Saint Moses the Black of Scetis
Desert father, former robber
- Feast day
- August 28
- Lived
- c. 330–405
- Patronage
- Those struggling with violence and addiction; racial reconciliation
A murderous bandit chief in Egypt who became one of the gentlest of the desert fathers, Saint Moses the Black is remembered above all for refusing to judge another man's sin.
Life
Moses was an Ethiopian slave dismissed for theft and murder who led a band of seventy robbers in the Nile valley. Hiding from the authorities among the monks of Scetis, he was so struck by their peace that he stayed, and was eventually ordained.
The most famous saying about him tells of a council called to judge a brother's fault. Moses came carrying a leaking basket of sand on his back. 'My sins run out behind me and I do not see them,' he said, 'and today I am coming to judge the sins of another.' The council dismissed the case.
Death
When berbers attacked Scetis, Moses refused to fight or flee, telling the brothers that he who lives by the sword dies by the sword. He was killed with seven others at the age of about seventy-five, having reversed exactly the life he had begun with.