Orsisius of Egypt

Saint Orsisius of Egypt (also called Horsiesius), who died in 380, was the successor of Saint Pachomius the Great at the head of the monastic communities of Upper Egypt. The Church remembers him as a guide of monks and an interpreter of Scripture.

Even as a young man Orsisius had gained so much spiritual experience that Saint Pachomius (died 348, commemorated on 15 May) entrusted to him the direction of the koinonia at Chenoboskion. In a conversation with his disciples, Pachomius is said to have remarked that Orsisius shines in the house of God like a golden lamp.

After the repose of Pachomius, the monks of Tabennisi chose Orsisius as their leader, against his own will. As the brotherhood grew, he took Saint Theodore as his helper and then handed the whole government of the monastery over to him, while he himself withdrew to the community at Chenoboskion. When Theodore fell asleep in 365, Saint Athanasius the Great wrote to Orsisius and the brethren, urging them not to mourn the departed but to imitate him, and asking Orsisius to take up the care of the community. Orsisius did as the bishop asked.

Orsisius knew Holy Scripture deeply and had a gift of inspired speech, which, a contemporary says, seemed to grow in him for the comfort of the brethren. Before his death he left the fathers, as a kind of testament, a book in which almost the whole Old and New Testament is explained in short reflections for the needs of monks. It was translated into Greek, and blessed Jerome translated it into Latin. It contains two works: the Instruction on the Monastic Life and the Instruction on the Six Good Thoughts.

Saint Orsisius is commemorated on 13 March (a movable date), in the new style, with the Synaxis of all the venerable fathers who shone in ascetic labour.