Early Life and Education
Arsenios was born in 1840 in Kephalochori, one of six Christian villages in the Pharasa region of Cappadocia (the area of modern Çamlıca, Yahyalı, in Kayseri Province, Turkey), and was given the baptismal name Theodorus Annitsalichos. His father had been a teacher.
He lost both parents in early childhood and was raised by a maternal aunt. He received formal schooling in Niğde while staying with a paternal aunt who was herself an educator, then moved to Smyrna to continue his studies. Beyond Greek and his Church studies, he gained proficiency in Armenian and Turkish, as well as some French.
Monastic Tonsure and Ordination
Around the age of twenty-six, Arsenios entered the monastery of the Holy Forerunner at Phlavianai near Caesarea, where he was tonsured a monk and assumed the name Arsenios. In 1870, at the age of thirty, he was consecrated an archimandrite.
Following a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the villagers honored him with the title 'Hadjiephentis.' Metropolitan Paisios II assigned him to serve as priest in Pharasa and the surrounding villages.
Ministry in Pharasa
Arsenios pastored the Greek Orthodox community of Pharasa (Farasa) in Cappadocia, a region under Ottoman Turkish control since 1453 — conditions that made Christian practice extremely difficult. He functioned as the respected spiritual guide of the villagers, sustaining Orthodox Christian life as, in one account, 'an oasis' for his people.
During Ottoman rule he secretly taught the Greek language to local children, serving the community at once as priest, teacher, and protector. The village faced threats from marauding bands, and accounts hold that his presence afforded the community protection.
Reputation as a Healer
Arsenios's reputation as a healer drew not only Greek Christians but also Turkish Muslims, who came to him seeking help. According to the accounts, he ministered to the sick through prayers and Gospel readings rather than through medical prescriptions.
Population Exchange and Repose
During the Greco-Turkish population exchange of the 1920s, Arsenios led his parish community from Cappadocia to Corfu, Greece. He died on November 10, 1924, after roughly three months' residence there.
Canonization and Legacy
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople officially recognized Arsenios as a saint in 1986, under Patriarch Demetrios I, with his feast day observed on November 10.
He is remembered as the spiritual forefather of the Athonite Elder Paisios. Arsenios served as spiritual father to Paisios's family and baptized Paisios as an infant, giving the child his own monastic name despite the parents' wish to name him otherwise. Elder Paisios later compiled a biographical work documenting Arsenios's life through eyewitness accounts.
Relics & Shrines
His holy relics are venerated at the Monastery of Souroti near Thessalonica, where reported miracles and apparitions near the relics are recorded as beginning in 1970. Relics are also venerated at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Prophet Elias in Frankfurt, Germany.
