By Fr. George Dorbarakis
We came to know Venerable Arsenios the Cappadocian, the Hadjiefendis, primarily through the book written about him by another Venerable of our time, Elder Paisios the Athonite. He was the one who “captivated” Venerable Paisios when he was still a small child, beginning in the place of their common origin, Farasa in Cappadocia. Because of this, he wished to follow in his footsteps and become a monk, wholly dedicated to God. Perhaps this turn toward monastic life on the part of Elder Paisios, apart from his own inclination, was due to some extent also to the power of the prayers of Saint Arsenios, who saw in the person of the little boy from Farasa (the future Saint Paisios, son of Prodromos Eznepidis, who was then the president of Farasa) his own successor. Indeed, he expressed this even at the time of the child's baptism. It is well known that, at the time of the naming, he “compelled” the godfather, instead of giving the child the name Christos, to give him his own name, Arsenios. Saint Paisios's desire to write the life of Saint Arsenios had been firmly planted within him many years earlier, until he finally brought it to fulfillment. And when he had gathered sufficient material — which continued to increase over time through his own research and that of others he knew — and had more or less completed the book, Saint Arsenios, after making a miraculous appearance, “approved” the work of his disciple and “successor.”
