De sancto Arsenio abbate
The Call to Solitude
Arsenius is called to the desert to find rest and clarity through the practice of silence and withdrawal from the world.
While Arsenius was still serving in the palace and praying to be guided toward salvation, he heard a voice: "Flee from people and you will be saved." Later, as he entered the monastic life and was praying in that same place, he heard: "Arseni, flee, be silent, and find rest." It is written there about... They sought this quiet because, when three brothers became monks, one chose to reconcile those who were fighting, the second chose to visit the sick, and the third chose to find rest in solitude. The first, however, struggling with human quarrels, couldn't please everyone and, overcome by weariness, went to the second, whom he found failing in spirit and unable to finish his task; they agreed to go to the third, who was living in solitude. When they told him their troubles, he poured water into a bowl and said, "Look into the water," and it was stirred up and turbulent. Then he said, "Look now at how quiet and clear it has become." When they looked and saw their own faces, he said, "It's the same for those who live among people; because of the crowd, they don't see their own sins, but when they have found rest, then they'll be able to see their sins." Someone also, when he found a man in the desert eating herbs like a beast... ...and naked, ran after him as he fled, saying, "Wait for me, because I am doing this for God."
Detachment and Humility
Arsenius demonstrates radical detachment from human relationships and worldly expectations to preserve his monastic focus.
"I'm following you," he said, and the other replied, "And I, for God's sake, am fleeing from you." After he had cast off his garment, he waited for him, saying, "Since you've cast off the material world, I've waited for you." To which he replied, "Tell me how I may be saved." He answered him, "Flee from people and keep silent." A noble and elderly matron came to see Abbot Arsenius out of devotion, but when Archbishop Theophilus asked him to let her see him, he refused entirely. Finally, she hurried to his cell, found him outside before the door, and threw herself at his feet. But he, with great indignation, lifted her up, saying, "If you want to see my face, look at it." She, however, didn't look at his face, out of confusion and shame. The old man said to her, "How could you presume to make such a long journey, being a woman?" Look, you'll go back to Rome and tell other women that you saw Abbot Arsenius, and they'll come here too, just to see me. She replied, "If God grants that I return to Rome, I won't let anyone come here; but I do ask that you pray for me and always keep me in your thoughts." He said to her, "I pray to God that He wipes the memory of you from my heart." When she heard this, she was deeply troubled; she went back to the city and, out of sadness, began to run a fever. When the archbishop heard about this, he went to comfort her, but she kept saying, "I am dying of sorrow." The archbishop said to her, "Don't you know that you are a woman, and that the enemy uses women to attack holy men?" That is why the old man said what he did; for he is always praying for your soul. Having received this comfort, she returned home with joy. It is written of another father that when his disciple said to him, "Abbot, you are getting old; let's go live a little closer to the world," he replied, "Let us go where there is no woman."
The Discipline of the Heart
Through rigorous asceticism and the rejection of earthly inheritance, Arsenius models the total surrender of the self to God.
The disciple asked, "Where is there a place without women, unless it's the wilderness?" So, he went into the wilderness. Another brother, when he had to carry his elderly mother across a river, wrapped his hands in his cloak. She asked him, "Why did you cover your hands, son?" He replied, "A woman's body is fire, and because I was touching you, the memory of other women was coming into my mind." Arsenius, however, kept a cloth in his lap his whole life while he sat at his work, because of the tears that frequently ran from his eyes. He would spend the whole night without sleep; but when morning came, if he wanted to sleep because of the body's exhaustion, he would say to his sleep, 'Come, you wicked servant,' and he would steal a little sleep while sitting, and then immediately get up. He also used to say, 'For a monk, one hour of sleep is enough.' An hour of sleep is enough, provided he's a fighter. When the father of Saint Arsenius, a high-ranking senator, was nearing the end of his life and drafting his will, he left a large inheritance to Arsenius. The magistrate brought the will to him, but when Arsenius took it, he wanted to tear it up. The magistrate threw himself at his feet and begged him not to, saying he would be beheaded for it. Arsenius replied, 'I died before he did; since he is dead now, how could he have made me his heir?' He sent the will back, refusing to accept anything.
Visions of the Soul
Arsenius receives divine visions that reveal the dangers of pride and the necessity of pure intentions in one's spiritual labors.
Once, a voice came to him saying, 'Come, and I will show you the works of men,' and it led him to a certain place. It showed him an Ethiopian cutting wood and making a bundle so large he couldn't carry it; then he would cut more wood and add it to the bundle, continuing this for a long time. It showed him again a man drawing water from a lake and pouring it into a leaking cistern, which kept spilling the water back into the lake, even though he wanted to fill the cistern. And it showed him again a temple and two men on horses carrying a beam crosswise; they wanted to enter the temple, but they could not because they were carrying the beam crosswise. He explained it, saying: "These are the ones who carry as if..." ...the yoke of justice with pride, and they are not humbled, which is why they remain outside the kingdom of God." "The man who cuts wood is one who is in many sins, and because of this, so that..." ...he might do penance, he does not withdraw." "He is not free from sins, but adds iniquities to iniquities; the one who draws water is a man doing good works, but because evils are mixed in with them, he has lost his good works." "On the evening of the Sabbath, as the Lord's Day approached, he would leave the sun behind him and stretch out his hands to heaven until the sun rose on the morning of the Lord's Day and illuminated his face, and..." ...in this way he would remain." This is found in the Lives of the Fathers.
