Sainted Arsenii, Bishop of Tver'
Commemorated on 1-st Sunday after June 29, March 2
Sainted Arsenii,
Bishop of Tver', was born at Tver', and in his early years took monastic
vows in the Kievo-Pechersk monastery. Even among the monks of this ancient
monastery, distinguished for their piety, Arsenii was noted for his saintly
life – a strict keeping of the monastic vows, a knowledge of the Church ustav,
the study of Holy Scripture, and a love for work. Under the Kiev metropolitan
Kyprian (1380-1382) he served as archdeacon, and during times of the
metropolitan's absence he governed the working of the Kiev metropolitanate. On
3 July 1390 he went together with Metropolitan Kyprian to Tver', where at the
request of the Tver' prince Mikhail Aleksandrovich there had been convened a
Sobor of Russian and Greek hierarchs for judgement upon the Tver' bishop
Evphymii. The prince and the bishop were in a lengthy quarrel, and many of the
Tver' people had serious accusations against the Tver' bishop. After
unsuccessful attempts to restore peace to the Tver' church, Metropolitan
Kyprian "removed from the episcopacy" Evphymii and sent him off to
Moscow to the Chudov monastery. Saint Arsenii was appointed to the Tver'
cathedra. But he, "fearful to accept the authority at Tver', in view of
the much enmity and spite there, was both troubled and terrified". Upon
the return of Metropolitan Kyprian and archdeacon Arsenii to Moscow, the Tver'
prince sent his boyars with a petition to the metropolitan concerning
ordination of Arsenii to the Tver' cathedra. This time also Arsenii was not
agreeable. In the words of the chronicle for the year 1390 "hardly even by
the metropolitan's entreaty would archdeacon Arsenii be at Tver'". Under
the threat of cathedral suspension metropolitan and prince finally received his
assent to the ordination, which was done 15 August 1390. Among the bishops
taking part in the laying on of hands was Sainted Stephen, Bishop of Perm
(Comm. 26 April).
Having come upon the
cathedra, Bishop Arsenii, as a man of great prayer and peace-maker, was able to
stop much of the discord in the Tver' principality. During his episcopacy, from
1390 to 1409, there were built and consecrated cathedrals in honour of the
Archangel Michael at Staritsa and Mikulina, and the Saviour-Transfiguration
cathedral was restored with the putting up of a cathedral bell-tower. The saint
founded on the river T'maka near Tver' the Zheltikov monastery, where in
similitude to the Kievo-Pechersk monastery was built a church in the names of
the Monks Antonii and Theodosii of Pechersk (1394), and a stone Uspenie cathedral.
Desiring that the
monks of this new monastery would always take edification from the asceticism
of the Pechersk Fathers, Sainted Arsenii gave orders to compile a list from the
Kievo-Pechersk Paterikon, offering the most ancient of redactions surviving into
the present of this precious memorial of Russian literature, and receiving the
name of the Arsen'ev Redaction.
The saint died on 2
March 1409, and was buried in the Zheltikov monastery of the Uspenie /
Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, which he founded. In 1483 his relics
were found undecayed and placed in the monastery cathedral. In the same year
priest-monk Feodosii wrote the Life and a Kanon of the Sainted-bishop. At a
Sobor of 1547 was established the celebration of Sainted Arsenii throughout all
the Church.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
