Arsenios of Varnakova

Holy Venerable Arsenios of Varnakova was an ascetic and founder of the Monastery of the Panagia of Varnakova in Doris, in Phocis, Greece. He was born in the first half of the eleventh century, probably in the village of Karya in Phocis, founded the monastery in 1077 and fell asleep in 1111. He is commemorated on 8 May.

His ascetic cell survives to this day in a hard-⁠to-⁠reach but very beautiful place northwest of Varnakova, and has been arranged as a small church, so as to remain forever a place of prayer. The sanctuary is at the back of the cave (fifteen steps must be descended to the Holy Table), and the nave is built from the entrance of the cave outward. Miraculously, during the Divine Liturgy holy water drips from the cave ceiling. The place is one of quiet, peace and spiritual uplift.