Arsenius of Corfu
Our Father among the Saints Arsenius, Archbishop of Corfu
Bishop · b. c. 876, in Palestine (Bethania in Judaea, by tradition) — d. c. 953, at Corinth, returning to Corfu
Commemorated 19 January — Principal commemoration
Arsenius (c. 876 – c. 953) was the first Archbishop of Corfu (Kerkyra) and one of the patron saints of the island. Of Palestinian birth and formed as a monk in the East, he came by way of Constantinople to the see of Corfu, whose Church he governed and whose people he served — undertaking, in his old age, a journey to the imperial capital to intercede for his flock and win the emperor's clemency for the island. A learned man and a hymnographer, he is credited with liturgical compositions and a homily on the mystery of the day. He reposed at Corinth on the way home about the year 953; his relics were brought to Corfu, where they are venerated to this day beside those of Saint Spyridon. He is commemorated on January 19.
The traditions of Arsenius are those of a Palestinian monk raised to a Western Greek see in the tenth century. He was born about the year 876, the accounts say, in Palestine — the tradition names Bethania in Judaea — of pious parents, and gave himself from youth to the monastic life and to letters, being educated (some accounts hold) at Constantinople and formed in the discipline of the Eastern monasteries. Ordained and advancing in the Church, he was appointed to the island of Corfu and became its first archbishop, when the see was raised in dignity; there he governed the Church of Kerkyra as a good shepherd, a teacher and a father to his people.
He is remembered as a hymnographer and writer — the tradition credits him with the composition of liturgical hymnody and of a homily (an encomium on the mystery kept in Holy Week is associated with his name), the works of a cultivated churchman of the Byzantine revival of letters.
The most celebrated act of his episcopate belongs to his old age. When the island of Corfu had incurred the displeasure of the imperial power — whether through the burden of taxation or some occasion of the emperor's anger — the aged archbishop journeyed to Constantinople to plead for his flock, and by his intercession obtained relief and clemency for the people of Corfu. On the return journey he fell ill and reposed at Corinth, about the year 953. His body was carried on to Corfu and there enshrined; his relics remain a treasure of the island, venerated together with those of Saint Spyridon, and he is honoured as one of Corfu's protecting saints.
Feast and commemoration
Arsenius is kept on January 19 (church date; Old Calendar civil February 1), chiefly in the Greek calendars and on Corfu, where he is a patron; the day he shares with the two great Macarii of the Egyptian desert and with Mark of Ephesus.
Iconography
Arsenius is depicted as an archbishop, vested in the phelonion or sakkos and omophorion, holding the Gospel-book and blessing, an aged hierarch with a full grey beard, in the settled type of a Byzantine bishop-saint. No public-domain image of him identified with certainty was found for storage; the entry is noted as wanting an icon.
Disputed questions
- The dates of Arsenius's life are given variously; the repose is commonly placed about 953, and the birth about 876, but the tenth-century material is thin and the figures are approximate. He is not to be confused with Arsenios the Great of Egypt (the fifth-century desert father, kept May 8), with Arsenius of Tver (the Russian bishop, †1409, kept March 2), or with the later Arsenios the Cappadocian.