Contents

« Arrowsmith, John Arsenius Art and the Church »

Arsenius

ARSENIUS, ār-sî´ni-us: 1. Egyptian monk; d., nearly or more than one hundred years old, at Troe (Troja), near Memphis, about 450. He was a Roman of distinction, served as tutor to the sons of the emperor Theodosius, and retired into the desert of Scetis in Egypt under Arcadius. He is commemorated in the Greek Church on May 8 and in the Latin on July 19. He wrote a book of “Instruction and Exhortation” for his monks, and an exposition of Luke x. 25 (ed. A. Mai, Classici auctores, x., Rome, 1838, 553–557; MPG, lxvi. 1615–26).

G. Krüger.

Bibliography: Vita, in ASB, July, iv. 605–631; DCB, i. 172–174.

2. Patriarch of Constantinople 1255–67; d. 1273. On the death of the emperor Theodore Lascaris II. in 1259, Michael Palæologus usurped the throne, seized upon the legitimate heir, John Lascaris, a boy of six or seven years, and deprived him of his eyesight. Arsenius manfully espoused the cause of the young prince and was banished to an island in the Propontis in consequence. He had followers who for a number of decades remained in irreconcilable opposition and formal schism against the government. His will, in which he anathematized the emperor and his helpers, is in MPG, cxl. 947–958.

G. Krüger.

Bibliography: KL, i. 1447–50.

« Arrowsmith, John Arsenius Art and the Church »
VIEWNAME is workSection