19 July - He belonged to a senatorial family in Rome. He was ordained deacon by St. Damascus I. Arsene was chosen by Theodosius I to be tutor to his son Arcadius. Unable to overcome the obstinacy of his pupil, and disgusted with the court, he withdrew to the desert of Scété in Egypt.

After the death of Theodosius, he retired to Scete, where he learned the eremitical life from St. John the Dwarf. Arsene aspired so much to holiness that he went to live the life of the hermits in the desert. He restrained himself and avoided thoughtless words, jealously observed silence and demonstrated the value of education. He devoted himself to solitude and penance more than any other. He would have prayed, raising his hand to heaven, from sunrise to sunset. What made him special was that he was graced with the gift of tears, and he is credited with the great principles of the "hesychaste" life. It was as if all his eyebrows were lost because of his cry.

In the year 434, when the barbarians were besieging Scété, Arsène had to leave his hermitage. He was forced to live in Tourah, near Memphis, then in Canope and finally returned to Tourah, where he died in 450, expressing his fear of death before retiring in peace. Later, his biography was written by Saint Theodore.