Hieromartyr Arseny, Metropolitan of Rostov (in the world Alexander Matseevich) was the last opponent of Peter I's church reform. He was born in 1697 (according to other sources, in 1696) in Vladimir-Volynsky in the family of an Orthodox priest who came from the Polish gentry.
Having received his education at the Kiev Theological Academy, in 1733 he was already a hieromonk. Soon he traveled to Ustyug, Kholmogory, and Solovetsky Monastery, where he polemicized with the Old Believers imprisoned there; he wrote an "Exhortation to a Schismatic" about this controversy.
In 1734-37, Father Arseny participated in the Kamchatka expedition. In 1737, he was seconded to Synod member Ambrose (Yushkevich), who at that time held a leading position in the church hierarchy. This appointment led to a rapprochement between the two hierarchs and determined the future fate of Father Arseny. Consecrated in 1741 to the rank of Metropolitan of Tobolsk and All Siberia, Vladyka Arseny defended the rights of newly baptized foreigners in Siberia from the oppression of the governors, and the clergy from the interference of the secular court.
The harsh Siberian climate adversely affected Vladyka's health, and soon after the accession of Elizabeth Petrovna, he was transferred to the chair in Rostov in 1742 and appointed a member of the Synod.
Strict towards his subordinates, Vladyka becomes sharply opposed to the secular authorities. He insists before Empress Catherine II on the removal of secular officials from the Synod, claims that the Synod has no canonical basis at all, and concludes that it is necessary to restore the patriarchate. Vladyka's note "On the Deanery of the Church" was the first protest of the Russian hierarchy against the synodal system.
Vladyka's relations with the secular authorities became even more strained when, at the end of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, then under Peter III and Catherine II, orders aimed at restricting monasteries in the management of their property caused strong indignation among the highest clergy.
On February 9, 1763, Vladyka in Rostov performed the "Rite of Excommunication" with some additions directed against "those who are violent and offending the holy churches and monasteries of God", "accepting these from the ancient God-loving estates."
In March, Vladyka submitted two reports to the Synod, which reported to the Empress that St. Arseny was "insulting Her Majesty." Catherine had him tried by the Synod, which lasted seven days; Vladyka was convicted, demoted to the rank of a simple monk, and imprisoned in the Nikolo-Korel Monastery.
But even in exile, the saint did not cease to denounce the actions of the desecrated authorities in relation to church property, expressed doubts about the rights of Catherine II to the throne, and sympathized with Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. Vladyka's case was given a political character, and at the end of 1767 he was deprived of monasticism and sentenced to "eternal imprisonment." Under the name of "Andrei Liar," he was held in the Reval casemate, where he died on February 28, 1772.
For his humble bearing of sorrows and lack of possessiveness, as well as for his martyrdom for the Church, the saint is revered among the Russian people.
He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church for ecclesiastical veneration at the Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000.