Arsacius
The Holy Martyr Arsacius
Martyr
Commemorated 12 November
Arsacius (Arsakios) is a holy martyr commemorated on November 12, of whom the tradition preserves almost nothing beyond his name and the manner of his death: the synaxarion records simply that he was perfected by the sword. Neither his country, his date, nor the persecution under which he suffered has been handed down.
Arsacius belongs to that large company of martyrs whose memory the Church has faithfully kept while the record of their acts has been lost. The Greek synaxaria enter his name under November 12 with the single notice that he completed his witness by beheading — the standard formula for a martyr put to the sword — and give no further particulars. Because no date is transmitted, his century cannot be fixed; he is not to be identified, on present evidence, with any of the several other bearers of the name Arsacius known from later church history.
Feast and commemoration
November 12 (church date; Old Calendar civil November 25). The commemoration is carried in the Greek synaxaria of the day; the Slavic calendars (and the service-books that follow them, including the Russian and OCA usage) do not list Arsacius among the saints of November 12, so his feast is here recorded as a Greek commemoration pending fuller witness.