HARARE, Zimbabwe — The authorities in Zimbabwe on Tuesday arrested a pastor who organized the country’s largest protests in a decade, and whose activism has galvanized public anger over President Robert Mugabe’s 36-year rule and the nation’s crumbling economy.

The pastor, the Rev. Evan Mawarire, 39, was charged in the capital, Harare, with inciting public violence. The police also searched his home and church, looking for a stolen police helmet and baton as well as subversive material, according to a search warrant.

The police arrested Mr. Mawarire a day before additional protests were planned for Wednesday and Thursday. Last Wednesday, the capital and other cities shut down as many Zimbabweans responded to calls by Mr. Mawarire and other protest leaders to stay home from work.

That boycott appeared to rattle Mr. Mugabe’s government. Members of the country’s governing elite have been consumed by jockeying to succeed Mr. Mugabe, who is 92 and increasingly frail, instead of contending with an economy in precipitous decline and a government unable to pay its workers.