Arsenius Minin

Arsenius Minin was a Russian hieromonk of St Panteleimon Monastery on Athos, born in August 1824 and reposed on 17 November 1879. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Alexander in the world, he was the third son of the devout merchants John and Alexandra Minin, whose forebears came from the Novy Torzhok district and who lived at a mill in the Mamadysh district of Kazan province. His brother John became a monk at Sarov, and his sister Catherine entered a convent in Novgorod. In 1857, aged 33, he went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and was so won by the beauty of Athos that he resolved to stay. His first obediences were the kitchen, sweeping corridors, carrying hay and picking olives, then the chancery, where he proved able. Even there he went on sweeping the corridors daily until his ordination. His confessor Hieronymus guided him to pray the Jesus Prayer unceasingly, joined with self-⁠reproach and the memory of death; later he received the gift of tears. After a year and a half he was tonsured into the mantle with the name Arsenius. He served selflessly a sick schemamonk, Neophytos.

In 1879, weakened by illnesses and with a diseased leg, he contracted acute pneumonia and on 17 November, after the prayers for the departure of the soul, he died in peace. He was buried on 19 November at the Alexeyevsky Convent of the Exaltation of the Cross in Moscow, with words from the Wisdom of Solomon written on the cross of his grave: Being made perfect in a short time, he fulfilled a long time, for his soul pleased the Lord.