Arkadios of Arsinoe
Our Father among the Saints Arkadios the Wonderworker, Bishop of Arsinoe in Cyprus
Bishop · Wonderworker · d. August 29 (year not transmitted; the tradition places him in the 4th century)
Commemorated 29 August — Peaceful repose at Arsinoe in Cyprus
Arkadios was bishop of Arsinoe on the south-western coast of Cyprus — the ancient city near modern Polis Chrysochous — and is remembered in the Cypriot synaxaria as a wonderworker. He was born there of wealthy and devout parents, Michael and Anna, was sent away for his education and returned home, became known for his ascetic manner of life, and on the death of his predecessor Nikon was raised to the episcopal throne of his native city, which he governed to a peaceful end on August 29. His brother Theosebios the God-bearer of Arsinoe is kept on October 12. The record is a synaxarion memory rather than a biography, and it is given here at the length the evidence allows; his day falls on the Beheading of the Forerunner, under whose shadow he is easily overlooked.
Arsinoe and its bishops
Arsinoe was one of the Hellenistic foundations of Cyprus, on the north-western coast of the island near the Akamas peninsula, at the site of the modern Polis Chrysochous. It was an early bishopric — Cyprus was a densely episcopal island, with fourteen or fifteen sees for a population that would later support four — and the see of Arsinoe produced a small cluster of local saints whom the Cypriot tradition keeps together: Nikon, Arkadios and his brother Theosebios, with the martyr Theodotos among them. Arsinoe was eventually absorbed into the metropolis of Paphos, and the memory of its bishops survives chiefly in the island's own synaxaria.
What is transmitted
The account is short and does not pretend otherwise. Arkadios was born at Arsinoe to Michael and Anna, described as pious and wealthy — the class from which Byzantine bishops were regularly drawn. He was sent to Constantinople for his education and returned to his native city, where he became known for his ascetic struggles and his virtues. When the bishop Nikon died, Arkadios was chosen to succeed him on the throne of Arsinoe. Having shepherded his flock in a manner pleasing to God — the formula of the synaxaria, which in his case is all that is recorded of his episcopate — he reposed peacefully on August 29. He is styled wonderworker in the calendars, and Cypriot local tradition attaches healings to his relics, but no particular miracle is transmitted with him in the sources consulted for this entry.
His brother, Theosebios the God-bearer of Arsinoe, is commemorated separately on October 12 and is to be treated at that day.
Feast and commemoration
August 29 (church date; New Calendar civil August 29; Old Calendar civil September 11), the day of his peaceful repose. He is carried on the OCA calendar and in the Cypriot synaxaria; the Greek Menaion for August 29 and the Slavonic books give the day entirely to the Beheading of the Forerunner, which is served with a full proper office and admits no concurrent commemoration, so that Arkadios — like Theodora of Thessalonica on the same day — is in practice a synaxarion memory rather than a served feast outside Cyprus. Within the Church of Cyprus he is honoured locally at Polis Chrysochous, on the site of his see.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4
A rule of faith and an image of meekness, a teacher of abstinence, hath the reality shown thee to thy flock; therefore hast thou gained by humility the things on high, and by poverty the things that are rich. O Father and hierarch Arkadios, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
No pre-modern icon of Arkadios of Arsinoe was located. He would be painted as a Byzantine hierarch of the early period: the polystavrion or plain phelonion with the omophorion, the Gospel book held in the left hand and the right raised in blessing, short grey beard, identified by the inscription Ο ΑΓΙΟΣ ΑΡΚΑΔΙΟΣ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΣ ΑΡΣΙΝΟΗΣ. In Cyprus he may appear in a local company with Nikon and his brother Theosebios of the same see. Because the whole month is outside the range of the Menologion of Basil II — which covers only September to February — the usual first-resort source for a minor saint's portrait is not available for him. He is entered in the the list of icons still being sought index.
Disputed questions
- The date. The OCA's notice places him in the late third and early fourth century. That cannot be reconciled with an education at Constantinople, which was not founded until 330 and did not become a centre of Greek learning for some time after; either the dating is too early, or the schooling is a later embellishment, or "Constantinople" stands loosely for the capital in a notice written centuries afterwards. Other Cypriot lists place the Arsinoite group of bishops considerably later. No year of repose is transmitted; the frontmatter gives the century the tradition assigns while flagging the difficulty here.
- Not to be confused with Arcadius of Cyprus (March 6, †c. 361), the venerable ascetic of the island who was the spiritual father of the martyrs Julian the Physician and Eubulos. The two are the same name in the same island in roughly the same era, and are regularly conflated in popular listings; but the calendars keep them on different days and in different states of life — Arcadius a monastic teacher of martyrs, Arkadios a bishop of a named see with a named predecessor and a named brother. This entry keeps them distinct, as the synaxaria do, and notes that the distinction has not always been observed.