04 — The Baptizer of St. Paisios

The hinge of the whole collection: in 1924 St. Arsenios baptized the infant Arsenios Eznepidis — the future St. Paisios the Athonite — insisting on giving the child his own name “to leave a monk behind him,” and thereby binding the two saints in a bond of godfather and godson that would make him known to the world. St. Paisios became the writer of his Life, the keeper of his relics, and the instrument of his glorification.

Tradition: Greek Orthodox (Cappadocian)

This section is the reason St. Arsenios of Cappadocia is remembered at all beyond a vanished Cappadocian valley. The naming at the font tied his memory to the one person — his godson St. Paisios — who had the gifts, the veneration, and the will to preserve it. The collection links to St. Paisios of Mount Athos at every turn rather than duplicating that collection, and reports the tradition’s providential reading of the bond under §3.5 while keeping the underlying facts pinned to their sources.

Contents

  • “I Want to Leave a Little Monk” — the baptism of the infant Arsenios Eznepidis in 1924; St. Arsenios’ insistence, against the parents’ wish, on giving the child his own name “to leave a monk behind him”; the naming read as prophecy fulfilled.
  • the-two-arsenioi.md — the spiritual bond across the generations; how St. Paisios became the guardian of his godfather’s memory, the writer of his Life, the keeper of his relics, and the instrument of his glorification; the reciprocity of the bond.

See Also