01 — Foundations
The ground from which St. Arsenius the Great (c. 354 – c. 450) rose and which he renounced: the well-born Roman, ordained deacon, who was summoned to the court of Theodosius the Great to be tutor of the imperial princes Arcadius and Honorius — and who, praying to be shown the way of salvation, heard the voice “Arsenius, flee from men and you will be saved,” and abandoned the palace for the Egyptian desert of Scetis around the year 394. These files establish what the sources claim of his origins and his court career, how securely, and how the call to flight is told.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Desert Father; father of stillness)
Arsenius stands at the meeting-point of two worlds: the Christianized Roman aristocracy of the late fourth century and the radical renunciation of the Egyptian desert. The Apophthegmata and the later Life present him as a man of the senatorial class, learned in Greek and Latin, raised to the imperial household as the teacher of the sons of Theodosius — and then, at the height of that station, drawn out of it by a word heard in prayer. This section examines the court career (its claims and the limits of the evidence) and the call to flee, the saying that became the seed of his whole desert life and a watchword of the later tradition of stillness.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Roman Tutor | The well-born Roman and deacon; his summons to the court of Theodosius the Great; the tutorship of the princes Arcadius and Honorius; what the sources claim and what can be securely known of the court career. |
| Flee from Men | The prayer “Lord, lead me in the way of salvation” and the voice “Arsenius, flee from men and you will be saved”; the abandonment of the court for Scetis (c. 394); the second word, “flee, be silent, be still,” and the inauguration of his desert life. |
See Also
- The Courtier Becomes a Monk — what followed the flight: his entry into Scetis
- The Apophthegmata of Arsenius — the sayings in which the court past is remembered
- The Historical Arsenius — what can be known of the career versus the topoi
- The Pre-Schism Church — the late-fourth-century imperial and ecclesial world
References
- Ward, Benedicta, trans. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection. Rev. ed. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1984.
- Chitty, Derwas J. The Desert a City: An Introduction to the Study of Egyptian and Palestinian Monasticism under the Christian Empire. Oxford: Blackwell, 1966.
- Harmless, William. Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.