Saint Arsen the Great, Catholicos (†887) — September 25 / October 8 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, September 25 according to the Julian Calendar (October 8 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Arsen the Great, Catholicos.

Saint Arsen the Great, Catholicos, was born around the year 820 into the family of Mirian, a renowned and influential nobleman of Samtskhe.

Theodore and Christopher (commemorated October 5), fellow ascetics of Saint Gregory, were traveling to Abkhazia when they passed Mirian’s house on the way through Samtskhe, and Mirian invited the monks in. In the morning he and his wife had the monks bless their children, and then, struck by the monks’ virtue, they gave their youngest son, six-year-old Arsen, to be raised by them. The monks promised the parents that they would present the boy to Gregory, archimandrite of the desert of Klarjeti.

When Saint Gregory had found his chosen brothers, Theodore and Christopher, in Abkhazia and was returning with them to Klarjeti, he took along the boy Arsen—the future “unfading crown of the throne of Kartli and Mtskheta, Catholicos”—and the youth Ephrem, later the wonderworking bishop of Atsquri.

The monks of the monastery rejoiced at the return of their teacher and brothers, but received the arrival of the boys with murmuring, since the monastic rule forbade it. Saint Gregory explained to the brotherhood that this was the one exception, dictated by the will of God Himself, so that, “like Ephrem the Syrian and Arsenius of Rome, separated from men and drawn near to God, these boys might be worthy, raised in purity in Khandzta, until the time of their honor.”

When Arsen came of age, his father, the nobleman Mirian, had him installed as Catholicos without consulting a church or episcopal council, with the help of laymen of Samtskhe and the support of several bishops. This was a gross violation of the canons of the Church and a bold interference by a layman in its affairs.

The clergy of Kartli and Klarjeti convened a church council in Javakheti to resolve the dispute, presided over by Ephrem of Atsquri. Church law was on the side of the fathers, and Arsen faced deposition. But Gregory of Khandzta, father of all the hermits, appeared at the council and persuaded everyone, Ephrem among them, that Arsen’s elevation to the Catholicos’ throne had come about by the will of God: “God had ordained the catholicosate for Arsen in its fullness, but his father Mirian spoiled it by hastening before the time, as Adam ate the fruit when it was not yet ripe.”

The turmoil subsided, and love between Ephrem and Arsen was renewed.

Catholicos Arsen consecrated the old church of Khandzta, and by his God-pleasing life and Christ-like love he brought joy to the churches of Kartli, “adorning the throne of the fatherhood in every way and being adorned with grace.”

Saint Arsen was an outstanding hagiographer and historian. He is the author of the important historical and polemical work “On the Separation of Kartli and Armenia,” which recounts the history of the church schism between the Armenians and the Georgians. The “Life and Martyrdom of Abibos of Nekresi” is also attributed to Arsen the Great.

Saint Arsen governed the Church of Kartli for twenty-seven years. He reposed in the year 887, and “departed joyfully to Christ, and has grace to help us.”