Read the original Latin
Arsenius cnm adhuc in palatio consisteret et, ut ad salutem dirigeretnr, oraret, andivit: fuge homines et salvaberis, Accedens igitur ad monachalem vitam et ibidem orans andivit :-Arseni, fuge, tace, quiesce. Legitur enim ibidem de. hae quiete appetenda, quod, tres fratres cum facti fuissent monachi, unus -elegit discordantes ad pacem reducere, secundus infirmos visitare, tertius in solitudine quiescere, Primus igitur laborans propter lites hominum non potuit omnibns placere et taedio victus venit ad secundum, quem invenit animo deficientem et mandatum perficere non valentem, Et concordantes ad tertium, qui erat in solitudine, venerunt. Cui cum tribulationes suas narrassent, ille missa aqha in scypho dixit: attendite in aquam, et erat commota et turbulenta. Et rursus dixit: attendite modo, quomodo quieta et limpida facta est. Qui cum intenderent et vnltus suos viderent, ait: sic, qui in medio hominum consistunt, prae turba non vident peccata sua, cnm autem quieverint, tunc peccata sua videre valebunt. Quidam etiam cum invenisset quendam in eremo velut bestiam herbas. manducantem et nudum, currebat post ipsum fugientem dicens: exspecta me, quia propter Denm.
sequor te, Et ille: et ego propter Deum fugio te. Cum autem vestem projecisset, exspectavit eum dicens: quoniam materiam" mundi projecisti a te, exspectavi te, Gui ille: dic mihi, quomodo salvus efficiar. Qui respondens ait: fuge homines et tace. Matrona quaedam nobilis et senex venit, ut abbatem Arsenium ex devotione videret, qui rogatus a Theophilo archiepiscopo, ut se videri permitteret, nullatenus acquievit. Tandem illa ad ejus cellam properans ipsum foris ante ostium cellae invenit et se ad ejus pedes prostravit. llle autem cum indignatione nimia elevavit eam dicens: si faciem meam videre vis, vide. llla autem faciem ejus prae confusione et verecundia non consideravit. Cui senex: quomodo, cum mulier sis, tantam navigationem facere praesumsisti ?
ecce enim Romam redibis et, quod abbatem Arsenium videris, aliis mulieribus enarrabis et illae similiter venient, ut videant me. Et illa: si Deo dante Romam rediero, nullam huc venire permittam, sed saltem obsecro, ut ores pro me et mei memor sis semper. Cui ille: oro Deum, ut deleat memoriam tuam de corde-meo. Et illa audiens turbata nimium venit in civitatem et prae tristitia febricitare coepit. Quod archiepiscopus audiens ad eam eonsolandam accessit, illa autem dicebat: ecce ego contristata morior. Cui archiepiscopus: nescis, quod mulier es et inimicus per mulieres sanctos impugnat? et propterea senex hoc dixit; nam pro anima tua semper orat, Sic consolatione recepta cum gaudio ad propria remeavit. De quodam alio patre legitur, quod, cum discipulus ejus sibi diceret: senuisti, abbas, accedamus parum juxta mundum, ille ait: nbi non est mulier, ibi eamus.
Dixit discipulus: et ubi est locus non habens mulierem, nisi forte solitudo? Et illez ergo in solitudinem metolle. Alius etiam frater cum matrem suam vetulam trans fluvium portare deberet, ille manus suas pallio involvit. Cui illa: )ad quid operuisti manus tuas, fili? Et ille: corpus mulieris ignis est et ex eo, quod te contingebam, aliarum feminarum memoria in meo animo veniebat. Arsenius autem per totum lempus vitae suae ad opus sedens manuum suarum pannum habebat in sinu propter lacrymas, quae crebro de oculis ejus currebant. Totam noctem insomnem ducebat, mane autem facto, cum propter naturae lassitudinem dormire vellet, dicebat sommo: veni, serve male, et subripiebat parum somni sedendo et statim: surgebat. Dicebat quoque: sufficit monacho ,.
si dormierit una hora, si est tamen pugnator. Cumque paler saneti Arsenii nobilissimus senator vitam finiens et testamentum faciens magnam. hereditatem Arsenio dimisisset, Magistrianus praedictum testamentum ad ipsum detulit, quod ille accipiens voluit scindere. Magistrianus autem ejus pedibus provolutus rogavit, ne hoc faceret, quia caput ejus praecideretur, Qui Arsenius: prius mortuus sum quam ille; ipse igitur, cum modo mortuus sit, quomodo me fecit heredem? Et remisit testamentum nihil accipere volens. Quadam vice facta est vox ad eum dicens: veni et ostendam tibi opera hominum, Et eduxit eum in quendam locum. Ostendit quoque ei Aethiopem incidentem ligna et facientem sarcinam grandem, quam portare non poterat, Deinde iterum ligna incidebat et ad sarcinam addebat et hoc faciebat diutius. Ostenditque ei rursus hominem haurientem aquam de lacu et effundentem aquam in cisternam pertusam, quae aquam refundebat in lacum, et ipsam cisternam implere volentem, Et ostendit ei iterum templum et duos viros in equis portantes lignum transversum; volentes antem introire in templum, non poterant eo, quod lignum in transverso portarent.
Et exposuit dicens: hi sunt, qui portant quasi. jugum justitiae cum superbia et non humiliantur, propter quod remanent foris a regno Dei. Qui ligna incidit, homo est in peccatis multis et pro eo, ut. agat poenitentiam, non subtrahit. de peccatis, sed addit iniquitates iniquitatibus; qui autem aquam haurit, homo est bona opera faciens, sed quia cum iis sunt permixta mala, perdidit bona opera sua. "Vespere sabbati veniente die dominico relinquebat post se solem et extendebat manus snas ad coelum, donec mane die dominico sol ascendens faciem ejus illustrabat, et. sic residebat. Haec in vitis patrum.
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