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Metropolitan Arsenius, in the world Auxentius Georgievich Stadnitsky, was
born on January 22, 1862 in the village of Komarov, Khotinsky uyezd,
Kishinev province, in the family of a priest. In 1880 he finished his studies
at the Kishinev theological seminary, and became a teacher at the Kishinev
and Yedinets theological seminaries. In 1881 he entered the Kiev
Theological Academy, and in 1885 graduated from it with the degree of candidate
of theology. In 1895 he became master of theology and was tonsured into the
mantia. In 1896 he was ordained to the priesthood and became inspector, later
rector of the Novgorod theological seminary, and superior of the monastery
of St. Anthony the Roman with the rank of archimandrite. In 1897 he became
inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy, and in 1898 – rector of that
Academy. In February, 1899, he was consecrated bishop of Volokolamsk, a
vicariate of the Moscow diocese. From 1903 to 1910 he was bishop of Pskov. In
1904 he became a doctor of Church history. He was also an archaeologist, and
published many works. In 1905 he became a member, and later president, of
the Educational Committee attached to the Holy Synod. In 1907 he was raised
to the rank of archbishop and was elected a member of the State Council. In
1910 he became archbishop of Novgorod. In 1917-18 he was a member of the
Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, the deputy president of the
Council, being in fact the leader of almost all the Council’s sessions. He was
also a member of the Council’s department on the legal position of the Church
in the State. He was one of the three candidates to the patriarchal throne,
and received the second highest number of votes after Archbishop Anthony
(Khrapovitsky) on the first ballot. On November 28 / December 11, 1917,
Patriarch Tikhon raised him and Archbishop Anthony to the rank of metropolitan.
He was a close associate of the Patriarch, and a member of the Higher
Church Council and the Holy Synod. In 1919 he was arrested, returning to his
duties in 1921. In 1922 he was arrested again, put on trial together with
Patriarch Tikhon and others, and served a term of exile in Central Asia. He
spent 11 months in one of the GPU prisons, and was then exiled to Turkestan.
According to one source, in 1926 he was in Butyrki prison, from whence he
was transferred to Tashkent in the same year.

Sometime after 1927 he tried to persuade the future Archbishop Luke
(Voyno-Yasnensky) not to accept an appointment from Metropolitan Sergius. In
spite of that, the sergianists have always tried to claim Metropolitan Arsenius
as one of their own because he was numbered among the members of
Metropolitan Sergius’ Synod in July, 1927, and was appointed metropolitan of
Tashkent and Turkestan by him on August 11/24, 1933. But according to the
Church historian Fr. Alexander Mazyrin, Metropolitan Arsenius became a member of
the sergianist synod “only on paper. The distrustful authorities did not let
him come to Moscow from his exile in Central Asia.”
The truth is that he ended his days as a confessing anti-sergianist
bishop. Thus it is known that he took part in Moscow in anti-sergianist
conversations in 1934 and 1935 with, among others, the future martyrs,
Archbishop Nicholas of Vladimir and Professor John Popov, who also corresponded with
him when he was in Tashkent.
Again, one of his fellow prisoners wrote about him in his memoirs as follows:
“The Apostle Peter had much love for the Saviour, but in the hour of
temptation he fell heavily. I recall many new illustration of this eternal
example. Who in spiritual circles does not know the now reposed Metropolitan
Arsenius Stadnitsky. He had a broad mind, excellent education, a powerful
will, honourableness and uprightness. He had a very firm, decisive, unbending
character, being strict both to his subordinates and to himself. And once
when the Lord had united us for a short period in the Moscow Butyrki prison,
this glorious and great man, the metropolitan of Novgorod, a member of the
Synod and of the State Duma and Council, from a pure heart told me, a
little, unknown priest, what feelings of pusillanimity and cowardice he had
suddenly experienced in the inner prison of the GPU when he was awaiting
execution by shooting.
“‘I am already an old man,’ he said, ‘I have nothing to look forward to. I
have been a monk from my youth, finally I became a hierarch, an example
and model of Christianity and Christian courage. And yet I was quite unable
to conquer myself. I experienced such a thirst to live, such a lack of will
to die, such despondency and struggle with myself and fear of death and
pusillanimity – it was simply terrible. I fought, but could not conquer
myself. Such is my bankruptness and such is the sorrow I feel for myself.’
“Later the great man fearlessly wrote from his Turkestan exile to
Metropolitan Sergius, protesting against his agreement with the God-fighting
authorities and rejecting any possibility of compromise with them.
“Metropolitan Arsenius experienced and overcame his human weakness in his
Gethsemane struggle before death, and with complete strength of spirit
rejected every temptation, dooming himself to long and harsh imprisonment.”
The same informant also recounted the following fact:
“By the way, the bishops who fell into schism usually played a terrible
role of agent provocateur for the GPU. In the GPU prison, the renovationist
Metropolitan Eudocimus (Meshchersky) tried to force Metropolitan Arsenius of
Novgorod to join renovationism. Metropolitan Arsenius told him, his former
colleague in the Moscow Academy:
“‘But you must know that renovationism is unlawful.’
“‘What can one do – they demand it,’ replied Archbishop Eudocimus,
motioning with his head to the chekist’s door.
“When Metropolitan Arsenius remained unbending, Archbishop Eudocimus
angrily said to him:
“‘Well then rot in prison!..’
“And with this he left the prisoner.”
Metropolitan Arsenius died in Tashkent on January 28 / February 10,
1936. Sensing his approaching death, he asked to be laid in a coffin with
flowers, since he very much loved flowers.
(Sources: M.E. Gubonin, Akty Svyateishago Patriarkha Tikhona, Moscow: St.
Tikhon’s Theological Institute, 1994, pp. 842-843, 964; Protopresbyter
Michael Polsky, Novye Mucheniki Rossijskiye, Jordanville, 1957, vol. 2, pp.
148-149; Lev Regelson, Tragediya Russkoj Tserkvi, 1917-1945, Paris: YMCA
Press, pp. 524, 528; Ikh Stradaniyami Ochistitsa Rus’, Moscow, 1996, p. 60;
(http://www.pstbi.ru/bin/code.exe/frames/m/ind_oem.html?/ans) ; Hieromonk
Makarios of Simonos Petra, The Synaxarion, Ormylia (Chalkidiki), 2005, vol. 5, May, p. 313;
Igumen Damaskin, “Zhitie Muchenika Ioanna (Popova)”, in Muchenik Ioann
Popov, Patrologia. Konspekt Lektsij, Tver, 2006; Fr. Alexander Mazyrin, “
Legalizing the Moscow Patriarchate in 1927: The Secret Aims of the
Authorities”,
Social Sciences: A Quarterly Journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences, no. 1, 2009, p. 7)

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Gheorghe Vanau