relative who was a senator, he refused it saying, “I died eleven years in the past and can’t be his inheritor.” When Arsenius did certainly die, he was 95 years previous.

Lessons

St. Arsenius left us with forty-four maxims and ethical anecdotes. His sayings give us a lot meals for thought:

Asked in the future why he, a realized man, sought the recommendation of a monk who had no schooling, he replied, “I’m not unacquainted with the educational of the Greeks and the Romans; however I’ve not but realized the alphabet of the science of the saints, whereof this seemingly ignorant Egyptian is grasp.”

Again, when requested why many uneducated Egyptians appeared to make extra progress within the methods of advantage than educated males, Arsenius answered, “We make no progress as a result of we dwell in that exterior studying which puffs up the thoughts; however these illiterate Egyptians have a real sense of their very own weak spot, blindness, and insufficiency; and by that very factor they’re certified to labor efficiently within the pursuit of advantage.”

Employed as most of the monks have been in making mats of palm leaves, Arsenius by no means modified the water wherein he moistened the leaves, permitting it to change into fetid. He claimed, “I should be punished by this scent for the self-indulgence with which I previously used perfumes.”

His abbot as soon as requested him why he a lot shunned the corporate of the opposite monks. The saint answered, “God is aware of how dearly I like you all; however I discover I can’t be each with God and with males on the similar time; nor can I consider leaving God to converse with males.”

Although St. Arsenius did give non secular instruction to a lot of his brethren, he typically mentioned, “I’ve all the time one thing to repent for after having talked, however have by no means been sorry for having been silent.”

Other Saints We Remember Today

St. Vincent de Paul (Extrordinary type), Priest and Founder of the Vincentians, Patron of all charitable societies

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picture: St. Arsenius on stained-glass, Saint-Pierre in Petit-Mars im Département Loire-Atlantique by User:GFreihalter, CC BY-SA 4.0, by way of Wikimedia Commons