  We report on multi-wavelength observations of the tidal disruption event
(TDE) candidate eRASSt J074426.3+291606 (J0744), located in the nucleus of a
previously quiescent galaxy at $z=0.0396$. J0744 was first detected as a new,
ultra-soft X-ray source (photon index $\sim 4$) during the second SRG/eROSITA
All-Sky Survey (eRASS2), where it had brightened in the 0.3--2~keV band by a
factor of more than $\sim$160 relative to an archival 3$\sigma$ upper limit
inferred from a serendipitous Chandra pointing in 2011. The transient was also
independently found in the optical by the Zwicky Transient Factory (ZTF), with
the eRASS2 detection occurring only $\sim$20 days after the peak optical
brightness, suggesting that the accretion disc formed promptly in this TDE.
Continued X-ray monitoring over the following $\sim$400 days by eROSITA, NICER
XTI and Swift XRT showed a net decline by a factor of $\sim$100, albeit with
large amplitude X-ray variability where the system fades, and then rebrightens,
in the 0.3--2~keV band by a factor $\sim$50 during an 80 day period.
Contemporaneous Swift UVOT observations during this extreme X-ray variability
reveal a relatively smooth decline, which persists over $\sim$400 days
post-optical peak. The peak observed optical luminosity (absolute $g$-band
magnitude $\sim -16.8$ mag) from this transient makes J0744 the faintest
optically-detected TDE observed to date. However, contrasting the known set of
`faint and fast' TDEs, the optical emission from J0744 decays slowly
(exponential decay timescale $\sim$120~days), making J0744 the first member of
a potential new class of `faint and slow' TDEs.
