Arsenios of Alexandria

Arsenios († July 1010 ) was Melkite patriarch of Alexandria (1000-1010).

Life

His sister was a concubine of the Fatimid caliph al-ʿAzīz and mother of the later caliph al-Hakim . As such, it had a considerable influence on politics. In 986, probably at her instigation, her brother Orestes was raised to the rank of Patriarch of Jerusalem , and Arsenios to the Metropolitan of Mizr and Cairo .

In 1000 Arsenios was made Patriarch of Alexandria . In 1005, after the death of Orestes, he also co-administered the vacant seat of Jerusalem. Arsenios was the only leader of the entire Orthodox Church in the caliphate of al-Aziz. However, he did not reside in Alexandria, but near the court, often in the Deir al-Qazir monastery (the monastery of the dwarf) near Cairo. Arsenios used his influence at court to strengthen the Orthodox Greeks at the expense of the Coptic Church . During his time, however, numerous churches under al-Hakim were also destroyed, for example the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

Finally, in 1010, Deir al-Qazir also fell victim to the wave of destruction. Even though al-Hakim is said to have ordered the desecration to be stopped, Arsenios was executed in July of that year.

literature

• Heinz Halm: The Caliphs of Cairo. The Fatimids in Egypt (973-1074). Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-48654-1 , pp. 219f .; 223 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 1: Aaron - Azarethes . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2007, ISBN 978-2-503-52303-3 , pp. 394-395.

Web links

• Arsenios (1000-1010)

predecessor	Office	successor
Elias I.	Patriarch of Alexandria 1000-1010	Theophilus II