Arsenius the Great

Arsenius the Deacon, also known as Arsenius of Scetis and Turah, Arsenius the Roman or Arsenius the Great, was a Roman imperial tutor who became an anchorite in Egypt and lived from about 354 to 450. He is regarded as one of the most highly regarded of the Desert Fathers, and his teachings were greatly influential on the development of Christian asceticism and the contemplative life. His contemporaries so admired him that they gave him the surname the Great. His feast day is celebrated on May 8 in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, though the Roman Catholic Church kept his feast on July 19 before the Second Vatican Council's revision of the Roman Martyrology; the Coptic Orthodox Church celebrates him on 13 Pashons.