Saint Moses the Black

Saint Moses the Black, also called Moses the Ethiopian, was one of the Desert Fathers of Egypt, a monk and priest at Scetis. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on August 28 as an anchorite who, once a notorious robber, became a renowned hermit, converted many of his former companions, and led them with him to the monastery.

Most of what we know about him comes from the “Lausiac History” of Palladius and from the “Sayings of the Desert Fathers.” Palladius writes that Moses was an Ethiopian, black of skin, and a slave in the household of an official. His master drove him out for his immorality and his robberies, and it was said that he had even committed murder. He then became the leader of a band of robbers. Neither the place nor the year of his birth is known.

The circumstances of his conversion are not known in detail. Palladius says only that, shaken by one of his deeds, he gave himself up to life in a monastery. He also tells that when four robbers attacked his cell, Moses tied them up, carried them on his back to the brothers’ church, and asked what he should do with them, since he was not allowed to harm anyone. The attackers recognized in him the once famous robber and, seeing how he had changed, they themselves renounced the world.

The new life did not come easily to him. For a long time he struggled with the temptations of his old habits and sought the advice of Isidore, a priest at Scetis. He fasted, worked, and kept vigil in prayer, and at night he secretly filled the water jars of the older monks, who had to fetch water from far away. In time he was ordained a priest. The Sayings relate that after his ordination the archbishop told him that now he had become entirely white. Moses answered that this was true only on the outside, and asked what He who looks within sees.

His best-known saying is about judging others. When a brother at Scetis committed a fault, a meeting was called and Moses too was summoned. He came carrying a leaking jug of water, or in another version a basket of sand, which ran out behind him. Asked what this meant, he replied that his own sins were running out behind him and he did not see them, and yet he was coming to judge the faults of another. When they heard this, the brothers forgave the offender.

Palladius says that Moses died at Scetis as a priest, at the age of seventy-five, leaving seventy disciples. The Sayings tell that when barbarians were approaching Scetis, he urged the brothers to flee but stayed himself, saying that for years he had been waiting for the word of Christ to be fulfilled: “all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” Several brothers stayed with him, and they were all killed together. The exact date is not known; it is usually placed around the year 400. Moses has been venerated since antiquity, both in the West and in the Churches of the East.